Zeus

Zeus entered Arcadia in the form of a mortal to see whether reports of human wickedness were true. He reached the palace of Lycaon as twilight darkened the earth. He gave a sign that a god had arrived. The people prayed, but Lycaon mocked their worship. He decided to test the stranger and planned to kill him secretly during the night.

Lycaon then placed human flesh before his guest. Zeus recognised the deed and revealed himself. He overturned the table and punished the king by changing him into a wolf. Lycaon’s house was destroyed, either by a thunderbolt or by a flood. His punishment followed his contempt for the gods and his treatment of the divine visitor.

One account gives a different explanation for the feast. Lycaon had warned his subjects that Zeus often came to inspect their conduct. When he announced that the god would visit, some of his sons carried out the deed to discover whether the visitor was truly Zeus, since a god would recognise what they had done. In another version, Lycaon himself, angered by Zeus’s seduction of his daughter Callisto, served his grandson Areas to Zeus. Zeus overturned the table and changed Lycaon into a wolf in response.

Tantalus cut up his only son, Pelops, boiled the pieces in a great cauldron, and served them at a banquet in his palace. The gods had accepted his hospitality and had allowed him to eat at their table, tasting nectar and ambrosia that were otherwise reserved for the immortals. The reason for his act is uncertain. He may have hated the gods and wished to make them eat human flesh, or he may have wished to test their powers and expose how easily they could be deceived.

The gods recognised the food at once. They rose in anger, seized Tantalus, and bound him so that he could not escape. They judged death too mild a punishment. They cast him into the dark depths of the Underworld, where he was condemned to perpetual hunger and thirst.

Tantalus stood in a lake with the water reaching his chin. Whenever he bent down to drink, the water withdrew and vanished. Fruit hung from branches above him, including pears, pomegranates, apples, figs, and olives. Whenever he reached for it, the wind blew the branches out of his grasp. He remained surrounded by food and water, yet could consume neither. In another account, a boulder hung above him and threatened constantly to fall.

The gods restored Pelops to life. They reassembled his body, but one shoulder was missing because a goddess had eaten part of the dish. Some accounts name Demeter, while others name Thetis. Hephaestus made Pelops an ivory shoulder to replace it. Tantalus’s punishment became associated with the condition of wanting something that continually moves beyond reach.

Asclepius used an herb to restore Glaucus, son of Minos, to life. He had been considering how to revive the dead youth when a snake wound around his staff. Asclepius killed it. Another snake appeared with an herb in its mouth. It placed the herb on its dead mate, and both snakes fled. Asclepius used the same herb on Glaucus, who returned to life. In another telling, Athena gave Asclepius Gorgon's blood, which he used to raise the dead. Lycurgus, Capaneus, Tyndareus, Hippolytus, and Orion were named among those he raised. The occasion of Hades' complaint differed between the resurrection of Tyndareus, Glaucus, Hippolytus, or Orion.

Asclepius became so skilled in healing that he restored the dead and relieved the sick. Hades complained to Zeus that the physician was taking subjects from the underworld and threatening the boundary between mortal humans and immortal gods. Asclepius was accused of accepting a large payment, or of being bribed with gold, to raise a dead man. Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt and killed him. In one telling, the dead man also died from the thunderbolt. Another telling treated the raising of a single man as the offence, while later tellings enlarged the number of the dead restored.

Apollo mourned Asclepius, who was his son, and attacked the Cyclopes who made Zeus's thunderbolts. He went to their crater and killed them with his arrows. In one telling, Zeus punished Apollo by making him serve the mortal Admetus for a year. In another, Apollo pleaded his son's case before Zeus. Zeus restored Asclepius to life. Asclepius healed the Cyclopes, who returned to their anvils, although some came to hate the gods.

Zeus later placed Asclepius among the stars at Apollo's request. Another telling said that Zeus set his image there, holding a curative serpent. Asclepius had been given to the Centaur Chiron to rear and teach in the arts of healing. Euippe, Chiron's daughter, foretold that Asclepius would become a god, die, and regain godhead. His death and restoration fulfilled her prophecy.

Zeus took the form of Artemis and approached Callisto, a companion of the goddess in the Arcadian hunt. Callisto had sworn to remain a virgin, but Zeus desired her and had intercourse with her despite her unwillingness. In another account, he took the form of Apollo. Callisto became pregnant and tried to conceal what had happened.

One day, Artemis and her companions came to a shaded stream after hunting. When Artemis invited them to bathe, Callisto held back. The others stripped her, and her pregnancy was exposed. Artemis saw that Callisto was with child and discovered that she had broken her vow of virginity. Some accounts say that Hera transformed Callisto into a bear. Others say that Artemis changed her in anger when she saw her pregnant while bathing.

