Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Ζεύς Zeús, genitive: Διός Diós) in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull and the oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical Zeus also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently envisaged by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

The son of Cronus and Rhea, he was the youngest of his siblings. He was married to Hera in most traditions, although at the oracle of Dodona his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. Accordingly, he is known for his erotic escapades, including one pederastic relationship with Ganymede. His trysts resulted in many famous offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera he is usually said to have sired Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.

His Roman counterpart was Jupiter, and his Etruscan counterpart was Tinia.

Cult of Zeus

Panhellenic cults of Zeus

The major center at which all Greeks converged to pay honor to their chief god was Olympia. The quadrennial festival there featured the famous Games. There was also an altar to Zeus made not of stone, but of ash - from the accumulated remains of many centuries' worth of animals sacrificed there.

Outside of the major inter-polis sanctuaries, there were no exact modes of worshipping Zeus that were shared across the Greek world. Most of the above titles, for instance, could be found at any number of Greek temples from Asia Minor to Sicily. Certain modes of ritual were held in common as well: sacrificing a white animal over a raised altar, for instance.

History

Zeus, poetically referred to by the vocative Zeu pater ("O, father Zeus"), is a continuation of *Di̯ēus, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph₂tēr ("Sky Father").^[1] The god is known under this name in Sanskrit (cf. Dyaus/Dyaus Pita), Latin (cf. Jupiter, from Iuppiter, deriving from the PIE vocative *dyeu-ph₂tēr^[2]), deriving from the basic form *dyeu- ("to shine", and in its many derivatives, "sky, heaven, god").^[1] And in Germanic and Norse mythology (cf. *Tīwaz > OHG Ziu, ON Tır), together with Latin deus, dīvus and Dis(a variation of dīves^[4]), from the related noun *deiwos.^[4] To the Greeks and Romans, the god of the sky was also the supreme god, whereas this function was filled out by Odin among the Germanic tribes. Accordingly, they did not identify Zeus/Jupiter with either Tyr or Odin, but with Thor (Şórr). Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology.^[6]

Role and epithets

Zeus played a dominant role, presiding over the Greek Olympian pantheon. He fathered many of the heroes and heroines and was featured in many of their stories. Though the Homeric "cloud collector" was the god of the sky and thunder like his Near-Eastern counterparts, he was also the supreme cultural artifact; in some senses, he was the embodiment of Greek religious beliefs and the archetypal Greek deity.

The epithets or titles applied to Zeus emphasized different aspects of his wide-ranging authority:

• Zeus Olympios emphasized Zeus's kingship over both the gods and the Panhellenic festival at Olympia.
• A related title was Zeus Panhellenios, ('Zeus of all the Hellenes') to whom Aeacus' famous temple on Aegina was dedicated.
• As Zeus Xenios, Zeus was the patron of hospitality and guests, ready to avenge any wrong done to a stranger.
• As Zeus Horkios, he was the keeper of oaths. Liars who were exposed were made to dedicate a statue to Zeus, often at the sanctuary of Olympia.
• As Zeus Agoraios, Zeus watched over business at the agora, and punished dishonest traders.
• As Zeus Aegiduchos or Aegiochos he was the bearer of the Aegis with which he strikes terror into the impious and his enemies.^[7][8][9] Others derive this epithet from αίξ ("goat") and οχή, and take it as an allusion to the legend of Zeus' suckling at the breast of Amalthea.^[10][11]
  • As Zeus Meilichios, "Easy-to-be-entreated", he subsumed an archaic chthonic daimon propitiated in Athens, Meilichios.

  Some local Zeus-cults

  In addition to the Panhellenic titles and conceptions listed above, local cults maintained their own idiosyncratic ideas about the king of gods and men. A few examples are listed below.

  Cretan Zeus

  On Crete, Zeus was worshipped at a number of caves at Knossos, Ida and Palaikastro. The stories of Minos and Epimenides suggest that these caves were once used for incubatory divination by kings and priests. The dramatic setting of Plato's Laws is along the pilgrimage-route to one such site, emphasizing archaic Cretan knowledge. On Crete, Zeus was represented in art as a long-haired youth rather than a mature adult, and hymned as ho megas kouros "the great youth". With the Kouretes, a band of ecstatic armed dancers, he presided over the rigorous military-athletic training and secret rites of the Cretan paideia.
  
