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Zeus of Artemisium, c. 470 B.C. (Athens: National Museum) NOTE: Other authorities indentify this as an image of Poseidon.
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From Outcyclopedia, the free and queer encyclopedia.
Zeús Krónios (descendant of Cronus), or simply Zeús or
Zdeús (Greek Ζεύς) or
Dias (Greek Δίας) ("divine king") is the leader of the gods and
god of the sky and thunder
in Greek mythology. He is also often to referred to as god of law,
justice, and morals.
Etymology
Zeus is the continuation of Dyeus, the supreme god in
Indo-European
religion, also continued as Vedic Dyaus Pitar (cf. Jupiter), and as
Tyr (Ziu,
Tiw, Tiwaz) in Germanic and Norse mythology. Tyr was
however supplanted by Odin as the supreme god among the
Germanic peoples and
the Germanic tribes did not identify Zeus/Jupiter with either Tyr or Odin, but
with Thor.
The Worship of Zeus
Role and Titles
Zeus' role in the Greek Olympic pantheon can not be overstated.
He fathered many of the heroes and heroines and was featured in many of their stories.
Though he was the god of the sky and thunder, he was also the most supreme cultural artifact; in some senses, he was the embodiment of Greek religious beliefs
and the archetypal Greek deity.
The various titles applied to Zeus emphasized different aspects of his wide-ranging authority. Depending on the roles he played, Zeus was known
by over 150 different names among the Greeks, including Zeus Kosmetas (Zeus
the Orderer), Zeus Soter (Zeus the Savior), Zeus Polieos (Zeus, Overseer
of the City) and Zeus Eleutherios (Zeus the guarantor of political freedoms). Olympios emphasized Zeus's kingship over both the gods and the Panhellenic festival at Olympia.
A related title was Panhellenios, ('Zeus of all the Hellenes') to whom Aeacus' famous temple on Aegina was dedicated.
As Xenios, Zeus was the patron of hospitality and guests, ready to avenge any wrong done to a stranger.
As Horkios, he was the keeper of oaths. Liars who were exposed were made to dedicate a statue to Zeus, often at the sanctuary of Olympia.
As Agoraios, Zeus watched over business at the agora, and punished dishonest traders. Kronides was his title as the son of the Titan Kronos. Hypatos literally meant "Most High." Astrapaios described his most common function, "Lightning Maker."
Panhellenic Cults of Zeus
The major center at which all Greeks converged to pay honor to their chief
god was Olympia. The quadrennial
festival there featured the famous Games. There was also an altar to Zeus made
not of stone, but of ash - from the accumulated remains of many centuries' worth
of animal victims immolated there. The bi-annual Nemean Games and the annual Theogamia or Gamalia, celebrating Zeus's marriage to Hera, were also
important festivals.
Outside of the major inter-polis sanctuaries, there were
certain modes of worshipping Zeus that were shared across the Greek world. Most
of the above titles, for instance, could be found at any number of Greek temples
from Asia
Minor to Sicily. Certain modes of ritual
were held in common as well: sacrificing a white animal over a raised altar, for
instance.
On the other hand, certain cities had Zeus-cults that operated in markedly
different ways.
Some Local Zeus-Cults
In addition to the Panhellenic titles and conceptions listed above, local
cults maintained their own idiosyncratic ideas about the king of gods and men. A
few examples are listed below.
Cretan Zeus
On Crete, Zeus
was worshipped at a number of caves at Knossos, Ida and
Palaikastro.
The stories of Minos and Epimenides suggest that these
caves were once used for incubatory divination by
kings and priests. The dramatic setting of Plato's Laws is along the
pilgrimage-route to one such site, emphasizing Cretan knowledge. On Crete, Zeus
was represented in art as a long-haired youth rather than a mature adult, and
hymned as ho megas kouros "the great youth". With the Kouretes, a band of ecstatic
armed dancers, he presided over the rigorous military-athletic training and
secret rites of the Cretan paideia. Crete, in fact, was credited by the Greeks as the birthplace of their institution of paiderastia, with Minos, one of Zeus' many sons, credited as its inventor.
