Birth In
Hesiod's
Theogony ( – 700 BC),
Cronus, after castrating his father
Uranus, becomes the supreme ruler of the cosmos, and weds his sister
Rhea, by whom he begets three daughters and three sons:
Hestia,
Demeter,
Hera,
Hades,
Poseidon, and lastly, "wise" Zeus, the youngest of the six. He swallows each child as soon as they are born, having received a prophecy from his parents,
Gaia and Uranus, that one of his own children is destined to one day overthrow him as he overthrew his father. This causes Rhea "unceasing grief", and upon becoming pregnant with her sixth child, Zeus, she approaches her parents, Gaia and Uranus, seeking a plan to save her child and bring retribution to Cronus. Following her parents' instructions, she travels to
Lyctus in
Crete, where she gives birth to Zeus, handing the newborn child over to Gaia for her to raise, and Gaia takes him to a cave on Mount Aegaeon (Aegeum). Rhea then gives to Cronus, in the place of a child, a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallows, unaware that it is not his son. While Hesiod gives Lyctus as Zeus's birthplace, he is the only source to do so, and other authors give different locations. The poet
Eumelos of Corinth (8th century BC), according to
John the Lydian, considered Zeus to have been born in
Lydia, while the Alexandrian poet
Callimachus (), in his
Hymn to Zeus, says that he was born in
Arcadia.
Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC) seems at one point to give
Mount Ida as his birthplace, but later states he was born in
Dicte, and the mythographer
Apollodorus (first or second century AD) similarly says he was born in a cave in Dicte. In the second century AD, Pausanias wrote that it would be impossible to count all the people claiming that Zeus was born or brought up among them.
Infancy ",
Mount Ida, Crete While the
Theogony says nothing of Zeus's upbringing other than that he grew up swiftly, other sources provide more detailed accounts. According to Apollodorus, Rhea, after giving birth to Zeus in a cave in Dicte, gives him to the nymphs
Adrasteia and
Ida, daughters of
Melisseus, to nurse. They feed him on the milk of the she-goat
Amalthea, while the
Kouretes guard the cave and beat their spears on their shields so that
Cronus cannot hear the infant's crying. Diodorus Siculus provides a similar account, saying that, after giving birth, Rhea travels to
Mount Ida and gives the newborn Zeus to the Kouretes, who then takes him to some nymphs (not named), who raised him on a mixture of honey and milk from the goat Amalthea. He also refers to the Kouretes "rais[ing] a great alarum", and in doing so deceiving Cronus, and relates that when the Kouretes were carrying the newborn Zeus that the
umbilical cord fell away at the river Triton. Hyginus, the author of the
Fabulae, relates a version in which Cronus casts Poseidon into the sea and Hades to the Underworld instead of swallowing them. When Zeus is born, Hera (also not swallowed), asks Rhea to give her the young Zeus, and Rhea gives Cronus a stone to swallow. Hera gives him to Amalthea, who hangs his cradle from a tree, where he is not in heaven, on earth or in the sea, meaning that when Cronus later goes looking for Zeus, he is unable to find him. Hyginus also says that
Ida, Althaea, and
Adrasteia, usually considered the children of
Oceanus, are sometimes called the daughters of Melisseus and the nurses of Zeus. According to a fragment of Epimenides, the nymphs
Helice and
Cynosura are the young Zeus's nurses. Cronus travels to Crete to look for Zeus, who, to conceal his presence, transforms himself into a snake and his two nurses into bears. According to
Musaeus, after Zeus is born, Rhea gives him to
Themis. Themis in turn gives him to Amalthea, who owns a she-goat, which nurses the young Zeus.
Antoninus Liberalis, in his
Metamorphoses, says that Rhea gives birth to Zeus in a sacred cave in Crete, full of sacred bees, which become the nurses of the infant. While the cave is considered forbidden ground for both mortals and gods, a group of thieves seek to steal honey from it. Upon laying eyes on the swaddling clothes of Zeus, their bronze armour "split[s] away from their bodies", and Zeus would have killed them had it not been for the intervention of the
Moirai and
Themis; he instead transforms them into various species of birds.