  The Hellenistic writer Euhemerus apparently proposed a theory that Zeus had actually been a great king of Crete and that posthumously his glory had slowly turned him into a deity. The works of Euhemerism have not survived, but Christian patristic writers took up the suggestion with enthusiasm.

  Zeus Lykaios in Arcadia

  For more details on Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, see Lykaia.

  The epithet Lykaios ("wolf-Zeus") is assumed by Zeus only in connection with the archaic festival of the Lykaia on the slopes of Mount Lykaion ("Wolf Mountain"), the tallest peak in rustic Arcadia; Zeus had only a formal connection^[12] with the rituals and myths of this primitive rite of passage with an ancient threat of cannibalism and the possibility of a werewolf transformation for the ephebes who were the participants.^[13] Near the ancient ash-heap where the sacrifices took place^[14] was a forbidden precinct in which, allegedly, no shadows were ever cast.^[15] According to Plato (Republic 565d-e), a particular clan would gather on the mountain to make a sacrifice every nine years to Zeus Lykaios, and a single morsel of human entrails would be intermingled with the animal's. Whoever ate the human flesh was said to turn into a wolf, and could only regain human form if he did not eat again of human flesh until the next nine-year cycle had ended. There were games associated with the Lykaia, removed in the fourth century to the first urbanization of Arcadia, Megalopolis; there the major temple was dedicated to Zeus Lykaios.
  
  Apollo, too had an archaic wolf-form, Apollo Lycaeus, worshipped in Athens at the Lykeion, or Lyceum, which was made memorable as the site where Aristotle walked and taught.

  Subterranean Zeus

  Although etymology indicates that Zeus was originally a sky god, many Greek cities honored a local Zeus, who lived underground. Athenians and Sicilians honored Zeus Meilichios ("kindly" or "honeyed") while other cities had Zeus Chthonios ("earthy"), Katachthonios ("under-the-earth) and Plousios ("wealth-bringing"). These deities might be represented indifferently as snakes or men in visual art. They also received offerings of black animal victims sacrificed into sunken pits, as did chthonic deities like Persephone and Demeter, and also the heroes at their tombs. Olympian gods, by contrast, usually received white victims sacrificed upon raised altars.
  
  In some cases, cities were not entirely sure whether the daimon to whom they sacrificed was a hero or an underground Zeus. Thus the shrine at Lebadaea in Boeotia might belong to the hero Trophonius or to Zeus Trephonius ("the nurturing"), depending on whether you believe Pausanias or Strabo. The hero Amphiaraus was honored as Zeus Amphiaraus at Oropus outside of Thebes, and the Spartans even had a shrine to Zeus Agamemnon.

  Oracles of Zeus

  Although most oracle sites were usually dedicated to Apollo, the heroes, or various goddesses like Themis, a few oracular sites were dedicated to Zeus.

  The Oracle at Dodona

  The cult of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus, where there is evidence of religious activity from the 2nd millennium BC onward, centered around a sacred oak. When the Odyssey was composed (circa 750 BC), divination was done there by barefoot priests called Selloi, who lay on the ground and observed the rustling of the leaves and branches (Odyssey 14.326-7). By the time Herodotus wrote about Dodona, female priestesses called peleiades ("doves") had replaced the male priests.
  
  Zeus' consort at Dodona was not Hera, but the goddess Dione — whose name is a feminine form of "Zeus". Her status as a titaness suggests to some that she may have been a more powerful pre-Hellenic deity, and perhaps the original occupant of the oracle.

  The Oracle at Siwa

  The oracle of Ammon at the oasis of Siwa in the Western Desert of Egypt did not lie within the bounds of the Greek world before Alexander's day, but it already loomed large in the Greek mind during the archaic era: Herodotus mentions consultations with Zeus Ammon in his account of the Persian War. Zeus Ammon was especially favored at Sparta, where a temple to him existed by the time of the Peloponnesian War (Pausanias 3.18).
  
  After Alexander made a trek into the desert to consult the oracle at Siwa, the figure arose of a Libyan Sibyl.

  Other oracles of Zeus

  The chthonic Zeuses (or heroes) Trophonius and Amphiaraus were both said to give oracles at the cult-sites.

  Zeus and foreign gods

  Zeus was equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter and associated in the syncretic classical imagination (see interpretatio graeca) with various other deities, such as the Egyptian Ammon and the Etruscan Tinia. He (along with Dionysus) absorbed the role of the chief Phrygian god Sabazios in the syncretic deity known in Rome as Sabazius.