In the account where Hera arranged Callisto’s death, she persuaded Artemis to shoot the bear, without telling her that it was Callisto. Artemis hunted her as a wild animal. Callisto was killed, and Zeus took her newborn son from her and gave him to Maia to raise in Arcadia. He named the child Arcas. Zeus then placed Callisto among the stars as a constellation called the Bear.

Another account gives Arcas a different fate. When he had grown up, he was about to shoot a bear, not knowing that it was his mother. Zeus stopped him and changed him into a bear as well. He then placed both mother and son in the heavens, where they remained together. Callisto is also said to have been the daughter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, though other sources call her a nymph or give her a different father.

The Giants attacked the Olympian gods with enormous boulders and torches. Gaia had united with them against the gods led by Zeus, seeking revenge for the banishment of her children. The Giants were earth-born, for their tradition held that they arose from the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him. The battle was called the Gigantomachy, and it was placed by some sources on the plain of Phlegra, possibly the Phlegraean Fields in Thessaly.

An oracle declared that the Olympians could win only with the help of a mortal human. Heracles therefore joined Zeus and the other gods. Pindar foretold that Heracles would kill the Giants beneath his rushing arrows, and called him the slayer of the Giants. Euripides also describes Heracles shooting them with arrows.

The gods fought the Giants across the battlefield. Pindar names Porphyrion as their king and says that Apollo’s bow overcame him. A scene described in Euripides’ Ion shows Athena fighting Enceladus with her gorgon shield. Zeus burns Mimas with a thunderbolt blazing at both ends, while Dionysus kills an unnamed Giant with his ivy staff. Other traditions describe the Giants as piling mountain upon mountain towards the stars, until Zeus overturned Ossa and Pelion with his thunderbolts. The Olympians, aided by Heracles and the other allies, defeated the Giants.

A different story from Phanagoreia tells how Giants attacked Aphrodite Apatouros. She called Heracles for help and hid him in a cave. She then admitted the Giants one by one and handed them over to Heracles, who killed them by this deception. Ovid says that Gaia later gave life to a new race from the blood-soaked battlefield, while also describing the Giants as serpent-footed beings striving to seize Heaven. In this account, the Giants are partly confused with the Hundred-Handers.

Prometheus prepared two portions of an animal for a joint meal between gods and humans. He wrapped the choice meat in an ugly stomach and covered the bones with bright fat. Zeus chose the portion that looked larger and more appealing, though he knew that Prometheus had deceived him. From then on, humans burned fat and bones for the gods and kept the meat for themselves. Zeus was angered that humans had gained the better share, so he withheld fire from them.

Prometheus then stole fire for mortals. In one account, he entered Olympus with Athene’s help, lit a torch from the Sun’s fiery chariot, and hid a glowing coal in the hollow pith of a fennel stalk. He carried it back to humans and restored the fire that Zeus had denied them. Fire allowed them to survive, cook their food, and make weapons.

Zeus discovered the theft and sought revenge. He ordered Hephaestus to make Pandora, a woman who was sent to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother. Epimetheus had been warned not to accept gifts from Zeus, but Pandora came with blessings of many kinds and every kind of evil. In another account, Zeus sent her with Hermes after the goddesses of Olympus had adorned her and the Winds had given her life.

Zeus then ordered Hephaestus to chain Prometheus to a rocky height on the Caucasus. A shaft was driven through his body, or a pillar was fixed through his middle, to hold him fast. Each day an eagle came and ate his liver. The organ grew back during the night, so the torture began again each morning. One account says that the punishment will eventually end, when Prometheus’s chains fall away and the age of Zeus comes to its end.

Zeus approached Antiope, daughter of Nycteus, in the form of a satyr, and fathered twin sons with her. When Antiope became pregnant, she feared her father’s anger and fled to Sicyon. King Epopeus received her and made her his wife without Nycteus’s consent. Nycteus was overcome with despair. In one account, he killed himself and ordered his brother Lycus to punish Epopeus and Antiope. In another, he was killed in the war that followed when Epopeus sheltered Antiope.

Lycus marched against Sicyon, killed Epopeus, and captured Antiope. He brought her back towards Thebes. On the journey, or in a wayside thicket, she gave birth to Amphion and Zethus. The infants were exposed, either on Mount Cithaeron or near Eleutherai in Boeotia. A herdsman or passing cattleman found them and raised them. Zethus devoted himself to cattle rearing. Amphion learnt to sing to the lyre, which Hermes had given him.

Lycus and his wife Dirce kept Antiope imprisoned and treated her cruelly for many years. One day, her bonds came undone without her jailers’ knowledge, and she escaped. She reached the farmhouse or hut where her sons lived and sought refuge there. In one account, Amphion and Zethus recognised her at once. In another, they mistook her for a runaway slave and refused to shelter her. Dirce then seized Antiope while in a Bacchic frenzy and dragged her away.