The classical Zeus may be an amalgam of a youthful Minoan deity with the more mature father god of the Indo-Europeans.
Many artistic depictions of Zeus, such as the Zeus of Artemisium (see image above), show a mature and wise man who is still firm, youthful, and athletic of body.
From a gay perspective, this depiction of Zeus represents what is often the ideal of the "daddy" for many young homosexual men.
Zeus Lykaios in Arcadia
The title Lykaios is morphologically connected to lyke
"brightness", and yet it looks a lot like lykos "wolf". This
semantic ambiguity is reflected in the strange cult of Zeus Lykaios in the
backwoods of Arcadia, where the god takes on
both lucent and lupine features. On the one hand, he presides over Mt Lykaion
("the bright mountain") the tallest peak in Arcadia, and home to a precinct in
which, allegedly, no shadows were ever cast (Pausanias 8.38).
On the other hand, he is connected with Lycaon ("the wolf-man") whose
ancient cannibalism was commemorated with bizarre, recurring rites. According to
Plato (Republic 565d-e), a particular clan would gather on the mountain to make
a sacrifice every eight years to Zeus Lykaios, and a single morsel of human
entrails would be intermingled with the animal's. Whoever ate the human flesh
was said to turn into a wolf, and could only regain human form if he did not eat
again of human flesh until the next eight-year cycle had ended.
Subterranean Zeus
Although etymology indicates that Zeus was originally a sky god, many Greek
cities honored Zeuses who lived underground. Athenians and Sicilians honored
Zeus Meilichios ("kindly" or "honeyed") while other cities had Zeus
Chthonios ("earthy"), Katachthonios ("under-the-earth) and
Plousios ("wealth-bringing"). These deities might be represented
indifferently as snakes or men in visual art. They also received offerings of
black animal victims sacrificed into sunken pits, as did chthonic deities like
Persephone and Demeter,
and also the heroes at their tombs. Olympian
gods, by contrast, usually received white victims sacrificed onto raised
altars.
In some cases, cities were not entirely sure whether the daimon to
whom they sacrificed was a hero or an underground Zeus. Thus the shrine at
Lebadaea in Boeotia might belong to the hero
Trophonius or to Zeus
Trephonius ("the nurturing"), depending on whether one believes
Pausanias or Strabo. The hero Amphiaraus
was honored as Zeus Amphiaraus at Oropus outside of Thebes, and the Spartans
even had a shrine to Zeus Agamemnon.
Oracles of Zeus
Although most oracle sites were usually dedicated to
Apollo, the
heroes or various or goddesses like Themis, a few
oracular sites were dedicated to Zeus.
The Oracle at Dodona
The cult of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus, where there is evidence
of religious activity from the 2nd millennium BC
onward, centered around a sacred oak. When the Odyssey was composed (circa
750 BC),
divination was done there by barefoot priests called Selloi, who lay on
the ground and observed the rustling of the leaves and branches (Od. 14.326-7).
By the time Herodotus wrote about Dodona,
female priestesses called peleiades ("doves") had
replaced the male priests.
Zeus' wife at Dodona was not Hera, but the goddess
Dione — whose name is
a feminine form of "Zeus". Her status as a Titaness suggests to
some that she may have been a more powerful pre-Hellenic deity, and perhaps the
original occupant of the oracle.
The Oracle at Siwa
The oracle of Ammon at the oasis of Siwa in Libya did not lie within the
bounds of the Greek world before Alexander's day, but
it already loomed large in the Greek mind during the archaic era:
Herodotus mentions consultations with Zeus Ammon in his account of the
Persian War. Zeus Ammon was especially favored at
Sparta, where a temple to him
existed by the time of the Peloponnesian War
(Pausanias 3.18).