  Zeus in myth

  

  The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879 Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church

  Birth

  Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father— an oracle that Zeus was to hear and avert. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed.

  Infancy

  Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. According to varying versions of the story:
  1. He was then raised by Gaia.
  2. He was raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes— soldiers, or smaller gods— danced, shouted and clashed their spears against their shields so that Cronus would not hear the baby's cry. (See cornucopia.)
  3. He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the Earth, the heavens and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father.
  4. He was raised by a nymph named Cynosura. In gratitude, Zeus placed her among the stars.
  5. He was raised by Melissa, who nursed him with goat's-milk and honey.
  6. He was raised by a shepherd family under the promise that their sheep would be saved from wolves.

  Zeus becomes king of the gods

  After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge first the stone (which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, the Omphalos) then his siblings in reverse order of swallowing. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, from their dungeon in Tartarus (The Titans; he killed their guard, Campe. As gratitude, the Cyclopes gave him thunder and the thunderbolt, or lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia.) Together, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, along with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans, in the combat called the Titanomachy. The defeated Titans were then cast into a shadowy underworld region known as Tartarus. Atlas, one of the titans that fought against Zeus, was punished by having to hold up the sky.
  
  After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lots: Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead (the underworld). The ancient Earth, Gaia, could not be claimed; she was left to all three, each according to their capabilities, which explains why Poseidon was the "earth-shaker" (the god of earthquakes) and Hades claimed the humans that died. (See also: Penthus)
  
  Gaia resented the way Zeus had treated the Titans, because they were her children. Soon after taking the throne as king of the gods, Zeus had to fight some of Gaia's other children, the monsters Typhon and Echidna. He vanquished Typhon and trapped him under a mountain, but left Echidna and her children alive.

  Zeus and Hera

  Zeus was brother and consort of Hera. By Hera, Zeus sired Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus, though some accounts say that Hera produced these offspring alone. Some also include Eileithyia as their daughter. The conquests of Zeus among nymphs and the mythic mortal progenitors of Hellenic dynasties are famous. Olympian mythography even credits him with unions with Leto, Demeter, Dione and Maia.
  
  Among the mortals: Semele, Io, Europa and Leda. (For more details, see below).
  
  Many myths renders Hera as jealous of his amorous conquests and a consistent enemy of Zeus' mistresses and their children by him. For a time, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from his affairs by incessantly talking: when Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others.

  Consorts and children

  By divine mothers Electra Mother Children Ananke* Moirae (Fates)* Atropos Clotho Demeter Persephone Zagreus Dione Aphrodite Hera Ares Eileithyia Hephaestus Hebe Eos Ersa Carae Eris Limos (aka Limus) Leto Apollo Artemis Maia Hermes Metis Athena Mnemosyne Muses (Original three) Aoide Melete Mneme Muses (Later nine) Calliope Clio Erato Euterpe Melpomene Polyhymnia Terpsichore Thalia Urania Selene Ersa Nemean Lion Pandia Thalassa Aphrodite Themis Astraea Nemesis Horae First Generation Auxo Carpo Thallo Second Generation Dike Eirene Eunomia Third generation Pherusa Euporie Orthosie Moirae (Fates)* Atropos Clotho Lachesis

  Mortal/nymph/other mother Mother Children Aegina Aeacus Alcmene Heracles (Hercules) Antiope Amphion Zethus Callisto Arcas Carme Britomartis Danaë Perseus Elara Tityas Electra Dardanus Iasion Europa Minos Rhadamanthys Sarpedon Eurynome Charites(Graces) Aglaea Euphrosyne Thalia Himalia Kronios Spartaios Kytos Iodame Thebe Io Epaphus Lamia ? Laodamia Sarpedon Leda Polydeuces (Pollux) Castor Helen of Sparta (of Troy) Maera Locrus Niobe Argus Pelasgus Olympias Alexander III of Macedon Plouto Tantalus Podarge Balius Xanthus Pyrrha Hellen Semele Dionysus Taygete Lacedaemon Thalia Palici Unknown mother Litae Unknown mother Tyche Unknown mother Ate

  
  
  *The Greeks variously claimed that the Fates were the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Themis or of primordial beings like Nyx, Chaos or Ananke.

