| Zeus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Member of the Twelve Olympians | |
 | |
| Abode | Mount Olympus |
| Symbol | Thunderbolt, eagle, bull, oak |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Cronus and Rhea |
| Siblings | Hestia, Hades, Hera, Poseidon and Demeter |
| Consort | Hera, various others |
| Children | Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Artemis, Apollo, Dionysus, Eileithyia, Hebe, Helen of Troy, Heracles, Hermes, Minos, Persephone, Zagreus, Perseus, Melinoë, the Charites, the Horae, the Muses, the Moirai, various others |
| Equivalents | |
| Roman | Jupiter |
| Part of a series on |
| Ancient Greek religion |
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Zeus (/zjuːs/, Ancient Greek: Ζεύς)[a] is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first syllable of his Roman equivalent Jupiter.[2]
Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Eileithyia, Hebe, and Hephaestus.[3][4] At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione,[5] by whom the Iliad states that he fathered Aphrodite.[8] According to the Theogony, Zeus's first wife was Metis, by whom he had Athena.[9] Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many divine and heroic offspring, including Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses.[3]
He was respected as a sky father who was chief of the gods[10] and assigned roles to the others:[11] "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."[12][13] He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men".[14] Zeus's symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" (Greek: Νεφεληγερέτα, Nephelēgereta)[15] also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the ancient Near East, such as the scepter.
- ^ The sculpture was presented to Louis XIV as Aesculapius but restored as Zeus, ca. 1686, by Pierre Granier, who added the upraised right arm brandishing the thunderbolt. Marble, middle 2nd century CE. Formerly in the 'Allée Royale', (Tapis Vert) in the Gardens of Versailles, now conserved in the Louvre Museum (Official on-line catalog)
- ^ Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.
- ^ a b Hamilton, Edith (1942). Mythology (1998 ed.). New York: Back Bay Books. p. 467. ISBN 978-0-316-34114-1.
- ^ Hard 2004, p. 79.
- ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Zeus.
- ^ Homer, Il., Book V.
- ^ Plato, Symp., 180e.
- ^ There are two major conflicting stories for Aphrodite's origins: Hesiod's Theogony claims that she was born from the foam of the sea after Cronos castrated Uranus, making her Uranus's daughter, while Homer's Iliad has Aphrodite as the daughter of Zeus and Dione.[6] A speaker in Plato's Symposium offers that they were separate figures: Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos.[7]
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony 886–900.
- ^ Homeric Hymns.
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony.
- ^ Burkert, Greek Religion.
- ^ See, e.g., Homer, Il., I.503 & 533.
- ^ Pausanias, 2.24.4.
- ^ Νεφεληγερέτα. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
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