Other Oracles of Zeus
The chthonic Zeuses (or heroes) Trophonius and Amphiaraus
were both said to give oracles at their cult-sites.
Zeus and Foreign Gods
Zeus was equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter (from Jovis
Pater or "Father Jove") and associated in the syncretic classical
imagination with various other deities, such as the Egyptian
Ammon and Etruscan Tinia. He (along with
Dionysus)
absorbed the role of the chief Phrygian god Sabazios in the syncretic deity
known in Rome as Sabazius.
Zeus in Myth
Early Career
Birth
Cronus (Chronos or Kronos, Roman Saturn), chief of the Titans, sired
several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter,
Hera, Hades, Poseidon, but swallowed them
all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from
his parents Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven)
that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own
father. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought
Uranus and Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his
retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to
Zeus in Crete,
handing Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly
swallowed.
Childhood
Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. According
to varying versions of the story:
- He was then raised by Gaia.
- He was raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a
company of Kouretes, soldiers, or
smaller gods danced, shouted and clapped their hands to make noise so that
Cronus would not hear the baby's cry. Zeus later placed Amalthea among the stars as the constellation Capricorn.
- He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus
ruled over the Earth, the heavens and the
sea, she hid him by dangling him
on a rope from a tree so he was
suspended between earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father.
- He was raised by a nymph named Cynosura. In gratitude, Zeus
placed her among the stars after her death.
- He was raised by the nymph Melissa, who
nursed him
with goat's milk. In some versions, the goat was Amalthea (see above). Zeus repaid Melissa by breaking off one of
Amalthea's horns and giving it to the nymph, after charming the horn so that it had the power to give to the person in possession
of it whatever he or she wished for. This gave rise to the legend of the cornucopia. Melissa later taught mortals
the harvesting and virtues of honey.
Zeus becomes king of the gods
After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgourge the other children in
reverse order of swallowing: first the stone, which was set down at Pytho
under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to
mortal men, then the rest. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an
emetic to force
him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open. Then Zeus released
the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires ("Hundred-Handers") and the
Cyclopes, from
their dungeon in the underworld of Tartarus, where Cronus had imprisoned them; he killed their
guard, Campe, a female dragon with the tail of a scorpion. As
gratitude, the Cyclopes gave him the thunderbolt,
which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Together, Zeus and his brothers and
sisters, along with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew
Cronus and the other Titans in a ten year war called the Titanomachy. The Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus, save a few, such as Prometheus, who had sided with Zeus, and several of the female Titans, who had remained neutral in the conflict.
After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder
brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lots: Zeus got
the heavens, Poseidon the sea and Hades the underworld.
Gaia was upset that Zeus had imprisoned the Titans, because they were her
children. Soon after taking the throne as king of the gods, Zeus had to fight
some of Gaia's other children, the monsters Typhon and Echidna. He killed
Typhon, but left Echidna and their children alive as challenges for future
heroes.
The Joys of Married Life
Zeus was brother and husband of Hera. Their children were Hephaistos (or Hephaestus), god of smithing,
Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, Hebe, goddess of youth and original cupbearer to the gods, Iris, goddess of the rainbow and messenger for the goddesses, Enyo, goddess of aggressive warfare, and Ares, god of war for war's sake. Zeus is famous for his many
extramarital affairs with various goddesses — notably Demeter,
Leto (Roman Latona), Dione and Maia — and mortal women
— notably Semele,
Io, Europa and Leda (for more details,
see "Affairs" below), as well as many nymphs. His wife, Hera, was very jealous and
consistently tried to harm Zeus' mistresses and their children by him. For a
time, a nymph named
Echo had the job of
distracting Hera from his affairs by incessantly talking. When Hera discovered
the deception, she cursed Echo to only speak the words of others (hence our
modern word "echo"). Echo later figured prominently in the myth of Narcissus.
