Zeus

Zeus (Ancient Greek: Ζεύς, Zeús; Modern Greek: Δίας, Días) is the "Father of Deities and men" (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε, patḕr andrōn te theōn te) who rules the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father rules the family according to the ancient Greek religion. He is the deity of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. Zeus is etymologically cognate with and, under Hellenic influence, became particularly closely identified with Roman Jupiter.
Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he is married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort is Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.
As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the deites who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the deities rise in his presence." For the Greeks, he was the King of the Deities, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". In Hesiod's Theogony Zeus assigns the various deities their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the deities.
His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" (Greek: Νεφεληγερέτα, Nephelēgereta) also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.
Zeus has been compared to several other Mediterranean, Ancient Near Eastern and Indo-European sky and thunder deities: among the Romans he was compared to Jupiter, among the Etruscans to Tinia, among the Canaanites to Baal, among the people of Ugarit to Hadad, among the Akkadians to Adad, among the Sumerians to Enlil, among the Babylonians to Marduk, among the Egyptians to both Amun and Horus, among the Germanic tribes to both Thor and Tyr, and among the Vedic people to Indra.
Category:Deities
Category:Greek deities
Category:Deities in the Iliad
Category:Savior deities
Category:Sky and weather deities
Category:Thunder deities
Category:Justice deities
Category:Oracular deities