  Zeus miscellany

  • Zeus turned Pandareus to stone for stealing the golden dog which had guarded him as an infant in the holy Dictaeon Cave of Crete.
  • Zeus killed Salmoneus with a thunderbolt for attempting to impersonate him, riding around in a bronze chariot and loudly imitating thunder.
  • Zeus turned Periphas into an eagle after his death, as a reward for being righteous and just.
  • At the marriage of Zeus and Hera, a nymph named Chelone refused to attend. Zeus transformed her into a tortoise (chelone in Greek).
  • Zeus, with Hera, turned King Haemus and Queen Rhodope into mountains (the Balkan mountains, or Stara Planina, and Rhodope mountains, respectively) for their vanity.
  • Zeus condemned Tantalus to eternal torture in Tartarus for trying to trick the gods into eating the flesh of his butchered son.
  • Zeus condemned Ixion to be tied to a fiery wheel for eternity as punishment for attempting to violate Hera.
  • Zeus sunk the Telchines beneath the sea for blighting the earth with their fell magics.
  • Zeus blinded the seer Phineus and sent the Harpies to plague him as punishment for revealing the secrets of the gods.
  • Zeus rewarded Tiresias with a life three times the norm as reward for ruling in his favour when he and Hera contested which of the sexes gained the most pleasure from the act of love.
  • Zeus punished Hera by having her hung upside down from the sky when she attempted to drown Heracles in a storm.
  • Of all the children Zeus spawned, Heracles was often described as his favorite. Indeed, Heracles was often called by various gods and people as "the favorite son of Zeus", Zeus and Heracles were very close and in one story, where a tribe of earth-born Giants threatened Olympus and the Oracle at Delphi decreed that only the combined efforts of a lone god and mortal could stop the creature, Zeus chose Heracles to fight by his side. They proceeded to defeat the monsters.
  • His sacred bird was the golden eagle, which he kept by his side at all times. Like him, the eagle was a symbol of strength, courage, and justice.
  • His favourite tree was the oak, symbol of strength. Olive trees were also sacred to him.
  • Zelus, Nike, Cratos and Bia were Zeus' retinue.

  Spoken-word myths - audio files

  Zeus Myths as told by story tellers
  Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer, Odyssey, 11.567 (7th c. BC); Pindar, Olympian Odes, 1 (476 BC); Euripides, Orestes, 12-16 (408 BC); Apollodorus, Epitomes 2: 1-9 (140 BC); Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI: 213, 458 (AD 8); Hyginus, Fables, 82: Tantalus; 83: Pelops (1st c. AD); Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.22.3 (AD 160 - 176)
  Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer, Iliad 5.265ff; 20.215-235 (700 BC); Anonymous, Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 202ff. (7th c. BC); Sophocles, The Colchian Women (after Athenaeus, 602) (b. 495 - d. 406 BC); Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis (410 BC); Apollodorus, Library and Epitome iii.12.2 (140 BC); Diodorus Siculus, Histories 4.75.3 (1st c. BC); Virgil, Aeneid 5. 252 - 260 (19 BC); Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.155ff. (AD 1 - 8); Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica

  See also

  • Deception of Zeus
  • USS Zeus (ARB-4)
  • Jupiter (mythology)

  In popular culture

  • In the computer game , Zeus is one of the gods to whom the player can build a temple. His temple includes an oracle which may periodically be consulted for advice, and Zeus's presence in the city means that attacks from any other god will be instantly thwarted.
  • Zeus was a recurring character in the series and, less frequently, in .
  • Like the rest of the Greek pantheon, he appeared in the Disney animated feature Hercules. The storyline took extensive liberties with the Hercules legend, such as making Hercules the son of Zeus and Hera.
  • Zeus appears in both God of War video games. In the first God of War video game, he gives the main character Kratos the ability to fire thunderbolts and also appears as a gravedigger. In God of War II, he offers Kratos the Blade of Olympus in which he kills him after his Godly powers have been drained. It is soon revealed that Kratos is Zeus' son in which Kratos wages war against Zeus by going back in time to bring the Titans to the present time to face the Olympians.
  • In the WarCraft 3 most popular modification DotA Allstars, Zeus is a popular and commonly-used playable hero.

