ZEUS

Zeus 

Zeus

(Greek: Ζεύς) is in Greek mythology the supreme Olympic god and the ruler of heaven, including lightning and thunder. He is the most powerful god and the youngest son of Kronos.

Some of his most famous symbols of power are the Sovereign Lightning and the shield Aigis, a work of Hephaestus.

In his career as an Olympic god, Zeus seduced a large number of women. Although not always in his own form (as a bull, for example, in Europe), either way they always carried one or more of his children.

Family

Zeus is the brother of Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera, who is also his wife, while Kronos is his father and Rhea his mother.

Story

Titanomachie (Titan War)

Kronos devoured all his children because he was told that one of his children would one day overthrow him, which he did not want. He was afraid of being disempowered by this child, just as his father had previously been by himself. When Rhea realized that she was pregnant with Zeus, she hid the child as Uranos and Gaia advised her. She gave birth to Zeus in a cave and when Kronos noticed that Rhea was gone he sought her out. When he found her, he saw the wrapped child. He demanded the child, and Rhea gave him a wrapped stone, as she had made provision. Rhea asked Kronos to stay in the cave to recover from birth. When Kronos left, Rhea handed Zeus to the goat Amalthea to raise him. Before she left, she made sure Zeus would be able to drink nectar and ragweed from her horns as soon as he could drink Amalthea's milk.

After Zeus grew up to become a man, he wanted to defeat his father. First, he made sure Kronos strangled his siblings. Then they fought together against the Titans.

Zeus also took the Cyclops and the Hekatoncheiren from the underworld in the war for world domination on his side, by liberating them from the same. In gratitude, the Cyclops forged him, Poseidon and Hades the respective power attributes: The ruler's flash, the trident and the Hades cap. The Olympians fought Olympus and the Titans from Mount Othrys. After a long battle, it looked like the gods were going to defeat the Titans and their allies, which eventually came.

Athene's birth

Zeus wanted to make Metis his wife and finally seduced her. However, as a prophecy revealed to him that a Metis son would overthrow him and that a daughter was as pretty, powerful and clever as himself, he turned Metis into a shell and devoured her when she was pregnant. Months later he got a headache and Hephaistos had to split his head with a hammer. Athena sprang out of it in full golden armor. The unborn son of Metis remained unborn. As soon as Metis was out of Zeu's head, she did not want to hear from him, thinking she was power-hungry just like his father Kronos.

Gigantomachie

Gaia now incited the giants to fight the Olympians, as she was angry because their children, the Titans, were defeated and locked up in the Tartarus. Then came another war. But even this Olympus won without loss with the help of Herakles, a son of Zeus.

Typhon

Finally, Typhon came to destroy the gods. Gaia wanted to take revenge on the gods for the defeat of their children, which is why she united with the Tartaros and gave birth to Typhon. Zeus managed to capture Typhon under Etna in a fierce battle, but without Hermes he would have been lost before the final battle, when Typhon cut off his sinews with the sickle that had already emptied Uranos and caught Zeus in a cave stopped while giving the tendons to Delphyne, a monster living there. Hermes distracted the monster, stole the sinews and returned them to Zeus. Since then Typhon is trapped under the Etna.

Zeus as superior god

Finally, the rule of the Olympians was safe. By lots it was decided which of the three brothers received which part of the world. He himself became the supreme god and divided the world into three kingdoms: the sky, the sea and the underworld. Heaven fell to him while Poseidon received the sea and Hades the underworld.

Hera, Zeus' sister and wife, observed his many relationships insulted, but they remained always spouse and consort.

Prometheus

Prometheus creates people out of clay

Prometheus and Epimetheus were on the side of the Olympians during the Titanomachy, as Prometheus has the gift of foresight and knew who would win. Because of this, they were still walking the earth.

Zeus now instructed the two to fill the earth with creatures, so that it is not so barren. Epimetheus created the animals of the world and gave them all presents. Prometheus created the humans out of clay (in appearance he took the gods as a model), but could give them nothing because of Epimetheus. Athena gave them reason and reason, being friends with Prometheus.

Through the mind, humans were superior to animals. But they were physically helpless. So Prometheus gave them the fire. Zeus recognized the spiritual power of men and therefore demanded offerings and complete submission. But Prometheus did not want people to be enslaved by the gods. So he collected offerings and divided them into two clusters. A small piece of meat and a bigger pile of bones. He covered these piles so that they could only be distinguished in size. Finally, he called to Zeus to choose one of the two clusters as his victim; the rest should belong to humans. Zeus in his greed chose the larger of the two offerings. When Zeus became aware that his victim was only bone, he was raging. He felt cheated on by humans and took away the fire.

The unfortunate Prometheus simply stole a bit of the fire and gave it to the humans themselves. Zeus was incredibly angry. So he created together with the other Olympians Pandora a metal sculpture of bronze forged by Hephaestus with golden hair and silver hearts, which went with a box to Epimetheus and offered the content as a gift. From the box came almost only illnesses and other suffering, the hope was the only good thing.

He punished Prometheus by chaining him to the Caucasus, while every day the giant eagle Ethon came to feed on his liver, which due to his immortality was growing up overnight. At some point, however, he was released from Herakles or Cheiron.

Robbery of Europe

Zeus fell in love with the daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor and the Telephassa in Europe. So that Hera did not notice, he turned into a bull. In this form, he kidnapped her while playing with friends and brought her to the island of Crete, where he also transformed back and fathered three children: Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. That's why the continent became Europe.

io

Io was the daughter of the river god Inachos. Zeus once fell in love with Io. But Zeus' wife Hera learned this, whereupon he turned Io into a cow. However, she requested the cow as a gift, because she knew that the cow is Io. Hera then had the cow guarded by the one-eyed giant Argos. Out of guilt, Zeus sent Hermes to kill Argos so Io could escape. But Hera pursued Io, whereupon she had to flee over the named after her sea (Ionian Sea). Eventually, Hera was soothed and turned Io back into a human. She gave birth to Zeus Epaphos.

Children of Zeus

Zeus had many children with different women. Here are they:

Aigina: Aiakos
Alkmene: Heracles
Ananke: Adrasteia, after other version the moires
Antiope: Amphion, Zethos
Danaë: Perseus
Demeter: Persephone
Dione: Aphrodite
Elara: Tityos
Electra: Iasion, Dardanos, Harmonia
Europe: Minos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon
Eurynome: Charites
Garamantis: Jarbas
Hera: Arge, Elleithria, after Hesiod Ares, after Homer Hephaistos
Hora: Kolaxes
Hubris: Pan
Hercules
Io: Epaphos
Callisto: Arkas
Karme: Britomartis
Kalyke: Edymion
Leda: the Dioscuri
Leda or Nemesis: Helena
Leto: Apollo, Artemis
Maia: Hermes
Metis: Athena
Mnemosyne: Muses
Niobe: Argos
Nymph: Megaros
Persephone: Zagreus
Pluto: Tantalos
Protogeneia: Aethlios
Semele: Dionysus
Taygete: Lakedaimon
Thalia: Palikoi
Themis: Horen, Moiren