ZEUS' NAMES
God
Zeus of the Aegis
Zeus the cloud
gatherer
Zeus of the wide
brows
Father Zeus
Son of Cronus
Lord of Hera
Zeus of the
thunderbolt
Father of gods and
men
The Olympian
Zeus on high
The sky dweller
Lord of the Sky
The Rain-god
Zeus the Thunderer
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JUST THE FACTS - LOTS MORE ON
PAGE TWO
Zeus is the supreme god and ruler of Olympus. To the
ancient Greeks, he became the undisputed master of the universe, and as
the source of all heavenly manifestations, he caused rain, drought, good
weather and bad weather. He commanded tempests and created storms, and
nobody dared challenge his fearsome thunderbolts.
Zeus was the sixth child born to Cronus and Rhea.
Cronus, ruler of the Titans and the supreme god at the time, was warned
by an oracle that one of his own children would overthrow him, just like
he overthrew his father, Uranus. To prevent this from happening he
swallowed his first five children as each was born to Rhea.
This, of course, infuriated Rhea and when Zeus was
born she tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock wrapped in blankets.
Cronus foolishly swallowed the stone and thought himself safe. Then Rhea
sent the baby to Gaea (Mother Earth) who secretly took Zeus to be raised
on the island of Crete, away from his unsuspecting father.
Zeus tricked his way into becoming the cup-bearer to
his father Cronus and with his mother Rhea and the Titaness Metis's help
he slipped his father a drink which made him disgorge the swallowed
siblings of Zeus. The children of Cronus attacked their father, and it
was a furious battle, but at last Hades, wearing his helmet of
invisibility, snuck up behind Cronus, Poseidon rendered him immobile
with his trident, and Zeus struck him dead with his thunderbolt.
The three brothers then drew lots to determine who
gets what. Zeus drew the heavens and became supreme ruler, Poseidon
became the god of the sea and Hades the ruler of the Underworld. Thus
began the reign of Zeus.
The representation of Zeus was a most noble one -
mighty, glorious, often kind, awesome and wise, although he did show a
certain degree of surprising foolishness and naïveté when it came to
hiding his love affairs. Some historians attribute this less than noble
behavior of the "noblest one of all" to the fact that Zeus was most
likely a compilation of many "supreme gods" from different areas. When
his worship spread to an area which already worshipped another god, some
of the previous god’s qualities as well as his wife or lover were
transferred to Zeus.
Aside from the endless affairs Zeus was different
from other gods in that he did not participate in the arguments and the
resulting petty scheming that made up the daily activities of other
gods. Being such a wise ruler, he also demanded just and righteous
action from men.
Zeus was however vengeful, as can be seen in the
punishment of Prometheus. For stealing fire from Olympus and giving it
to mortals, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to be forever tied to a rock, and
an eagle would come daily and feast on his liver. It was not until many
years later that Heracles (Hercules) would come and kill the eagle,
freeing Prometheus.
His bird is the Eagle, his tree the Oak. Dodona was
his oracle. His will was revealed by the rustling of oak leaves which
was interpreted by his priests. The flying horse Pegasus, once it came
to Olympus, would often retrieve his thrown thunderbolts.
ALL ABOUT ZEUS ON PAGE TWO - TONS OF INFO
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