Ascension to power , House of the Dioscuri, 62-79 CE. According to the
Theogony, after Zeus reaches manhood, Cronus is made to disgorge the five children and the stone "by the stratagems of Gaia, but also by the skills and strength of Zeus", presumably in reverse order, vomiting out the stone first, then each of the five children in the opposite order to swallowing. Zeus then sets up the stone at
Delphi, so that it may act as "a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men". Zeus next frees the
Cyclopes, who, in return, and out of gratitude, give him his thunderbolt, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Then begins the
Titanomachy, the war between the Olympians, led by Zeus, and the Titans, led by Cronus, for control of the universe, with Zeus and the Olympians fighting from
Mount Olympus, and the Titans fighting from
Mount Othrys. The battle lasts for ten years with no clear victor emerging, until, upon Gaia's advice, Zeus releases the
Hundred-Handers, who (similarly to the Cyclopes) were imprisoned beneath the Earth's surface. He gives them nectar and ambrosia and revives their spirits, and they agree to aid him in the war. Zeus then launches his final attack on the Titans, hurling bolts of lightning upon them while the Hundred-Handers attack with barrages of rocks, and the Titans are finally defeated, with Zeus banishing them to Tartarus and assigning the Hundred-Handers the task of acting as their warders. Apollodorus provides a similar account, saying that, when Zeus reaches adulthood, he enlists the help of the Oceanid
Metis, who gives Cronus an
emetic, forcing to him to disgorge the stone and Zeus's five siblings. Zeus then fights a similar ten-year war against the Titans, until, upon the prophesying of Gaia, he releases the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers from Tartarus, first slaying their warder,
Campe. The Cyclopes give him his thunderbolt, Poseidon his trident and Hades his helmet of invisibility, and the Titans are defeated and the Hundred-Handers made their guards.
Challenges to power (far right), detail of the Gigantomachy frieze from the
Pergamon Altar,
Pergamon Museum,
Berlin Upon assuming his place as king of the cosmos, Zeus's rule is quickly challenged. The first of these challenges to his power comes from the
Giants, who fight the Olympian gods in a battle known as the Gigantomachy. According to Hesiod, the Giants are the offspring of Gaia, born from the drops of blood that fell on the ground when Cronus castrated his father Uranus; there is, however, no mention of a battle between the gods and the Giants in the
Theogony. It is Apollodorus who provides the most complete account of the Gigantomachy. He says that Gaia, out of anger at how Zeus had imprisoned her children, the Titans, bore the Giants to Uranus. There comes to the gods a prophecy that the Giants cannot be defeated by the gods on their own, but can be defeated only with the help of a mortal; Gaia, upon hearing of this, seeks a special
pharmakon (herb) that will prevent the Giants from being killed. Zeus, however, orders
Eos (Dawn),
Selene (Moon) and
Helios (Sun) to stop shining, and harvests all of the herb himself, before having
Athena summon
Heracles. In the conflict,
Porphyrion, one of the most powerful of the Giants, launches an attack upon Heracles and Hera; Zeus, however, causes Porphyrion to become lustful for Hera, and when he is just about to violate her, Zeus strikes him with his thunderbolt, before Heracles deals the fatal blow with an arrow. In the
Theogony, after Zeus defeats the Titans and banishes them to Tartarus, his rule is challenged by the monster
Typhon, a giant serpentine creature who battles Zeus for control of the cosmos. According to Hesiod, Typhon is the offspring of Gaia and
Tartarus, described as having a hundred snaky fire-breathing heads. Hesiod says he "would have come to reign over mortals and immortals" had it not been for Zeus noticing the monster and dispatching with him quickly: the two of them meet in a cataclysmic battle, before Zeus defeats him easily with his thunderbolt, and the creature is hurled down to Tartarus.
Epimenides presents a different version, in which Typhon makes his way into Zeus's palace while he is sleeping, only for Zeus to wake and kill the monster with a thunderbolt.
