Zeus

* Regular
* Amphitryon

Hephaestus, Ares, Apollo, Hermes, Zagreus, Dionysus, Tantalus, Epaphus, Perseus, Amphion, Minos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon, Pirithous, Heracles, Pollux, Endymion (sons)
Eileithyia, Hebe, Eris, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, Persephone, Dike, the Muses, Helen, Keroessa, Enyo, Aglaea (daughters)
Pan, Eros, Asclepius, Aeneas, Orpheus, Aristaeus, Autolycus, Byzas, Lycaon, Pelops, Plutus, Oenopion, Amphion's 7 sons (grandsons)
Niobe, Ariadne, Phaedra, Amphion's 7 daughters, Endymion's 50 daughters (granddaughters)
Triton, Theseus, Byzas, Polyphemus, Bellerophon, Pegasus, Arion (nephews)
Despoina (niece)
Hedone, Semele, Alcmene, Ino, Leda, and Callisto (great-granddaughters)

### Symbols

Thunderbolts, lightning, oak, eagle, bull

## Physical description

### Base color

Grey

**Zeus** (Ancient Greek Ζεύς, *Zeús*) is the Greek god of the sky, thunder, lightning, rain, law, justice, hospitality and order.

## Overview

The youngest son of Cronus and Rhea, he became the king of the universe after going to war against his father, the previous ruler of the world, and won. He took his sister Hera to wife, and had by her (depending on version) Ares, Hephaestus, Hebe, Eileithyia and Eris. However, he wasn't faithful to her, and had many more children by mortal women and goddesses, and so is also the father of, among others, Aphrodite (possibly), Athena, Persephone, Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, Heracles, and Helen. Hera's rage at Zeus' constant infidelity is a common theme in Greek myths, as many of Zeus' illegitimate offspring had to deal with Hera's wrath. Being king of gods, Zeus features in many myths, and thus, in many mythology videos.

He was often equated with the Roman god Jupiter and the Egyptian god Amun.

## Miscellaneous Myths

### The Theogony

   After Cronus defeated Ouranos and became king of the world, he married his sister Rhea, but was warned by Ouranos and Gaia that he was fated to be overthrown by one of his children, like he had done to his own father. To avoid this fate, Cronus would swallow each of Rhea's children as soon as they were born. After losing Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon to Cronus' appetite, Rhea took her sixth child, Zeus, and gave him to Gaia to raise, while she gave Cronus a rock to eat.

    When Zeus grew up, he decided the thing to do was to take over his father. With the help of Metis, an Oceanid nymph with a talent for cunning plans, he slipped Cronus a poison that forced him to throw up Zeus' siblings. Allied with his siblings and the Cyclopes he freed (who forged him his lightning bolts) Zeus waged a war against his father and his allies, a war he only won after he freed the Hecatoncheires as well.

    As the new king, Zeus married Metis, and she fell pregnant, but his grandparents warned him that after giving birth to a daughter, Metis would have a son more powerful than Zeus. Not wanting to share his grandfather and father's fates, Zeus ate Metis. He then married Hera, and she had Ares and Hephaestus. By Leto, he became the father of Artemis and Apollo. Then he suffered a terrible headache, and he split his head open. From his head emerged the fully-grown Athena, Metis' daughter. By Maia he had Hermes, and Dionysus by Semele.

Having successfully dodged the fate of his predecessors, Zeus happily announced that he was going to bang everything across the Mediterranean that had less than six legs. Except maybe Thetis, as she was destined to bear a son stronger than his father.

### Hermes

Maia, one of the Pleiades, was hiding in a cave to avoid romance, to no avail however as she fell pregnant from Zeus, unbeknownst to Hera. When Hermes, Maia's newborn son, stole Apollo's cows, Apollo brought him before Zeus, who found the situation hilarious, but ordered Hermes to return Apollo his cows nonetheless. Hermes was ever a god Zeus could trust to run his errands and accomplish various missions.

