Zeus

Also known as: king of gods and men / king of the gods · Family: Olympian gods · Role: god · First appears: Apollodorus, Library 1.1

🌐 Also appears in: The Iliad (as Jove) · The Odyssey (as Jove) · The Aeneid (as Jupiter) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Jupiter) · Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (as Jupiter) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Zeus) · The Divine Comedy (as Jove) · Paradise Lost (as Jove)

Zeus, also known as the king of gods and men and the king of the gods, was born to Rhea in Crete while Cronus swallowed his other children to prevent them from taking his kingship. Rhea concealed him in a cave, where Adrastia and Ida nursed him with Amalthea’s milk while the Curetes guarded him and Cronus received a swaddled stone instead. When Zeus was grown, he fought Cronus and the Titans, slew Campe, struck Menoetius with a thunderbolt, freed the prisoners of Tartarus, and honored Styx because “she and her children had fought on his side against the Titans.”

After defeating his enemies, Zeus began ruling the gods and divided their dignities among them; “he distributed fairly to the immortals their portions and declared their privileges.” He defeated Typhon and Typhoeus, casting the latter into Tartarus, and kept Gyes, Cottus, and Briareos as warders. He also punished Prometheus for stealing fire by binding him to Mount Caucasus, assigned Atlas to uphold the heavens, appointed Hermes as his herald, and made Styx the great oath of the gods, with her children Zelus, Nike, Cratos, and Bia living with him.

Zeus married Hera and fathered Hebe, Ilithyia, and Ares, while other accounts connect him with Metis, Themis, Eurynome, Demeter, Leto, Semele, Alcmena, and Mnemosyne. His children included Athena, who emerged armed from his head after he swallowed Metis, Apollo, Artemis, Dionysus, Heracles, the Muses, the Fates, the Graces, Persephone, Hermes, Castor, Pollux, Minos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon, Aeacus, Arcas, Dardanus, and others named in the accounts. He pursued or carried off Asteria, Io, Europa, Callisto, Aegina, Danae, Antiope, and Ganymede; Europa was taken to Crete in the form of a bull, while Ganymede was appointed cupbearer of the gods.