Seductions
A less squeamish age called these the "Rapes" of Zeus, for these were not
love affairs but mythic events that in case after case record the localized cult
of a water or wood nymph that has been supplanted by the conquering Olympian
patrilineal order, effecting a cultural, social and religious revolution, or at
the least a radical reform of ancient beliefs and reinterpreted readings for
long-established cult practices.
It is notable that none of these liaisons involve any of the Olympian
goddesses. Zeus may father upon the nymph the
eponymous progenitor of a race of
kings which may survive into heroic times or archaic history. In many cases
"jealous" Hera, the goddess who represents conservative religious traditions,
wreaks vengeance on the faithless "turncoat" who succumbs to the new order. Whenever the
seduced female is human, the inquisitive reader soon finds that her mother was a
nymph or demi-goddess.
Heterosexual:
Callisto was the daughter of Lycaon,
the king of Arcadia (or possibly a nymph). Her name is derived from kalliste, meaning "most beautiful." A follower of Artemis, she took a vow to remain a virgin. But Zeus fell in love with her and disguised himself as Apollo in order to lure her into his embrace. Hera, Zeus' wife, then turned Callisto into a bear out of revenge. Later, Callisto's son with Zeus, Arcas, nearly killed her in a hunt but Zeus placed them both in the sky as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
An alternate version: One of Artemis' companions, Callisto lost her virginity to Zeus, who had come disguised as Artemis. Enraged, Artemis changed her into a bear. Callisto's son, Arcas, nearly killed his mother while hunting, but Zeus or Artemis stopped him and placed them both in the sky as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
Another alternate version: Artemis killed Callisto in bear form, deliberately.
Alcmene was the mother of Heracles (Hercules) by Zeus, who assumed the likeness of her husband during his absence.
Aegina was the daughter of the river-god Asopus. Zeus abducted Aegina and took her to an island near Attica, thereafter known by her name. Aegina eventually gave birth to a son Aeacus, who became king of the island.
Taygete was a nymph and a companion of Artemis. Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a doe, but Zeus transformed into a stag and in this form raped her.
In some versions of the story, Taygete conceived through Zeus Lacedaemon, the mythical founder of Sparta. In others, she was the Cerynian Hind that Heracles had to capture as one of his labors.
Elara was the daughter of King Orchomenus and mother through Zeus of Tityas. Zeus hid her from his wife, Hera, by placing her deep beneath the earth. This was where she gave birth to Tityas, who is sometimes said to be the son of Elara and Gaia, the earth goddess, for this reason.
Described as a giant with an uncontrollable libido, Tityas was killed by Artemis and Apollo after trying to rape their mother, Leto.
Asteria was a star goddess, the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe and sister of Leto, Asteria flung herself into the ocean to escape the advances of Zeus. She became the island of the same name. Alternatively, she changed herself into a quail to avoid him.
Danae was a daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. Told by an oracle that his grandson would kill him, Acrisius locked his still childless daughter in a bronze tower.
But Zeus came to her in the form of rain or a shower of gold, and impregnated her. Soon after, their child Perseus was born. Perseus later slew the Gorgon Medusa and fulfilled the prophecy ny accidentally striking Acrisius in the head with a discus. He was also an ancestor of Heracles.
Io was the daughter of Inachus, a river god. Zeus attempted to hide Io from Hera by turning her into a white heifer, but Hera, not fooled, demanded the heifer as a gift. Hera placed Io under the guard of Argus, a hundred-eyed giant. At Zeus' instruction, Hermes killed Argus and Io escaped,
only to be pursued across Greece and into Asia by a biting gadfly sent by Hera. Io visited and was briefly comforted by Prometheus, whom Zeus had chained to a mountain and tormented with an eagle which pecked at his liver, as punishment for giving fire to humanity. The Titan, who had the gift of prophecy, informed Io
that she would soon be restored and become the ancestor of Heracles, greatest of all heroes. Zeus eventually restored Io to human form after her wanderings brought her to Egypt. She then gave birth to Zeus' son, Epaphus, also called Apis, who founded the city of Memphis in Egypt.
Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon and Lybie, was a queen of Libya. Hera turned her into a monster (or she killed Lamia's children and the grief turned her into a monster) and murdered their children.
Lamia was cursed with the inability to close her eyes so that she would always obsess over the image of her dead children. Zeus gave her the gift to be able to take her eyes out to rest, and then put them back in.
Lamia was envious of other mothers and ate their children. She had the body of a serpent and breasts and head of a woman. She was usually female, but occasionally male or hermaphroditic. Lamia is thus similar to the demonic version of Lilith, and like her, became a form of vampire in later legends.
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Zeus Abducting Ganymede, Olympia (c470 BC) polychromed terracotta acroterion from the Temple of Zeus.
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Homosexual:
Ganymede, a beautiful Trojan prince, was kidnapped by Zeus from Mount Ida in Phrygia, either sending an eagle or assuming his own eagle nature to transport Ganymede to Mount Olympus.
In Olympus, Zeus made Ganymede his lover and cupbearer, supplanting Hebe. All the gods were filled with joy to see the youth, save Hera, Zeus' consort, who despised Ganymede. Her hate of him was applied by mythographers to account for her
abandoning the Trojans, an otherwise inaccountable shift in the alliances of the Trojan War.
Plato's Timaeus was of the opinion that the Ganymede myth had been invented by the Cretans— Minoan Crete being a power center of pre-Greek culture— to account for their pederastic lusts, which were imported thence into Greece. This theory seems well-bolstored by Zeus' gift to Ganymede's father, Tros,
of two horses so fast they could run on water, as a way of consoling the king for his loss. In many locales where paiderastia was practiced, when a youth left home to be with his male mentor-lover, the boy's parents were given gifts or money.
Other Consorts and Children
Ananke was the personification of destiny, and through Zeus mother of the goddess Adrasteia, who meted out rewards and punishments, and of the three Moirae or Fates. The Latin name for the Fates, Fata, is believed to be the origin of the term fairy.
Demeter, sister of Zeus and goddess of grain, was the mother by him of Persephone, goddess of spring and queen of the underworld. Some myths also name her as mother of Dionysus, though most name his mother as Semele. (See below.)
The Titaness Dione was considered the mother of Aphrodite, goddess of love, who was also sometimes called "Dione."
Eos, goddess of the dawn, was the mother through Zeus of Ersa, godess of dew. In some variations of the Ganymede myth, it is Eos and not Zeus who kidnaps Ganymede to be her companion, along with Ganymede's brother, Tithonus.
Eris, goddess of discord, was the mother of Ate, a malicious goddess who inspired mortals into arrogant acts of hubris which brought about their ruin. Among her victims was Ampelus, a boy passionately loved by Dionysus. The Litae ("Prayers"), wrinkled and lame goddesses
who followed after Ate in an attempt to undo her mischief but could never keep up with their swift footed sister, were also Eris' children by Zeus.
Leto, described as either a star goddess or one of the Titans, was the mother of the bisexual Apollo, god of music and poetry, and the lesbian Artemis, goddess of hunting.
The twin siblings were notorious for the terrible revenge they took on anyone who insulted their mother.
Maia, a star goddess, was the mother of Hermes, messenger of the gods.
Metis, described as the goddess either of prudence or deep thought, was the mother of Athena. In some accounts, she is Zeus' wife before Hera. A shape-shifter, Metis was tricked by Zeus, who had tired of her nagging,
into a fly, whereupon he swallowed her. The pregnant Metis gave birth to Athena while inside Zeus, and the goddess grew to maturity before springing from a gash in Zeus' skull.
Mnemosyne ("Memory"), was the mother of the Muses, including Urania, cited by Plato as the special protector of homosexuals.
