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Liber X · Greek Mythology

Liber X · Greek Mythology · Chapter IV: The Olympian Gods

Zeus, King of the Gods: Myths, Cult and Meaning in Greece

Zeus, king of the Greek gods: his origins, rise to power, marriage to Hera, many lovers, sanctuaries at Olympia and Dodona, and his role as god of justice.

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Zeus was the king of the Greek gods, the ruler of the sky and weather and the guardian of justice, oaths and hospitality, called by Homer "father of gods and men". In myth he is the youngest son of the Titans Kronos and Rhea, who overthrew his father, divided the world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades, and ruled from Mount Olympus beside his wife and sister Hera. In cult he was worshipped everywhere in the Greek world, above all at Olympia, where the Olympic Games were held in his honour, and at the ancient oak oracle of Dodona.

The Name and Origins of Zeus§

Unlike most Olympians, Zeus has an etymology that scholars agree on. His name goes back to an Indo-European word for the bright sky or day, and it has close relatives in the Vedic sky god Dyaus Pitar ("Father Sky") and the Roman Jupiter, whose name combines the same root with pater, "father". The Greek forms Zeus, genitive Dios, appear already as di-we and di-wo on Linear B tablets from Pylos and Knossos (c. 1400–1200 BCE), so the god was worshipped in Mycenaean Greece centuries before Homer.

Greek Zeus also absorbed traditions from the Aegean and the Near East. The Cretans claimed that he had been born and hidden in a cave on their island, on Mount Dikte or Mount Ida, and a hymn inscribed in the Roman period at Palaikastro, but probably much older in substance, invokes him as the "greatest Kouros", a youthful god who returns each year. Some Cretans even pointed out a tomb of Zeus, which scandalised other Greeks.

The Rise of Zeus to Power§

The story of his birth is told in the Titans and the Titanomachy: Kronos swallowed his children, Rhea gave him a stone in place of the infant Zeus, and the child grew up in secret on Crete before forcing his father to disgorge his siblings. With the help of the Cyclopes, who forged his thunderbolt, and of the Hundred-Handers, Zeus and his allies defeated the Titans in a ten-year war and imprisoned them in Tartarus.

Victory did not end the danger. In Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BCE) Gaia bore one last monster, Typhon, a creature with a hundred serpent heads whose voices sounded like bulls, lions and dogs. Zeus blasted him with lightning and hurled him into Tartarus. In Apollodorus's Library (probably first or second century CE) Typhon first cuts the sinews from Zeus's hands and feet, until Hermes and Aegipan steal them back.

The division of the cosmos is told in two ways. Hesiod says the gods asked Zeus to be their king and he distributed honours among them. In Homer's Iliad (Book 15), Poseidon recalls that the three sons of Kronos drew lots: Zeus received the broad sky, Poseidon the grey sea and Hades the misty darkness, while the earth and Olympus were shared. Poseidon uses the story to claim equality, but he yields in the end.

Zeus's last threat came from within his own house. Warned that his first wife Metis, "Cunning Intelligence", would bear a son stronger than his father, Zeus swallowed her while she was pregnant. The daughter she carried, Athena, was later born from his head, as told in Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. By taking Metis inside himself Zeus broke the cycle of sons overthrowing fathers that had ruled the two previous generations.

Hera and the Marriage of Zeus§

Hesiod lists the wives of Zeus in order: Metis; Themis, who bore the Seasons and the Fates; the Oceanid Eurynome, mother of the Graces; Demeter, mother of Persephone; Mnemosyne, mother of the nine Muses; Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis; and finally Hera, who bore Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth. In genealogical form, the king of the gods marries Order, Memory and Intelligence.

Hera, daughter of Kronos and Rhea, was queen of the gods and patron of marriage, and she was a great goddess in her own right, with major sanctuaries at Argos, on Samos and at Olympia, where her temple is older than the temple of Zeus. Pausanias reports local traditions that Zeus courted her in the form of a cuckoo, and that she renewed her virginity each year by bathing in the spring Kanathos near Nauplia.

Epic poetry, however, portrays the marriage as a running quarrel. In Book 14 of the Iliad, Hera borrows Aphrodite's embroidered band of desire to seduce Zeus on Mount Ida so that the Greeks can rally while he sleeps, a scene ancient readers called the "Deception of Zeus". Zeus threatens her, recalls hanging her from the sky with anvils on her feet, and in most myths she pursues his lovers and their children with relentless anger. Some scholars see in this tension the meeting of two powerful cults; others read it simply as Greek marriage writ large among the gods.