Aeschylus and
Pindar give somewhat similar accounts to Hesiod, in that Zeus overcomes Typhon with relative ease, defeating him with his thunderbolt. Apollodorus, in contrast, provides a more complex narrative. Typhon is, similarly to in Hesiod, the child of Gaia and Tartarus, produced out of anger at Zeus's defeat of the Giants. The monster attacks heaven, and all of the gods, out of fear, transform into animals and flee to Egypt, except for Zeus, who attacks the monster with his thunderbolt and sickle. Typhon is wounded and retreats to Mount Kasios in Syria, where Zeus grapples with him, giving the monster a chance to wrap him in his coils, and rip out the sinews from his hands and feet. Disabled, Zeus is taken by Typhon to the
Corycian Cave in Cilicia, where he is guarded by the "she-dragon"
Delphyne.
Hermes and
Aegipan, however, steal back Zeus's sinews, and refit them, reviving him and allowing him to return to the battle, pursuing Typhon, who flees to Mount Nysa; there, Typhon is given "ephemeral fruits" by the
Moirai, which reduce his strength. The monster then flees to Thrace, where he hurls mountains at Zeus, which are sent back at him by the god's thunderbolts, before, while fleeing to
Sicily, Zeus launches
Mount Etna upon him, finally ending him.
Nonnus, who gives the longest and most detailed account, presents a narrative similar to Apollodorus, with differences such as that it is instead
Cadmus and
Pan who recovers Zeus's sinews, by luring Typhon with music and then tricking him. In the
Iliad, Homer tells of another attempted overthrow, in which Hera, Poseidon, and Athena conspire to overpower Zeus and tie him in bonds. It is only because of the Nereid
Thetis, who summons Briareus, one of the
Hecatoncheires, to Olympus, that the other Olympians abandon their plans (out of fear for Briareus).
Partners before Hera (1727) According to Hesiod, Zeus takes
Metis, one of the
Oceanid daughters of
Oceanus and
Tethys, as his first wife. However, when she is about to give birth to a daughter,
Athena, he swallows her whole upon the advice of Gaia and Uranus, as it had been foretold that after bearing a daughter, she would give birth to a son, who would overthrow him as king of gods and mortals; it is from this position that Metis gives counsel to Zeus. In time, Athena is born, emerging from Zeus's head, but the foretold son never comes forth. Apollodorus presents a similar version, stating that Metis took many forms in attempting to avoid Zeus's embraces, and that it was Gaia alone who warned Zeus of the son who would overthrow him. According to a fragment likely from the Hesiodic corpus, quoted by Chrysippus, it is out of anger at Hera for producing
Hephaestus on her own that Zeus has intercourse with Metis, and then swallows her, thereby giving rise to Athena from himself. A scholiast on the
Iliad, in contrast, states that when Zeus swallows her, Metis is pregnant with Athena not by Zeus himself, but by the Cyclops Brontes. The motif of Zeus swallowing Metis can be seen as a continuation of the succession myth: it is prophesied that a son of Zeus will overthrow him, just as he overthrew his father, but whereas Cronos met his end because he did not swallow the real Zeus, Zeus holds onto his power because he successfully swallows the threat, in the form of the potential mother, and so the "cycle of displacement" is brought to an end. In addition, the myth can be seen as an allegory for Zeus gaining the wisdom of Metis for himself by swallowing her. In Hesiod's account, Zeus's second wife is
Themis, one of the Titan daughters of Uranus and Gaia, with whom he has the
Horae, listed as
Eunomia,
Dike and
Eirene, and the three
Moirai:
Clotho,
Lachesis and
Atropos. A fragment from
Pindar calls Themis Zeus's first wife, and states that she is brought by the Moirai (in this version not her daughters) up to Olympus, where she becomes the bride of Zeus and bears him the Horae. According to Hesiod, Zeus lies next with the Oceanid
Eurynome, by whom he becomes the father of the three
Charites:
Aglaea,
Euphrosyne and
Thalia. Zeus then partners with his sister
Demeter, producing
Persephone. Zeus's next union is with the Titan
Mnemosyne; as described at the beginning of the
Theogony, Zeus lies with Mnemosyne in
Piera each night for nine nights, producing the nine Muses. His next partner is the Titan
Leto, by whom he fathers the twins
Apollo and
Artemis, who, according to the
Homeric Hymn to Apollo, are born on the island of
Delos. In Hesiod's account, only then does Zeus take his sister
Hera as his wife.