When the brothers learnt that Antiope was their mother, they gathered their friends and went to avenge her. They killed Lycus. They tied Dirce by her hair to a bull, which dragged her to her death. Amphion and Zethus threw her body into a spring, which thereafter bore her name.

Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades shook lots in a helmet after deposing their father, Cronus. They divided lordship over the sky, the sea, and the murky Underworld. Zeus drew the sky, Hades received the Underworld, and Poseidon took the sea. The earth remained common to all three brothers.

Zeus became the supreme ruler. He was lord of the sky, the rain god, and the cloud gatherer, and he wielded the thunderbolt. His power was greater than that of the other divinities together. He claimed that no god or goddess could pull him down from Olympus, while he could draw them down with the earth and sea. Yet his authority had limits. He could be opposed or deceived, and Fate was sometimes described as stronger than he was.

Poseidon was equal to Zeus in dignity, though not in power. He was given the sea and, in one account, all the rivers. He then set about building an underwater palace off Aegae in Euboea. Hades received the lower world, also called Tartarus, where sunlight did not reach. Another account says that Zeus retained the general supervision of his brothers’ territories and direct control of Heaven and Earth. In the account of the division given through Poseidon, the earth and Mount Olympus were held in common by all three.

Prometheus prepared a joint meal and asked Zeus to choose his portion. He wrapped animal bones in glistening fat, making them appear larger than the portion of meat. Zeus chose the bones and discovered that Prometheus had outwitted him. Angry that humans had received the better share, he withheld fire from them. Without fire, they would have had to eat raw meat, although some accounts say Prometheus had already made them from clay and water in the image of the gods.

Prometheus then stole fire for humanity. He gained access to Olympus through Athene and lit a torch from the Sun’s fiery chariot. He hid a burning coal in the hollow pith of a giant fennel stalk, extinguished the torch, and carried the fire away. Humans used it to cook food, extract metals from rocks, and light their homes. Zeus swore revenge for the theft.

He ordered Hephaestus to make a woman, the first of her gender. She was Pandora. Zeus sent her to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother, under Hermes’s escort. Prometheus had warned Epimetheus to accept no gift from Zeus, but Epimetheus received Pandora in one account. Another account says that he first excused himself politely because of his brother’s warning. Pandora possessed every possible gift and was made as a beautiful evil, bringing blessings of all kinds as well as every kind of evil.

At Epimetheus’s home stood a sealed jar. Pandora had been told never to open it, but she opened it. All the suffering and evils kept inside escaped into the world. Zeus’s punishment therefore reached humanity as well as Prometheus, whose theft of fire had brought lasting benefits to human life. Zeus had answered that theft by sending Pandora with the jar.

Zeus approached Leda in the form of a swan. Leda was the wife of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and the daughter of Thestius, king of Aetolia. In the usual account, Zeus coupled with her beside the place where she had also lain with her husband. Four children were born from these unions. Their parentage was assigned differently in different traditions. Helen and Polydeuces are among those associated with Zeus, while Castor is also named as a child of Leda by the swan. The children were therefore attributed variously to Zeus and Tyndareus.

Another tradition places Helen's conception elsewhere. Zeus took the form of a swan and approached Nemesis, who had become a goose. In one version, he pretended to be pursued by an eagle and took refuge against her. Nemesis later laid an egg. Hermes threw it between Leda's thighs as she sat on a stool, and Leda gave birth to Helen. In another account, Nemesis came to Sparta, where Leda found a hyacinth-coloured egg in a marsh. Leda carried it home and hid it in a chest, and Helen emerged from it.

Some tellers say that the egg fell from the moon. Others compare it with an egg that entered the Euphrates, was brought ashore by fishes, and was hatched by doves. In the account where Zeus used the eagle as part of his disguise, he placed the images of the Swan and the Eagle among the stars to preserve the memory of the ruse. The more usual version keeps Leda herself as the woman Zeus visited in the form of a swan. Her sons Castor and Polydeuces were later known for their close attachment, and for their skill in chariot driving and boxing.

Zeus lay with Mnemosyne for nine nights. Mnemosyne then bore nine daughters, the Muses. They were Calliope, Cleio, Melpomene, Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Ourania, Thaleia, and Polymnia. They became the children of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and they carried the powers of song and memory.

In one telling, Zeus created the Muses after the Olympian gods defeated the Titans. The victorious gods had asked for divinities who could preserve the deeds of the Olympians in song. The Muses first governed music, song, and dance. As human arts and learning developed, they took on separate fields within poetry, the arts, and the sciences.

Their names also appeared in other forms. Cleio was called Clio, Ourania was called Urania, and Polymnia was called Polyhymnia. Their fields included epic poetry, history, tragedy, flute playing, singing, dance, astronomy, comedy, and mime. Different tellings assigned these fields to them in different ways.