The Lovers and Children of Zeus§

Outside marriage Zeus fathered a large part of the heroic world, often in disguise. He came to Europa as a white bull and carried her across the sea to Crete, where she bore Minos; to Danaë, locked in a bronze chamber, as a shower of gold, fathering Perseus; to Leda as a swan, so that Helen and Polydeuces were born; and to Alcmene in the shape of her own husband Amphitryon, fathering Heracles. Semele, deceived by Hera into asking him to appear in his true form, was burned by his lightning, and Zeus sewed her unborn son into his thigh, as told in Dionysus and the Bacchae. Io was turned into a cow and guarded by the hundred-eyed Argus until Hermes killed him, and the Trojan prince Ganymede was carried off to be cupbearer of the gods, by an eagle in later accounts.

These stories come from many periods and places. Hesiod's Catalogue of Women, surviving only in fragments, arranged the heroic families by their divine fathers, and later mythographers such as Apollodorus and Ovid, in the Metamorphoses (8 CE), gathered and embroidered them. Historians usually explain their number by genealogy: noble families and peoples traced their descent from Zeus, and each local claim added another mother.

Zeus of the Sanctuaries: Olympia, Dodona and Lykaion§

Zeus had no single great cult centre but many. At Olympia in Elis, the Olympic Games were held in his honour every four years, traditionally from 776 BCE. His Doric temple was built around 470–456 BCE, and in the 430s BCE the Athenian sculptor Phidias made for it a seated statue of gold and ivory, more than twelve metres high, which was counted among the Seven Wonders of the World. It was later taken to Constantinople, where it is thought to have perished by fire in the fifth century CE.

At Dodona in Epirus Zeus spoke through the rustling of a sacred oak, interpreted by priests whom the Iliad calls the Selloi, "who sleep on the ground with unwashed feet". Lead tablets found there record the questions people brought, about marriage, travel and trade. Zeus was also consulted as Zeus Ammon at the oasis of Siwa in Egypt, famously visited by Alexander the Great, and on Mount Lykaion in Arcadia, where dark rumours of human sacrifice, mentioned by Plato and Pausanias, attached to his cult.

Most worship was humbler. As Zeus Herkeios he guarded the courtyard altar of every house, as Zeus Ktesios he protected the storeroom, sometimes in the form of a snake, and as Zeus Polieus he watched over the city; in Athens the strange ox-sacrifice of the Bouphonia, in which the axe was put on trial, belonged to him. As Zeus Xenios and Hikesios he protected guests and suppliants, and as Zeus Horkios he punished perjury. More on sacrifice and festivals can be found in Greek religion and the mysteries.

Zeus, Fate and Justice§

The Zeus of epic can be partial, angry and unfaithful, yet he is also the guarantor of order. In the Iliad he weighs the fates of Achilles and Hector on golden scales, and he hesitates before allowing his own son Sarpedon to die, because overturning fate would unsettle the other gods. Achilles tells Priam that two jars stand on the threshold of Zeus, one of evils and one of blessings, from which he gives mortals their mixed lot. In Hesiod's Works and Days, Justice (Dike) is the daughter of Zeus, who sees everything and punishes unjust rulers, a theme Hesiod presses on his brother Perses.

Later thinkers developed this moral Zeus further. The chorus of Aeschylus's Agamemnon (458 BCE) prays to "Zeus, whoever he may be", who set down the law that wisdom comes through suffering. Xenophanes, around 500 BCE, complained that Homer and Hesiod had attributed theft, adultery and deceit to the gods. The Stoic Cleanthes (third century BCE) wrote a Hymn to Zeus addressing him as the reason that governs the universe, and a verse of an Orphic theogony, quoted in the Derveni papyrus, calls Zeus the head, the middle and the source of all things (see Orphism and the Orphic gold tablets). The punishment of Prometheus, told in Prometheus and Pandora, shows the other side of the same rule: Zeus's justice could look like tyranny to those who opposed it.

Through the Roman Jupiter, Zeus passed into European art and astrology. His roles among the other Olympians are traced in Hermes, Hephaestus, Ares and Aphrodite and in the overview Greek mythology: a complete guide.

Frequently asked questions§

Who were Zeus's parents and siblings?§

Zeus was the youngest son of the Titans Kronos and Rhea. His siblings were Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon, all of whom Kronos swallowed at birth and later disgorged.

What are the symbols of Zeus?§

His main attributes are the thunderbolt, the sceptre, the eagle and the oak. He is usually shown as a mature bearded man, seated on a throne or striding forward with a thunderbolt raised to throw.

Why did Zeus have so many lovers?§

Within the myths his affairs are explained by desire and power, but historians point to genealogy: many Greek families, cities and peoples claimed descent from Zeus, and each tradition added a new mother. The stories were gathered and harmonised by later poets and mythographers.

Sources and further reading§