- Looks after
- King of the gods; sky, thunder and justice
- Roman name
- Jupiter
- Often shown with
- The thunderbolt, the eagle, the oak, the aegis.
Zeus
Ζεύς
Zeus is the king of the gods, ruler of the sky, who won power by defeating Cronus and the Titans.
Zeus is the youngest child of Cronus and Rhea, saved from being swallowed by his father and raised in secret on Crete. When he grew up he forced Cronus to free his swallowed siblings, and led them in the ten-year war against the Titans. With the thunderbolt forged by the Cyclopes he won, and then the gods drew lots: Zeus took the sky, Poseidon the sea and Hades the underworld. The earth and Olympus were left shared.
As king he is the guardian of oaths, hospitality and justice, and the god of weather, who sends rain and hurls lightning. Greeks swore by him, and visitors and suppliants were under his protection as Zeus Xenios and Zeus Hikesios. He also has to defend his rule: he fought off the monster Typhon, and the Giants in the Gigantomachy.
His marriages, in Hesiod's order, were Metis, Themis, Eurynome, Demeter, Mnemosyne, Leto and finally Hera. His children include Athena, the Horai and Moirai, the Graces, Persephone, the Muses, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Dionysus and, with Hera, Ares, Hephaestus and Hebe. Many local heroes, such as Heracles and Perseus, are also his sons.
His great sanctuaries were Olympia, where the Olympic Games were held in his honour every four years and where Pheidias made a gold and ivory statue counted among the Seven Wonders, and Dodona, the oldest oracle.
In later art and language
The Roman form, Jupiter, named the largest planet. His name comes from the same Indo-European root as the Latin deus, and Jupiter (Iuppiter) is the old Latin for Zeus pater, Father Zeus.
Ancient sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 453-506, 617-735, 886-929
- Homer, Iliad
- Pausanias 5.10-11