  References

  1. ^ American Heritage® Dictionary: Zeus. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
  2. ^ On;ojhjkhoughohghygygyghyghiyugoiugighoipooooooooooooopline Etymology Dictionary: Jupiter. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
  3. ^ American Heritage® Dictionary: Zeus. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
  4. ^ American Heritage® Dictionary: dyeu. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
  5. ^ American Heritage® Dictionary: dyeu. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
  6. ^ Burkert (1985). Greek Religion, 321. 
  7. ^ Homer, Iliad i. 202, ii. 157, 375, &c.
  8. ^ Pindar, Isthmian Odes iv. 99
  9. ^ Hyginus, Poetical Astronomy ii. 13
  10. ^ Spanh. ad Callim. hymn. in Jov, 49
  11. ^ id="CITEREFSchmitz1867">Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Aegiduchos", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, pp. 26
  12. ^ In the founding myth of Lycaon's banquet for the gods that included the flesh of a human sacrifice, perhaps one of his sons, Nyctimus or ArcasZeus overturned the table and struck the house of Lyceus with a thunderbolt; his patronage at the Lykaia can have been little more than a formula.
  13. ^ A morphological connection to lyke "brightness" may be merely fortuitous.
  14. ^ Modern archaeologists have found no trace of human remains among the sacrificial detritus, Walter Burkert, "Lykaia and Lykaion", Homo Necans, tr. by Peter Bing (University of California) 1983, p. 90.
  15. ^ Pausanias 8.38.
  
  • Burkert, Walter, (1977) 1985. Greek Religion, especially section III.ii.1 (Harvard University Press)
  • Cook, Arthur Bernard, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, (3 volume set), (1914-1925). New York, Bibilo & Tannen: 1964.
  • Volume 1: Zeus, God of the Bright Sky, Biblo-Moser, June 1, 1964, ISBN 0-8196-0148-9 (reprint)
  • Volume 2: Zeus, God of the Dark Sky (Thunder and Lightning), Biblo-Moser, June 1, 1964, ISBN 0-8196-0156-X
  • Volume 3: Zeus, God of the Dark Sky (earthquakes, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorites)
  • Druon, Maurice, The Memoirs of Zeus, 1964, Charles Scribner's and Sons. (tr. Humphrey Hare)
  • Farnell, Lewis Richard, Cults of the Greek States 5 vols. Oxford; Clarendon 1896-1909. Still the standard reference.
  • Farnell, Lewis Richard, ''Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality, 1921.
  • Graves, Robert; The Greek Myths, Penguin Books Ltd. (1960 edition)
  • Mitford,William, The History of Greece, 1784. Cf. v.1, Chapter II, Religion of the Early Greeks
  • Moore, Clifford H., ''The Religious Thought of the Greeks, 1916.
  • Nilsson, Martin P., Greek Popular Religion, 1940.
  • Nilsson, Martin P., History of Greek Religion, 1949.
  • Rohde, Erwin, Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks, 1925.
  • Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870, http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/, William Smith, Dictionary: "Zeus" http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/3655.html

  External links

  • Greek Mythology Link, Zeus stories of Zeus in myth
  • Theoi Project, Zeus summary, stories, classical art
  • Theoi Project, Cult Of Zeus cult and statues
  • Pictures of the Altar of Zeus and its meaning in Scripture
  • Photo: Pagans Honor Zeus at Ancient Athens Temple from National Geographic
  • Learn what the name Zeus means

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  thunder god, the personification or source of the seemingly magical forces of thunder and lightning. Frequently, the thunder god is known as the chief or king of the gods, for example Zeus in Greek mythology, or otherwise a close relation, for example Thor in Norse mythology, son
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  Cronus (Ancient Greek Κρόνος, Krónos), also called Cronos or Kronos, was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky.
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  In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (in Greek, Ἀπόλλων — Apóllōn or Ἀπέλλων — Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros
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  Artemis (Greek: (nominative) Ἄρτεμις, (genitive) Ἀρτέμιδος
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  Hermes (Greek, Ἑρμῆς, IPA: /ˈhɝmiːz/), in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and
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  Persephone was the Queen of the Underworld, consort of Hades, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter— and Zeus, in the Olympian version.
  
  Persephone (Greek: Περσεφόνη,
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  Dêmêtêr /də'miː.tɚ/ (Greek: Δημήτηρ
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  Dionysus with panther, satyr and grapes on a vine. In the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy)]] Dionysus or Dionysos (Ancient Greek: Διόνυσος or Διώνυσος; associated with Roman Liber), the Greek
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  Perseus, Perseos, or Perseas (Greek: Περσεύς, Περσέως, Περσέας
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