Greek Name
Transliteration
Latin Spelling
Roman Name
Ζευς
Zeus
Zeus
Jupiter, Jove
Zeus with eagle & lightning, Athenian red-figure amphora C5th B.C., Musée du Louvre, Paris
ZEUS was the king of the gods, the god of sky and weather, law, order and fate. He was depicted as a regal man, mature with sturdy figure and dark beard. His usual attributes were a lightning bolt, royal sceptre and eagle.
Some of the more famous myths featuring the god include:--
His birth and upbringing in the Diktaion cave, where he was nursed by Amaltheia and guarded by the shield-clashing Kouretes;
The Titan War in which he overthrew the Titanes and imprisoned them in Tartaros;
His battle with Typhoeus, a hundred headed, monstrous giant who attempted to capture heaven;
The War of the Giants who attempted to storm Olympos but were slain by Zeus and the gods;
The Great Deluge in which he flooded the earth to destroy mankind and begin the world anew;
His conflict with Prometheus over the theft of benefactions for mankind;
The punishment of Salmoneus, Tantalos and Ixion, men who offended the god with their impiety;
The birth and life of Herakles, his favoured son, who he had transferred to Olympos at death;
His extramarital affairs with women such as Leda, seduced in the form of a swan; Europa, as a bull; Danae, as a golden shower; Kallisto, as Artemis; and Antiope as a satyr;
The Trojan War which he orchestrated from start to end, including the casting of the golden apple of discord.
N.B. The Zeus pages are still under construction.
INDEX OF ZEUS PAGES
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
Encyclopedia Entry
Hymns to Zeus
Images of Zeus
PART 2: GOD OF
King of the Gods
Sky & Weather
Fate
Law& Order
Star Jupiter
Identified with
Foreign Gods
PART 3: ZEUS MYTHS 1
Birth & Childhood
War of the Titanes
War of the Giants
PART 3: ZEUS MYTHS 2
Battle with Typhoeus
PART 4: ZEUS WRATH
Ixion
Prometheus
Sisyphos
Tantalos
PART 5: ZEUS FAVOUR
PART 6: ZEUS FAMILY
Genealogy
Divine Offspring
Mortal Offspring Family by Kingdom
PART 7: ZEUS LOVES 1
Aphrodite
Asteria
Demeter
Eurynome
Leto
Maia
Metis
Mnemosyne
Persephone
Themis
PART 7: ZEUS LOVES 3
Antiope
Danae
Kallisto
Others
PART 8: ESTATE & ATTRIBUTES
Chariot
Palace
Lightning Bolt
Sacred Animals
Sacred Plants
PART 9: ATTENDANTS
PART 10: CULT & STATUES 1
General Cult
Attika, S. Greece
Megaris, S. Greece
Aigina, S. Greece
Korinthia, S. Greece
Sikyonia, S. Greece
Argolis, S. Greece
PART 10: CULT & STATUES 2
Lakonia, S. Greece
Messenia, S. Greece
Elis, S. Greece
Akhaia, S. Greece
Arkadia, S. Greece
PART 10: CULT & STATUES 3
Boiotia, C. Greece
Euboia, C. Greece
Phokis, C. Greece
Kephallenia, Greece
Dodona , N. Greece
Makedonia, N. Greece
Keos, Gr. Aegean
Samos, Gr. Aegean
Rhodes, Gr. Aegean
Krete, Gr. Aegean
Lydia, Anatolia
Karia, Anatolia
Kappadokia, Anatolia
Kilikia, Anatolia
Phrygia, Anatolia
Kypros, E. Meditter.
Libya, N. Africa
Latium, C. Italy
PART 11: TITLES & EPITHETS
Poetic Titles Epithets
Cult TItles
SUMMARY OF ZEUS
PARENTS
KRONOS & RHEA (Homer Iliad 15.187, Hesiod Theogony 453, Apollodorus 1.4, Diodorus Siculus 5.68.1, et al)
OFFSPRING
See Family of Zeus
ENCYCLOPEDIA
ZEUS (Zeus), the greatest of the Olympian gods, and the father of gods and men, was a son of Cronos and Rhea, a brother of Poseidon, Hades (Pluto), Hestia, Demeter, Hera, and at the same time married to his sister Hera. When Zeus and his brothers distributed among themselves the government of the world by lot, Poseidon obtained the sea, Hades the lower world, and Zeus the heavens and the upper regions, but the earth became common to all (Hom. Il. xv. 187, &c., i. 528, ii. 111; Virg. Aen. iv. 372).
Later mythologers enumerate three Zeus in their genealogies two Arcadian ones and one Cretan; and tne first is said to be a son of Aether, the second of Coelus, and the third of Saturnus (Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 21). This
