Zeus at a Glance
name | Zeus (ZeuV)
role | god of the sky; ruler of Olympus
symbols | thunderbolt, eagle, oak
Zeus in Greek Mythology
As the ruler of the Olympian gods, Zeus wielded enormous power and
almost absolute authority. He appears in Homer's Iliad in the role
of imperious leader, a grandiose father figure to a pantheon of
bickering deities. And although he is often portrayed as an
omniscient, omnipotent being, even the mighty Zeus could be tricked
(or, to put it more gently, distracted). This is indeed the case in
the Iliad, in that wonderful scene where he is seduced by his wife
Hera and consequently led to ignore the events taking place on the
battlefield of Troy.
There are certainly other instances where Zeus is deceived (the
incident with Prometheus being but one more good example). These
examples only demonstrate that although he was the god who ruled
Olympus and its divine denizens, he was subject to the laws of Fate
and was not in fact all-powerful. And just as the other deities had
their own personal foibles, Zeus too had a weakness - he was
passionately fond of female charms. Many stories about Zeus recount
his insatiable lust and notorious wandering eye, an eye that fell
upon goddess and mortal woman alike.
Some of the paramours of Zeus are:
Alcmene | mother of Herakles
Danae | mother of Perseus
Europa | mother of Minos, Rhadamanthys, & Sarpedon
Io | mother of Epaphus
Leda | mother of Helen
Leto | mother of Apollo and Artemis
Maia | mother of Hermes
Metis | mother of Athena
Mnemosyne | mother of the Muses
Semele | mother of Dionysos
In Roman mythology, Zeus was identified with the god Jupiter.