### Pandora

    Prometheus, noticing that mankind had to offer all the best bits of the animal while sacrificing to the gods, offered Zeus a choice between a bone covered in fat to appear tastier than it was, and prime beef concealed inside a nasty-looking stomach. Zeus picked the tastier looking option (the bone) setting the precedent of men keeping the tasty parts of the animals, and sacrificing only fat and bones. Zeus, angry, took fire from men, which made their life a good deal harder. Prometheus, who cared a lot for his creations, stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. Zeus then chained him on the Caucasus with an eagle (his symbol and sacred bird) eating his liver every day.

    As for mankind, Zeus had Hephaestus sculpt the first woman, Pandora, from claim, intending her to be a punishment to mortal men. Pandora was beautiful and alluring, but also cunning and ruthless. Famously, Pandora was given a jar containing all evils. Zeus offered her as a bride to Epimetheus, Prometheus' fool of a brother. Epimetheus, foolishly, accepted her. Immediately, Pandora opened the jar, unleashing evils such as mortal lifespans and diseases on humanity, and Zeus' plan was completed.

### Hades and Persephone

Hades went to Zeus, who allowed him to take Persephone to wife, but also told him to snatch her quickly, for her mother Demeter wouldn't let her daughter live in the cold, dark Underworld. After Persephone was abducted, Demeter refused to let anything grow, bringing famine and winter on land, which killed a lot of people, thus diminishing sacrifices.

    In despair, Zeus sent to her many gods (such as Iris) and presents to persuade her, but none of the gifts were Persephone, so she stayed unmoved. Having no other choice, Zeus sent Hermes to the Underworld, to fetch Persephone back. Demeter was overjoyed to have her daughter back, but she had to return to Hades eventually, as she ate pomegranate seeds while there. With all things settled, Zeus appeared to them to collect credit for the good work.

### Sisyphus Captures Death

Sisyphus was a man who stole and killed his guests, and for this (or for revealing a secret concerning Zeus) Zeus decided to punish him. The gods sent Thanatos, the god of death, to him, but Sisyphus tricked Thanatos and captured him, starting the long trend of Sisyphus avoiding punishment and death. It would be long before he was eventually punished for his misdeeds.

### Atlantis

It was Zeus, along with Poseidon, than sank Atlantis beneath the waves when they grew too arrogant and hubristic, by sending a great storm, while Poseidon caused an earthquake.

### Athens

Athena and Poseidon started fighting over who would get to have patronage over the city of Athens, so Zeus intervened, noting how cute the two of them are when power-hungry.

### Arachne

Zeus doesn't appear physically in this video, only in tapestries, the ones Athena and Arachne weave. Athena weaves themes as to why it's such a bad idea to sass the gods and incur their wrath. Arachne meanwhile uses her tapestry to depict numerous instances where Zeus and his brother Poseidon dropped everything to bang mortal women, half the time while in the form of animals while doing so.

### Ares' Abduction

Zeus fought the Aloadae when they attacked Olympus, and afterwards he noticed how quiet the place was (as Ares, the god of war, had been abducted by the giants).

### Orion

After Orion boasted that he would kill every beast on earth and was killed by a scorpion Gaia sent, he was made into a constellation by Artemis. Zeus decided to put the scorpion in the night sky as well, so that Orion wouldn't get too comfortable (when the Scorpion rises, Orion sinks in the horizon). In the version where Orion won't stop chasing down the Pleiades, Artemis asks him for help. Zeus transforms all seven Pleiades into stars to escape from Orion. When Orion dies, however, Zeus makes him into a constellation, so he can keep chasing after them.

### Typhon

After defeating the Titans, Zeus threw them into Tartarus, and their mother Gaia wasn't too delighted about this, as they *were* her children after all. With Tartarus himself as the father, Gaia gave birth to Typhon, a monstrous being, more like a force of nature than a mere monster of the sort heroes slay. In the cosmic scheme of things, Typhon is meant to succeed Zeus by overthrowing him, much like he had done to his father Cronus, who in turn had done the same to his own father Ouranos. Typhon attacked Olympus, causing all the gods to flee to Egypt in the shape of animals; this is an early form of syncretism, and the Ancient Greek explanation why Egyptians worshipped animal gods. Zeus, who was equated with the Egyptian god Amun, transformed into a ram. He did fight Typhon, and though was initially winning, Typhon managed to turn the tables and defeat Zeus by removing his sinews and placing the now depowered Zeus in a cave, under the watch of Delphyne, a half-snake maiden. Thankfully for him, Hermes and Pan found his sinews, and restored them back to him. Now with his powers again, Zeus faced Typhon once more, and won by burying Typhon underneath Mount Etna, which also serves as the reason why this mountain is a volcano.