The Muses lived among the gods. Apollo led them in Olympus, and they joined divine banquets and festivities. Their songs preserved the deeds of the Olympian gods, while their powers carried song, memory, and artistic knowledge among gods and mortals.

Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus in Crete and saved him from Cronus, who had swallowed their other children because he feared a prophecy that one of his sons would overthrow him. She gave Cronus a stone wrapped in blankets, which he swallowed, believing it was the infant. Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida. There, a goat named Amalthea fed him honey and milk, while the armed Kouretes shouted and clapped to conceal his cries. Another account says that the nymph Adamanthea raised him. She suspended him by a rope from a tree, between earth, sea, and sky, which were ruled by Cronus.

When Zeus had grown, he rose against Cronus and the older gods. Zeus led the Olympians in the Titanomachy, a ten-year war against the Titans. The Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, also called the Hundred-Handers, joined his side. The Titans used Mount Othrys in southern Greece as their fortress. The fighting took place in Thessaly, and its force shook heaven, earth, and sea. Zeus prevailed over Cronus and the Titans, securing supremacy over the heavens and the earth.

After their defeat, the Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus. The Hecatoncheires guarded them. The victorious gods were associated with Mount Olympus. Some accounts say that Zeus used Olympus as his base during the war. Others say that it became the home of the gods only after the victory. Later sources also state that not every Titan took part in the war, so the defeat did not necessarily include the whole Titan family. Ancient accounts sometimes confused the Titanomachy with the Gigantomachy, the battle between the gods and the Giants.

An eagle descended on the Trojan plain and carried away Ganymede, the son of King Tros, who had given his name to Troy. Ganymede was said to be the most beautiful youth alive. Zeus had chosen him to become his cupbearer, and also desired him as his bedfellow. Zeus therefore disguised himself in eagle feathers, seized the youth, and took him to Olympus.

Ganymede was made immortal and freed from old age. He stood before the gods with a golden bowl in his hand and served bright nectar to Zeus, the Father of Heaven. Hermes then went to Tros on Zeus’s behalf. He brought a golden vine made by Hephaestus and two fine horses as compensation for the loss of Ganymede. Hermes also assured Tros that his son was safe among the gods and no longer subject to the miseries of age.

Hera grieved over the insult to herself and to her daughter Hebe, who had previously served as cupbearer to the gods. Her anger did not restore Hebe’s office. Instead, it vexed Zeus. He placed Ganymede’s image among the stars, where he became Aquarius, the water-carrier. Some accounts connect the eagle with the divine authority given to a newly enthroned king, and describe Ganymede as a youthful royal substitute carried up to Olympus. This interpretation explains the eagle’s action through a ritual image, rather than treating it only as a kidnapping.

After Cronus had been banished, Zeus sought out Hera, his twin sister, who was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She had been born on Samos or, some said, at Argos. Temenus, son of Pelasgus, brought her up in Arcadia, where the Seasons nursed her. Zeus found her at Cnossus in Crete, or on Mount Thornax in Argolis, and courted her, at first without success.

Zeus then disguised himself as a bedraggled, shivering cuckoo. He fluttered towards Hera, and she took pity on the bird. She drew it to her bosom and warmed it tenderly. Zeus immediately resumed his true form and forced himself upon her. Hera was shamed by what had happened, and married him. Their union made her queen of Olympus.

All the gods brought gifts to the wedding. Mother Earth gave Hera a tree with golden apples. The Hesperides later guarded this tree in Hera’s orchard on Mount Atlas. Zeus and Hera spent their wedding night on Samos, and the night lasted three hundred years.

Hera’s marriage to Zeus was also remembered through the cuckoo. A gold and ivory image of Hera in the Argive Heraion carried a sceptre topped by one. Some accounts connect the marriage with the overthrow of Hera’s former supremacy in Crete and Mycenaean Greece. At Stymphalos, Hera was worshipped in three forms: as the Girl, the Fulfilled, and the Separated.

While Zeus lay asleep on his couch, Hera, Poseidon, Apollo, and the other Olympians surrounded him. Hestia alone did not join them. They bound Zeus with rawhide thongs tied into a hundred knots, leaving him unable to move. When he threatened them with death, they laughed at him because his thunderbolt was out of reach.

The rebels celebrated their victory and argued over who should succeed Zeus. Thetis, the Nereid, foresaw that the revolt could lead to civil war on Olympus. She hurried to find Briareus, the hundred-handed being. Briareus came swiftly and used all his hands at once to untie the thongs. Zeus was released, and his authority was restored.

Because Hera had led the conspiracy, Zeus punished her by hanging her from the sky. He fastened a golden bracelet around each wrist and an anvil to each ankle. The other gods were distressed by her cries, but they were too afraid to attempt a rescue. Zeus agreed to free Hera only if the gods swore that they would never again rebel against him. After they made the oath, Hera was released from her bonds.