Selene, the moon goddess before losing that station to Artemis, was the mother of Pandia, the personification of brightness. In some accounts, she was also the mother through Zeus of the ferocious Nemean Lion, which Heracles had to kill as one of his labors.
Thalassa, a sea goddess, is in some myths credited as the mother of Aphrodite via Zeus, rather than Dione. In others, she is the mother of Aphrodite through either Poseidon or Uranus.
Themis, goddess of divine justice, was the mother of Astraea, as well as Dike, goddess of moral justice, and the Horae, goddesses of the seasons. In some myths, she is also mother of the Moirae, instead of Ananke.
Antiope was the daughter of the river-god Asopus. (She is not to be confused with another Antiope, who was an Amazon and sister of Hippolyta.) Her sons, Amphion and Zethus, built the walls surrounding the city of Thebes.
Amphion, a musician taught by Hermes, was able to make the stones dance into place by playing on his lyre.
Carme was the mother of Britomartis, goddess of mountains and seaports.
Electra, a sea goddess, - not to be confused with the daughter of the Greek king Agamemnon - , was the mother of Dardanus, founder of the city of Dardania near Troy, Iasion, who founded the mystic rites of Samothrace, and their sister, Harmonia.
Europa, a Phoenician princess, was the mother of Minos and his brothers, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon.
Eurynome, a sea goddess, was mother of the Charites, or Graces.
Himalia, a nymph from Cyprus, was the mother of Cronius.
Iodame, a nymph, was the mother of Thebe, wife of Ogyges, first king of Thebes.
Laodamia, daughter of the hero Bellerophon, was the mother of Sarpedon, a king of Lycia who fought on the side of Troy and was slain by Patroclus.
Leda, queen of Sparta, was seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan and became mother of the half-immortal twins Polydeuces (or Pollux) and Helen, for whom the Trojan War was fought.
Through her husband King Tyandareus she became mother of the mortal twins Castor and Cytemnestra.
Maera was the mother of Locrus. A companion of Artemis, she was killed by the goddess for breaking her vow of chastity,
Niobe, daughter of King Tantalus (see below), was the mother of Argos and Pelasgus, Zeus' first children by a mortal, Niobe also had fourteen children
by her mortal husband, Amphion (see above). When she boasted that having fourteen children made her superior to Leto, who only had twins, Apollo and Artemis killed all fourteen children and turned Niobe to stone.
Contemporary chronicles sometimes cited Zeus and not Philip II of Macedon as the father of Alexander the Great,
believing the god had seduced his mother Olympias. Olympias herself claimed descent from Achilles, as did Alexander.
Plouto was a nymph and the mother of Tantalus. Greatly favored by the gods, Tantalus once invited them to a banquet where he served them human flesh. Zeus condemned Tantalus to be tied to a tree
in the underworld where he would hunger and thirst for eternity, while luscious fruit and sweet water stayed just out of his reach.
Podarge, one of the Harpies, was mother of Bailus and Xanthus, two immortal horses who had the power of human speech. Originally given
to Poseidon, they were later a wedding gift to Peleus, who in turn gave them to Achilles. Other myths credit their father as the wind god Zephyros.
Pyrrha, wife of Deucalion, the Greek Noah, was the mother through Zeus of Hellen, ancestor of the Greeks.
Semele, daugher of the Phoenician prince Cadmus, was the mother of Dionysus, god of wine. (Some sources cite Demeter as his mother.) Of all Zeus' extra-marital mates, she seems to have fared the worse. Tricked by Hera, she
coerced Zeus into revealing himself to her in all his godly glory. The flames of the divine light which shown from Zeus incinerated her.
Thalia, a nymph, was the mother through Zeus (or Hephaistos) of the Palici, twin gods who presided over hot springs and geysers.
Zeus was also the father of Nemesis, goddess of divine retribution, and of Tyche, goddess of fortune, though the identities of their mother is either unknown or in dispute among mythographers.