Marriage to Hera While Hera is Zeus's last wife in Hesiod's version, in other accounts she is his first and only wife. In the
Theogony, the couple has three children,
Ares,
Hebe, and
Eileithyia. While Hesiod states that Hera produces Hephaestus on her own after Athena is born from Zeus's head, other versions, including Homer, have Hephaestus as a child of Zeus and Hera as well. Various authors give descriptions of a youthful affair between Zeus and Hera. In the
Iliad, the pair are described as having first lay with each other before Cronus is sent to Tartarus, without the knowledge of their parents. A scholiast on the
Iliad states that, after Cronus is banished to Tartarus,
Oceanus and
Tethys give Hera to Zeus in marriage, and only shortly after the two are wed, Hera gives birth to
Hephaestus, having lay secretly with Zeus on the island of
Samos beforehand; to conceal this act, she claimed that she had produced Hephaestus on her own. According to another scholiast on the
Iliad,
Callimachus, in his
Aetia, says that Zeus lay with Hera for three hundred years on the island of Samos. According to a scholion on
Theocritus's
Idylls, Zeus, one day seeing Hera walking apart from the other gods, becomes intent on having intercourse with her, and transforms himself into a cuckoo bird, landing on Mount Thornax. He creates a terrible storm, and when Hera arrives at the mountain and sees the bird, which sits on her lap, she takes pity on it, laying her cloak over it. Zeus then transforms back and takes hold of her; when she refuses to have intercourse with him because of their mother, he promises that she will become his wife.
Pausanias similarly refers to Zeus transforming himself into a cuckoo to woo Hera, and identifies the location as Mount Thornax. According to a version from
Plutarch, as recorded by
Eusebius in his
Praeparatio evangelica, Hera is raised by a nymph named Macris on the island of
Euboea when Zeus kidnaps her, taking her to Mount
Cithaeron, where they find a shady hollow, which serves as a "natural bridal chamber". When Macris comes to look for Hera, Cithaeron, the
tutelary deity of the mountain, stops her, saying that Zeus is sleeping there with Leto.
Photius, in his
Bibliotheca, tells us that in
Ptolemy Hephaestion's
New History, Hera refuses to lay with Zeus, and hides in a cave to avoid him, before an earthborn man named Achilles convinces her to marry Zeus, leading to the pair first sleeping with each other. According to
Stephanus of Byzantium, Zeus and Hera first lay together at the city of
Hermione, having come there from Crete. Callimachus, in a fragment from his
Aetia, also apparently makes reference to the couple's union occurring at
Naxos. Though no complete account of Zeus and Hera's wedding exists, various authors make reference to it. According to a scholiast on
Apollonius of Rhodes's
Argonautica,
Pherecydes states that when Zeus and Hera are being married,
Gaia brings a tree which produces golden apples as a wedding gift.
Eratosthenes and Hyginus attribute a similar story to Pherecydes, in which Hera is amazed by the gift, and asks for the apples to be planted in the "garden of the gods", nearby to
Mount Atlas.
Apollodorus specifies them as the golden apples of the
Hesperides, and says that Gaia gives them to Zeus after the marriage. According to
Diodorus Siculus, the location of the marriage is in the land of the
Knossians, nearby to the river Theren, while
Lactantius attributes to
Varro the statement that the couple are married on the island of Samos. There exist several stories in which Zeus, receiving advice, is able to reconcile with an angered Hera. According to Pausanias, Hera, angry with her husband, retreats to the island of Euboea, where she was raised, and Zeus, unable to resolve the situation, seeks the advice of Cithaeron, ruler of
Plataea, supposedly the most intelligent man on earth. Cithaeron instructs him to fashion a wooden statue and dress it as a bride, and then pretend that he is marrying one "Plataea", a daughter of
Asopus. When Hera hears of this, she immediately rushes there, only to discover the ruse upon ripping away the bridal clothing; she is so relieved that the couple are reconciled. According to a version from Plutarch, as recorded by Eusebius in his
Praeparatio evangelica, when Hera is angry with her husband, she retreats instead to Cithaeron, and Zeus goes to the earth-born man Alalcomeneus, who suggests he pretend to marry someone else. With the help of Alalcomeneus, Zeus creates a wooden statue from an oak tree, dresses it as a bride, and names it Daidale. When preparations are being made for the wedding, Hera rushes down from Cithaeron, followed by the women of
Plataia, and upon discovering the trick, the couple are reconciled, with the matter ending in joy and laughter among all involved.