### Dionysus

    Zeus fell in love and courted a mortal woman, Semele. When Hera found about this, she transformed into an old lady and gained Semele's trust, who revealed to her that she was expecting Zeus' son. Hera put doubts in Semele; everyone could claim they were Zeus, so how was she so sure?

    Hera advises Semele to get Zeus to prove his identity by asking him to appear before her in his true form. Semele finds this a good plan, and the next time she sees Zeus, she gets him to promise her to prove he really is Zeus by showing her his true form. Zeus protests, as this is a very bad idea, but Semele insists, and Zeus can't go back on his promise. His true form, however, burns Semele to crisp. Semele's pre-mature son, Dionysus, survived the ordeal and immediately Zeus sows him to his thigh so he can finish growing, and in a few months he is born for real. Dionysus is fairly unsafe on Olympus on account of Hera, so Zeus has him fostered elsewhere (who exactly raised him varies depending on tradition).

While analyzing Dionysus' origins, Red says that in Mycenaean Greece, Poseidon was probably the head god, as god of earthquakes, while Zeus, as god of thunder, wouldn't be as important.

### Bellerophon

When Bellerophon rode Pegasus and tried to reach Olympus that way, Zeus, angered by the man's hubris, sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus. Pegasus then threw Bellerophon off his back, and he plunged to the ground.

### Narcissus

Zeus had the chatty nymph Echo distract Hera with her constant blabbering so that he could seduce women and nymphs in peace. Hera eventually saw through this, and cursed Echo to only be able to repeat what she hears, ever incapable of starting the conversation herself.

### Tantalus

    Tantalus, a demigod son of Zeus, was a mortal man all gods loved for being a great host and friend. For no reason given, one day that he had them over for dinner, Tantalus decided to cook and serve his son Pelops to them. Furious about the violation of guest-right (which Zeus is god of), son-killing and hubris, Zeus throws Tantalus into Tartarus. In the version that Pelops isn't killed and rather becomes Poseidon's lover, Tantalus is still sent to Tartarus for trying to steal ambrosia from the gods. In another myth, Tantalus and his buddy Pandareus attempted to steal a golden dog created by Hephaestus to guard baby Zeus.

### Io

    Zeus fell in love with a mortal girl, Io, and appeared to her in all his glory, asking her to follow him. Io did the smart thing and ran away, only for Zeus to chase her and catch her. Meanwhile, on Olympus, Hera noticed a large amount of clouds covering Greece, and went down to investigate. She found Zeus next to a cow (the transformed Io), and knowing her husband, she asked to be given the cow as a gift. Zeus, knowing that denying his wife a seemingly simple cow would look suspicious, agreed.

    Hera placed Io under the guard of Argus, a multiple-eyed giant. Zeus, feeling a bit responsible for Io's situation, sent Hermes to free her, which Hermes did, but killed Argus in the process. Hera was livid at the murder of her trusted servant, and sent a Fury to torment Io. After the Fury chased Io all the way to the banks of the Nile river, Zeus begged Hera to stop, and she agreed. She called back the Fury, and Io was returned to her human form. She married an Egyptian king and never had to deal with Zeus again, though she did give birth to their son Epaphus and daughter Keroessa. Io was a distant ancestor of Heracles.

### Perseus

When King Acrisius received a prophecy that said that his daughter Danae would have a son that would kill him, Acrisius reacted by imprisoning her in a cell beneath the ground. Zeus wasn't going to let such a punishment get in the way, however, and so he transformed himself into golden rain to find Danae. As rain, he impregnated her and left. Perseus was born as a result of this, and Zeus was a rather absentee father figure in the child's life.