A Zeus Miscellany
- Though Zeus was often petty and malicious, he also had a righteous streak,
perhaps best exemplified in his aid on behalf of Atreus. When Atreus found his kingdom usurped by Thyestes, and the usurper promised he would give the kingdom back when the sun moved backwards through the sky, Zeus caused this to happen.
- When the warrior Capaneus beseiged the walls of Thebes and boasted that not even Zeus could stop him from taking the city, Zeus struck him dead with a thunderbolt for
his unbridled arrogance. Indeed, the modern idea of people being struck dead by lightning for blasphemy has its origins in this and similar stories about Zeus.
- Zeus turned Pandareus to stone for
stealing a bronze dog from one of his temples on Crete.
- Zeus killed Salmoneus with a thunderbolt
for attempting to equal him, riding around on a bronze chariot and loudly imitating
thunder.
- As a child, Zeus had had a friend named Celmis, one of the Dactyls. Many years later, Rhea
became offended by the antics of Celmis and asked Zeus to turn him into a lump
of steel or diamond. Zeus
obliged.
- Zeus turned Periphas into an eagle after his death, as a reward
for being righteous and just.
- At the marriage of Zeus and Hera, a nymph named Chelone was disrespectful (or
refused to attend). Zeus condemned her to eternal silence.
- When Memnon, the Ethiopian prince who fought on the side of Troy, was killed by Achilles, Zeus felt
pity for his mother, Eos, and granted him immortality. In some accounts of the Trojan War, Zeus also granted Thetis' request to resurrect Achilles after he was mortally wounded
fighting the Amazon queen Penthesilea, but warned the goddess he would not save her son a second time.
When Achilles was finally killed by Paris, Zeus refused to intervene. Zeus was the only god to remain neutral in the Trojan War.
- Zeus made the decision to marry Aphrodite off to Hephaestus
in order to prevent violence over her between the many gods who lusted after
the goddess of beauty. This, however, did not prevent Aphrodite from cuckolding her husband
with his own brother, Ares.
- Zeus, with Hera, turned King Haemus and Queen Rhodope into
mountains (Balkan and Despoto,
respectively) for their vanity.
- Zeus exchanged a caduceus for the first flute with Hermes.
- Zeus turned Atalanta and Hippomenes
(or Melanion) into lions because they had sex in one
of his temples.
- After Hera (or Athena) blinded Tiresias Zeus compensated the loss of his sight by giving him
the gift of prophecy.
- After Apollo slew the Cyclopes who forged Zeus's thunderbolts in revenge for the death of his son Aesclepius, Zeus grounded the god on earth, where he labored as the servant of Admetos.
- Hera was shackled from Heaven with golden chains after defying Zeus, and when her son Hephaestus tried to help her, Zeus threw him to Earth, permanently laming him.
- Built between 450 and 420 BCE, Zeus's temple at Olympia, designed by the architect Libon and
containing a statue of the god sculpted by Phidias, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The statue itself was carved of ivory, marble, and gold, and displayed the god sitting on a throne and
holding Nike, goddess of victory, in his hand.
- The Roman emperor Caligula is said to have believed himself to be Zeus.
He tried to have the statue of Zeus sculpted by Phidias at Olympia transported to Rome,
but the scaffolding for the job collapsed. The statue of Zeus was later transported to Constantinople
where it was destroyed by fire in 462. By then, the temple at Olympia had already been destroyed by
earthquakes and mudslides, having been abandoned after Emperor Theodosius I banned the Olympic Games
as pagan paractices in 391.
- Today the phrase "by Jove" is still sometimes used in the
United Kingdom. The
British comedian Ken
Dodd uses the phrase "By Jove, missus".
References
- Cook, A.B. Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion (3 volumes). New York,
Bibilo & Tannen: 1964.
External links:
Entry revised 30 January, 2005, using material from the Wikipedia article, "Zeus," and related articles. All text is available for use under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (see Copyrights for details).
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