Zeus

Also known as: Father / Olympian Zeus / Son of Cronos / Zeus the Father / cloud-gathering Zeus / father Zeus / the Father / the Father of men and gods / the Son of Cronos / the son of Cronos · Family: Olympians · Role: god · First appears: Hesiod’s Works and Days · Part 1

In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Zeus is identified as the son of Cronos. He hid the means of life from men after Prometheus deceived him, then ordered that a woman be made as the price for fire. He put away the silver race for failing to honour the gods, made the fourth and fifth generations of men, released Cronos from his bonds, and ordained punishment for those who practised violence. Justice, his daughter, sits beside him and tells him of men’s wickedness.

In later accounts, Zeus transformed the sisters of Hyas into the stars called the Hyades and seduced Callisto, who became pregnant; he was also named as the father of Arcas. He fathered Graecus with Pandora, and Magnes and Macedon with Thyia. At Crete, he carried Europa across the sea; she bore him Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys, and Zeus ordained that Sarpedon would live for three generations of mortal men. He turned the ants on an island into men and women. When Thetis avoided marriage with him to please Hera, Zeus swore she should mate with a mortal.

Zeus fathered Heracles with Alcmena and transported Endymion into heaven, but cast him out after he fell in love with Hera. When Hera blinded Teiresias, Zeus gave him the power of prophecy. He seduced Io while she served as Hera’s priestess, changed her into a white cow when discovered, and named the island Euboea after her. He secretly fathered Dionysus and ordained that mortals sacrifice hecatombs at feasts every three years. He gave Persephone to Hades, who seized and carried her away; later, Zeus agreed that she would spend part of each year in darkness and the rest with her mother and the gods, and summoned Demeter to join the gods.