### The Zodiac

In the Western Zodiac, Taurus is often correlated with Zeus, either the bull he turned into in order to abduct Europa, or the bull he turned Io into in order to hide her from Hera's wrath. Gemini is the twins Castor and Pollux, with Zeus being the father of Pollux. When Castor was mortally wounded while trying to steal cattle, Zeus allowed Pollux to share his immortality with his twin half-brother, and so the brothers alternate between the Underworld and Olympus, staying six months a year in each. Aquarius meanwhile symbolizes Ganymede, the young Trojan Zeus abducted in the form of an eagle.

### Theseus and Pirithous

When Hades complained to him about Asclepius resurrecting the dead, Zeus reacted by killing Asclepius with one of his thunderbolts.

### Heracles

Zeus saw and desired a mortal queen, Alcmene, the wife of Amphitryon. He approached her by taking the form of Amphitryon himself to get her pregnant. Hera was no less enraged than usual when she found out about this, and asked Zeus to make the next descendant to be born the king. Alcmene *is* a descendant of Perseus, and so will be her son, so Zeus agrees. But then Hera kidnaps Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, so Heracles can't be born, while his cousin (and fellow descendant of Perseus) Eurystheus is born prematurely and becomes king.

Throughout Heracles' life, Zeus played a minimal role, while Hera tried his best to sabotage him and make his life miserable; after Eurystheus sacrifices Geryon's cattle to Hera, he appears to ask what's that smell.

### Medea

**Zeus** appears delighted that Hera shows her support for a mortal hero like Jason, as she doesn't do it often (Hera explains that's because Jason isn't his son). When later Medea kills her brother, Zeus, not supporting family-slaying, sends them a storm. Later still, after Jason decides to abandon Medea for Glauce, Medea informs him that he's damned by all gods, Zeus included, as he hates oath-breakers. Jason might just be the only thing Zeus and Hera have ever agreed upon.

### Eros and Psyche

    Aphrodite made Psyche undergo a number of impossible tasks in order to be united with her lover and Aphrodite's son Eros; one of them was to fill a goblet with water from the river Styx, lying beneath a cliff with dragons guarding it. At that point, even Zeus was fed up with Aphrodite's shenanigans, so he sent an eagle to fill Psyche's goblet with the water. Later, after Eros had reunited with Psyche, they went to Olympus, to get properly married, as Zeus told Aphrodite to back off. Zeus gave Psyche ambrosia to consume, and the two lovers were married as equals.

### Endymion

When the moon goddess Selene fell in love with the mortal man Endymion, she asked Zeus to do something about it. Zeus put Endymion to eternal slumber; he would never age and die, but he would never wake up again either. Selene was fine with this, and had fifty kids with a sleeping Endymion.

### Aphrodite

    When Eris threw the apple of discord at the direction of Athena, Hera and Aphrodite, the three goddesses first asked Zeus to determine which was the prettiest; realizing there was no safe option, Zeus dodged the choice, and made Paris, a young Trojan prince, decide instead.

    While mentioning Aphrodite's less known functions as a war goddess, Red says that in *the Iliad*, Zeus tells Aphrodite that she has no place in the battlefield. This could be the writer using the characters to make a firm political statement on controversial subjects, like the topic of Aphrodite's war side. Furthermore, while in *the Theogony* Aphrodite is presented as the motherless goddess who formed from the foam of the sea after Ouranos's severed testicles fell on the sea, in *the Iliad*, she's Zeus' daughter by Dione.

### Aphrodite's Affair

    Stories vary as to how the marriage between Aphrodite and Hephaestus began; some involving Zeus. He mainly appears around the end of the story, when, upon seeing the adultery committed by Aphrodite and her consort Ares, Hephaestus requested to Zeus that his dowry be refunded. Zeus promised that, if it would not be payed by Ares, that he himself would pay it back to Hephaestus.

## Classics Summarized

### The Iliad

Achilles, after Agamemnon took Briseis from him, asked his mother Thetis to tell Zeus to help the Trojans, so the Greeks lose. Zeus likes the plan, and sends a dream to Agamemnon urging him to attack Troy, on the promise of victory, which Agamemnon finds a great idea, while Zeus gives Hector a similar dream. Later, after Diomedes has wounded Ares, Ares runs back to Olympus, only for Zeus to yell at him "Man up, you gigantic disappointment!"

