According to Greek mythology, Zeus was the son of Cronus and Rhea. His father Cronus intended to eat him alive but his mother Rhea managed to fool Cronus and save Zeus. Zeus then went on to overthrow Cronus and become King of the Gods. Zeus took many wives and fathered numerous children. He also had multiple sexual escapades. Zeus was revered as a major deity in ancient Greece and he was honored in various ways. To honor him, among other things, the famous Olympic games were held and the magnificent Statue of Zeus was built.
Here are 10 interesting facts about the Greek God Zeus. Ancient Indo-European pantheons had gods associated with the sky which ruled over all the other gods. Scholars have used these deities to reconstruct the original sky god of proto-Indo-European religion, called Dyeus. The mythologies and powers of these sky gods are similar, though not identical. While Zeus has his own lore and mythology, Jupiter and Dyaus have very few surviving myths associated with them.
Also, while the Hindu god Dyaus is forced to incarnate and live as a human as punishment, Zeus never incarnated as a human. According to Greek mythology, Cronus overthrew his father Uranus and ruled over the world along with his wife Rhea.
Gaia , wife of Uranus and the Greek goddess personifying earth , told Cronus that one of his children would go on to overthrow him like he had overthrown his father. Cronus had several children with Rhea but swallowed them all at birth.
However, when her sixth child Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save him. Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus in Crete , hid him in a cave and instead gave Cronus a stone wrapped in his clothes, which he swallowed. At the cave, Zeus was nursed and taken care of by the nymph known as Amalthaea , who was also a female goat.
The infant Zeus was also guarded by the Curetes , young warriors who would clash their weapons every time Zeus cried in order to mask his cries. While being raised in the cave, Zeus met Metis , the goddess of wisdom. Zeus and his now-regurgitated siblings then waged war on Cronus and eventually overthrew the Titans and imprisoned them for eternity in Tartarus , a place of eternal suffering and torment. In fact, Zeus was unfaithful to an extreme, which became a major theme in his mythological stories.
Part of what makes Zeus king of the gods is his willingness to take whatever he wants—or whoever he wants—whenever he wants. By exerting his sexual strength over women, Zeus reinforces his physical power This is a relief of Zeus, carved between the 1st Century and 2nd Century.
It's on display at the Burdur Museum in Turkey. And, they are a lot of fun! Now, without further ado, here are six more mythological stories about Zeus. Just as Cronus caught wind that his son was going to overthrow him, Zeus likewise received a similar prophecy that one of his children would usurp him. Upon hearing this prophecy, Zeus ate his pregnant lover Metis Titan goddess of wisdom to prevent it. Metis , however, was not deterred.
Needless to say, it was uncomfortable having a full-grown goddess forging armor and weapons inside his gut Athena inherited traits from everyone involved: wisdom from Metis, power from Zeus, and craftsmanship from Hephaestus, making her a very formidable goddess. Well, in some stories she was so jealous that she gave birth to Hephaestus who apparently had no father as revenge.
How did she give birth to the person who was responsible for the birth of the person who inspired her to give birth, you ask? An excellent question! She really did have a terrible husband who fathered children with every maiden, goddess, and nymph that crossed his path.
Growing up, Zeus fell in love with her and tried to make her return his love. However, she refused his advances. Zeus, always undeterred in such matters, exploited her compassion by turning himself into a lost little cuckoo bird.
Hera took the little bird in because she was afraid that it would freeze to death. She cradled it against her chest, where it turned back into Zeus and he attacked her. Hera was so ashamed that she married Zeus rather than admit that she had been raped. To do this, she drugged his wine. While he slept, the gods tied him to a chair with a hundred knots and took his lightning bolt from him.
You see, Briareus had one hundred hands, so he could untie all the knots at the same time. Zeus was so furious with Hera over her deception that he hung her from the sky with golden chains, and her cries shook the Earth. Everyone was too afraid to cross Zeus again, so instead of helping her, they left her to suffer.
Zeus took mercy on her, so long as she swore never again to rebel against him. Zeus was always looking down on Earth from Olympus, searching for beautiful women. One day he glanced upon Leda , the daughter of the king Thestios. She was already married to the king of Sparta, but Zeus was never one to let a little marriage deter him from getting what he wanted.
Similarly to how he tricked Hera, Zeus transformed himself into a swan that was being pursued by an eagle. Leda took pity on and rescued the swan, which then turned into Zeus, who raped her. The attack left Leda pregnant.
She then laid two eggs, from which four children were born. Myths are weird. The two girls would grow up to have important roles during the Trojan War , whereas Castor and Pollux—twins despite having different fathers and hatching from separate eggs—would be leaders of the Spartan army in the war against Athens.
Zeus had one foolproof means of seduction: transform into an animal and use that to convince a woman to let down her defenses. He disguised himself as the most beautiful bull anyone had ever seen. The bull was so gentle and lovely that she decided to ride it. The second she climbed on its back, though, it jumped into the ocean and took her far away, where it transformed back into Zeus, who seduced Europa.
She then bore him three children, one of whom was Minos , the king of Crete whose labyrinth was inhabited by another offspring of a bull, the minotaur. Zeus was always in conflict with Prometheus , the last of the Titans, because he created humanity with the help of Athena. Humans were greedy and disloyal to the gods, and Zeus got so sick of them that he decided to just wipe them all out with a massive flood.
So he sent a rain that lasted nine days and nights, which killed everyone except for two people: Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. Deucalion and Pyrrha landed at the top of a mountain and begged Zeus to repopulate the Earth.
So they threw stones over their shoulders and each stone turned into a person, a man if thrown by Deucalion and a woman if thrown by Pyrrha. After Prometheus and Athena crafted humanity out of clay, they were forbidden by the gods from teaching them the benefit of fire, which would make them powerful enough to challenge the gods.
This enabled the development of technology and civilization. Consequently, Zeus punished Prometheus by sentencing him to Tartarus, where he was chained to a boulder and his liver was eternally eaten by an eagle the symbol of Zeus. Because he was divine, Prometheus' liver would regenerate However, the deed was done. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.
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