Affairs '' (
Late Archaic terracotta, 480–470 BC) After his marriage to Hera, different authors describe Zeus's numerous affairs with various mortal women. In many of these affairs, Zeus transforms himself into an animal, someone else, or some other form. According to a scholion on the
Iliad (citing Hesiod and
Bacchylides), when
Europa is picking flowers with her female companions in a meadow in Phoenicia, Zeus transforms himself into a bull, lures her from the others, and then carries her across the sea to the island of Crete, where he resumes his usual form to sleep with her. In
Euripides's
Helen, Zeus takes the form of a swan, and after being chased by an eagle, finds shelter in the lap of
Leda, subsequently seducing her, while in Euripides's lost play
Antiope, Zeus apparently took the form of a
satyr to sleep with
Antiope. Various authors speak of Zeus raping
Callisto, one of the companions of
Artemis, doing so in the form of Artemis herself according to Ovid (or, as mentioned by Apollodorus, in the form of
Apollo), and Pherecydes relates that Zeus sleeps with
Alcmene, the wife of
Amphitryon, in the form of her own husband. Several accounts state that Zeus approached the
Argive princess
Danae in the form of a shower of gold, and according to Ovid he abducts
Aegina in the form of a flame. In accounts of Zeus's affairs, Hera is often depicted as a jealous wife, with there being various stories of her persecuting either the women with whom Zeus sleeps, or their children by him. Several authors relate that Zeus sleeps with
Io, a priestess of Hera, who is subsequently turned into a cow, and suffers at Hera's hands: according to Apollodorus, Hera sends a gadfly to sting the cow, driving her all the way to Egypt, where she is finally transformed back into human form. In later accounts of Zeus's affair with
Semele, a daughter of
Cadmus and
Harmonia, Hera tricks her into persuading Zeus to grant her any promise. Semele asks him to come to her as he comes to his own wife Hera, and when Zeus upholds this promise, she dies out of fright and is reduced to ashes. According to Callimachus, after Zeus sleeps with Callisto, Hera turns her into a bear, and instructs Artemis to shoot her. In addition, Zeus's son by Alcmene, the hero
Heracles, is persecuted continuously throughout his mortal life by Hera, up until his
apotheosis. According to
Diodorus Siculus, Alcmene, the mother of Heracles, was the very last mortal woman Zeus ever slept with; following the birth of Heracles, he ceased to beget humans altogether, and fathered no more children.
List of disguises used by Zeus Offspring The following is a list of Zeus's offspring, by various mothers. Beside each offspring, the earliest source to record the parentage is given, along with the century to which the source dates.
Prometheus and conflicts with humans When the gods met at Mecone to discuss which portions they will receive after a sacrifice, the titan
Prometheus decided to trick Zeus so that
humans receive the better portions. He sacrificed a large
ox, and divided it into two piles. In one pile he put all the meat and most of the fat, covering it with the ox's grotesque stomach, while in the other pile, he dressed up the bones with fat. Prometheus then invited Zeus to choose; Zeus chose the pile of bones. This set a precedent for sacrifices, where humans will keep the fat for themselves and burn the bones for the gods. Zeus, enraged at Prometheus's deception, prohibited the use of fire by humans. Prometheus, however, stole fire from Olympus in a fennel stalk and gave it to humans. This further enraged Zeus, who punished Prometheus by binding him to a cliff, where an eagle constantly ate Prometheus's liver, which regenerated every night. Prometheus was eventually freed from his misery by
Heracles. Now Zeus, angry at humans, decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands
Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the human race. After Hephaestus does so, several other gods contribute to her creation.
Hermes names the woman '
Pandora'. Pandora was given in marriage to Prometheus's brother
Epimetheus. Zeus gave her a
jar which contained many evils. Pandora opened the jar and released all the evils, which made mankind miserable. Only hope remained inside the jar. When Zeus was atop Mount Olympus he was appalled by
human sacrifice and other signs of human decadence. He decided to wipe out mankind and flooded the world with the help of his brother
Poseidon. After the flood, only
Deucalion and
Pyrrha remained. This
flood narrative is a common motif in mythology.