Zeus intervenes again later, throwing thunderbolts at the Greeks. Hera, who supports the Trojans, use her "feminine wiles" to distract Zeus so the Greeks can keep winning. Once he wakes up and finds out what happened, and he's pissed, ordering the gods not to interfere anymore.

### The Odyssey

Right after Odysseus and his crew sailed off Troy, Zeus sent them a storm to blow them off course, for their savage sacking of Troy.

When Odysseus and his crew arrive in Thrinacia, the isle of the Sun, Zeus sends them a heavy storm and winds, preventing them from sailing any time soon. Unable to leave, and with their supplies running out, Odysseus' men devour the Cattle of the Sun, even though they had been warned against that by Circe and Tiresias both. Once the sky's clear again, they sail away, but Zeus strikes the ship with a lightning bolt for their impiety. Only Odysseus survives. Zeus then sent wind to blow Odysseus back to Charybdis.

## Legends Summarized

### The Poetic Edda

Zeus has a small appearance, in which he claims that he, Odin and the Abrahamic God, despite being often compared to each other, are nothing alike. God agrees.

## Trope Talks

### Dragons

There's a motif in most Indo-European mythologies of a storm god slaying a dragon; Zeus fulfils this by taking down Typhon, the monstrous dragon-like son of Gaia.

### Immortals

Zeus is given as an example for "Immature Immortals". Red says that many gods are usually this as their lives are consequences-free, and nobody can stop them from acting like spoiled children.

## Lovers and children of Zeus

Zeus had many lovers, immortal goddesses and mortal women alike. Some of the most notable consorts and offspring that have appeared in the series include:

### Divine

* Metis, mother of Athena
* Dione, mother of Aphrodite (in some versions).
* Themis, mother of the three Seasons (Dike)
* Mnemosyne, mother of the nine Muses.
* Demeter, mother of Persephone.
* Hera, mother of Ares, Hebe, Eileithyia, Hephaestus (in some versions), Eris (in some versions), Enyo (in some versions).
* Leto, mother of Artemis and Apollo.
* Maia, mother of Hermes.
* Persephone, mother of Zagreus.
* Nemesis (in some versions).
* Asteria, whom he chased in the form of an eagle.

### Mortal

* Semele, mother of Dionysus.
* Plouto, mother of Tantalus.
* Io, mother of Epaphus and Keroessa.
* Danae, mother of Perseus.
* Europa, mother of Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon.
* Aegina, mother of Aeacus.
* Antiope, mother of Zethus and Amphion.
* Dia, mother of Pirithous (in some versions).
* Alcmene, mother of Heracles.
* Leda, mother of Pollux and Helen.
* Calyce, mother of Endymion (in some versions).
* Ganymede, whom he abducted as an eagle and made immortal.

## Physical Appearance

Zeus is grey-coloured, sometimes tinted with blue. He is bearded, and his brooch has a lightning symbol on it.

As a mortal, his eyes are light blue.

## Appearances

The Iliad

The Odyssey

The Poetic Edda

Perseus

Bellerophon

Theseus and Pirithous

Endymion

Eros and Psyche

Sisyphus Captures Death

Heracles

Pandora

Dionysus

Narcissus

The Theogony

Aphrodite

Hermes

Io

Atlantis

Tantalus

Typhon

Orion

Ares' Abduction

The Zodiac (as a bull and an eagle)

Hades and Persephone

Medea

Athens

Aphrodite's Affair

## Notes

1. ↑ According to Homer, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione; according to Hesiod, she's the motherless daughter of Ouranos.
2. ↑ Her tapestry depicts, among others, Zeus and Hera turning Haemus and Rhodope into mountain ranges.
3. ↑ Antiope as a satyr, Mnemosyne as a shepherd, Leda as a swan, Danae as a golden rain, Persephone as a snake, Aegina as a fire, Asteria as an eagle, and Europa as a bull.
4. ↑ Or alternatively, Tantalus and Pandareus attempted to steal a dog guarding the infant Zeus, that was placed there by Rhea, in order to avoid any time-travelling confusion.