In the Iliad , 1773 (City Art Galleries, Sheffield.) The
Iliad is an
ancient Greek epic poem attributed to
Homer about the
Trojan War and the battle over the City of
Troy, in which Zeus plays a major part. Scenes in which Zeus appears include: • Book 2: Zeus sends
Agamemnon a dream and is able to partially control his decisions because of the effects of the dream • Book 4: Zeus promises
Hera to ultimately destroy the City of Troy at the end of the war • Book 7: Zeus and
Poseidon ruin the
Achaeans fortress • Book 8: Zeus prohibits the other Gods from fighting each other and has to return to
Mount Ida where he can think over his decision that the Greeks will lose the war • Book 14: Zeus is seduced by
Hera and becomes distracted while she helps out the Greeks • Book 15: Zeus wakes up and realizes that his own brother,
Poseidon has been aiding the Greeks, while also sending
Hector and
Apollo to help fight the Trojans ensuring that the City of Troy will fall • Book 16: Zeus is upset that he could not help save
Sarpedon's life because it would then contradict his previous decisions • Book 17: Zeus is emotionally hurt by the fate of
Hector • Book 20: Zeus lets the other Gods lend aid to their respective sides in the war • Book 24: Zeus demands that
Achilles release the corpse of
Hector to be buried honourably
Other myths When
Hades requested to marry Zeus's daughter,
Persephone, Zeus approved and advised Hades to abduct Persephone, as her mother
Demeter would not allow her to marry Hades. In the
Orphic "Rhapsodic Theogony" (first century BC/AD), Zeus wanted to marry his mother
Rhea. After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into a snake and raped her. Rhea became pregnant and gave birth to
Persephone. Zeus in the form of a snake would mate with his daughter Persephone, which resulted in the birth of
Dionysus. Zeus granted
Callirrhoe's prayer that her sons by
Alcmaeon,
Acarnan and
Amphoterus, grow quickly so that they might be able to avenge the death of their father by the hands of
Phegeus and his two sons. Both Zeus and
Poseidon wooed
Thetis, daughter of
Nereus. But when
Themis (or Prometheus) prophesied that the son born of Thetis would be mightier than his father, Thetis was married off to the mortal
Peleus. Zeus was afraid that his grandson
Asclepius would teach resurrection to humans, so he killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt. This angered Asclepius's father,
Apollo, who in turn killed the
Cyclopes who had fashioned the thunderbolts of Zeus. Angered at this, Zeus would have imprisoned Apollo in Tartarus. However, at the request of Apollo's mother,
Leto, Zeus instead ordered Apollo to serve as a slave to King
Admetus of Pherae for a year. According to
Diodorus Siculus, Zeus killed Asclepius because of complains from Hades, who was worried that the number of people in the underworld was diminishing because of Asclepius's resurrections. The winged horse
Pegasus carried the thunderbolts of Zeus. Zeus took pity on
Ixion, a man who was guilty of murdering his father-in-law, by purifying him and bringing him to Olympus. However, Ixion started to lust after Hera. Hera complained about this to her husband, and Zeus decided to test Ixion. Zeus fashioned a cloud that resembles Hera (
Nephele) and laid the cloud-Hera in Ixion's bed. Ixion coupled with Nephele, resulting in the birth of
Centaurus. Zeus punished Ixion for lusting after Hera by tying him to a wheel that spins forever. Once,
Helios the
sun god gave his chariot to his inexperienced son
Phaethon to drive. Phaethon could not control his father's steeds so he ended up taking the chariot too high, freezing the earth, or too low, burning everything to the ground. The earth itself prayed to Zeus, and in order to prevent further disaster, Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at Phaethon, killing him and saving the world from further harm. In a satirical work,
Dialogues of the Gods by
Lucian, Zeus berates Helios for allowing such thing to happen; he returns the damaged chariot to him and warns him that if he dares do that again, he will strike him with one of this thunderbolts. ==Roles and epithets==