The story of Zeus, the supreme god of Greek mythology.
Many believed in Zeus as the only and main god even before the advent of Christianity, and the most terrible natural disasters were explained by his anger.
Heaven in Greek mythology personified a very important part of the world, and the one who controls the sky is the master of everything. Zeus was revered in every possible way as a fair ruler of both people and gods.
Among the gods, Zeus occupied the highest level of the hierarchy, that is, in fact, he was a king among the gods.
As the lord of the heavens, Zeus could control lightning and thunder. It was lightning that became a symbol of the power and might of Zeus. This explains another name of Zeus - the Thunderer, as the Greeks tried to explain such a natural phenomenon as lightning.
The myth of the birth of Zeus
The first mentions of Zeus were found in the records of the ancient Greek author Hesiod (Hesiod lived in the 7th century BC) he wrote the book of theogony (for the Greeks this book was something like the book of Genesis.)
According to legend, Zeus was not a god from the very beginning, but myth of the birth of Zeus, begin with Zeus challenging his father, Kronos. Kronos was very powerful, he commanded the most powerful of the deities - the Titans. (The Titans were considered the very first deities who populated the earth, but they were not particularly smart, aggressive, they only wanted to take and consume.) When Kronos decides to extend his family, he is forced to enter into a relationship with his sister from the Titan family, Reya.
Initially, all gods are relatives, and therefore incest in myths is quite common.
Kronos and his wife Rhea have the next generation of gods. In the future, this generation will be called Olympians. These include Hades, Poseidon and Zeus.
Kronos initially did not want to have children, as he did not want to give up the status of supreme ruler. He was afraid that his son would be stronger and better, that in the end he would overthrow him. For fear of losing everything, Kronos decided to take drastic action. Immediately after birth, he swallowed his children alive. Of course, the children could not die (since they were immortal gods), but they no longer posed a threat to Kronos.
At that time, cannibalism in ancient Greece was something out of the ordinary; this act was considered the lot of savages.
Rhea was horrified, Kronos had already devoured five of her children, and now she was pregnant again. To ensure that her children remain free, Rhea comes up with a plan. She runs away to a secret hideout and gives birth to a son there. It is this son who will become the king of the gods - Zeus. But Kronos was already waiting for his wife at home to devour the newly born child. Therefore, Rhea wraps a stone in a swaddling cloth and carries it to Kronos. Kronos immediately swallows the package without realizing anything.
Rhea decides to hide his son on the island of Crete in a secret cave. (Afterwards, this cave will become a sanctuary for the worship of Zeus.) But it is difficult to hide someone from Kronos himself; every time little Zeus cried, the people who guarded him beat the special shields that hung along the walls of the cave. The ringing of these shields prevented Kronos from hearing his son's cry.
The myth of the birth of Zeus says that the little god lived in a cave until maturity. Growing up, Zeus undergoes training, gains wisdom and strength - he becomes a real man. All this is done to achieve his goal, which Zeus set for himself - to overthrow his cruel father and seize power over the world.
A brief myth about Zeus - the overthrow of Kronos
Zeus knows that the stakes are very high; if he wins, he will become the supreme ruler of the world, and if he loses, he will go to Tartarus forever.(Tartarus is the lower level of the kingdom of Hades, it is here that the damned, that is, those who somehow offended the gods, were thrown down.)
Kronos sat on Mount Olympus.
Mount Olympus in ancient Greek mythology was the home of the gods. However, it actually exists. This is the highest point in Greece, the mountain rises almost 3 kilometers above sea level. The Greeks themselves truly believed that gods lived on this mountain.
It is at the top of Olympus that Zeus develops a plan to recapture the throne from his father Kronos and his mighty Titans. Zeus decides to free his brothers, swallowed by Kronos, and enlist their help. During this time, the brothers of Zeus, being in the stomach of Kronos, also matured and gained the power of the gods. To free his brothers, Zeus brewed a poisonous potion. Having entered Kronos's chambers, Zeus pours poison into his cup. After drinking it, Kronos begins to feel unwell, and soon he vomits the stone that Rhea gave him instead of Zeus.
According to legend, this stone formed the basis of the most revered place in ancient Greece - the Delphic temple, the haven of the oracle. Delphi is a sanctuary where people from all over Greece came to worship and ask for help from the gods. This stone, which Kronos cast down from himself, remains to this day in the very center of the Delphic temple.
According to legend, after the stone, Kronos vomited out five previously eaten children. Zeus, as a good ruler, had an excellent mind and skills to inspire and convince others. Thanks to these skills, he was able to unite his relatives and create a coalition. But even together they were not strong enough to fight the Titans.
Then Zeus remembered the Cyclopes and the hundred-armed Hecatoncheires, forgotten by Kronos. Kronos was afraid of their power, and therefore hid them in Tartarus.
Zeus understood that by enlisting their help, victory would be his. Descending to Tartarus, he finds the Hecatoncheires and speaks with them as equals and with respect, he asks them for help in overthrowing his father. Touched by such respect, the Hecatoncheires agreed to help young Zeus.
Afterwards, Zeus also freed the Cyclops. In return, they gave Zeus the power to command lightning and thunder.
The forces have been determined, the battle itself will take place in Thessaly, a plain lying between the mountains Othrys and Olympus.
A grandiose battle begins, Zeus with lightning in his hands, his brothers, Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires fight with the most powerful deities - the Titans.
(Traces of grandiose battles are still found in the Thessalian Valley.)
Soon the decisive moment arrives, a battle between father and son. From the top of Mount Olympus, Zeus strikes his father's army with powerful lightning strikes. The hundred-armed Hecatoncheires chopped off huge pieces of mountains and threw them at the titans. The ground cracked under their feet, and the sounds of battle were heard throughout the world.
Scientists have found that the ancient world at that time experienced a real catastrophe. On the island of Santorini there are about 3 t.l. ago there was a strong volcanic eruption. Its power can be compared to five tens of thousands of Hiroshima bombs. An eruption of such magnitude destroyed much of the Greek world, and survivors could explain the disaster as the wrath of the gods.
The battle of the gods continues, and Zeus begins to win. But the Titans had something to do. From the depths of Tartarus they summon Typhon.
Typhon is a terrifying monster of incredible size.
The battle between Zeus and Typhon was not long; the monster cannot withstand such powerful lightning strikes and is thrown back into Tartarus along with the remaining titans. They will spend eternity there.
The victory of Zeus made him the ruler of the world and king among the other gods. However, the calm and peace did not last long; soon Zeus had a new enemy in the person of a loved one.
Zeus and his wife Metis
The myths of ancient Greece say that the Greek gods are not at all sinless, everyone has both strengths and weaknesses, and the gods are no exception.
One of the weakest sides of Zeus was his love of love and passion for women. According to legends, Zeus turned into various animals, people, and husbands of women. All this was done in order to seduce young beauties and enter into relationships with them.
The first to attract the attention of Zeus was the young goddess Metis. Soon Zeus took her as his wife.
Metis is the wife of Zeus; according to legend, she is incredibly beautiful, and her name itself means “wise”
But his feelings are overshadowed by a terrible prophecy that should deprive him of power. Zeus was predicted that his wife would give birth to a child who would take the throne from him. Like his father, Zeus was afraid of his future heir. But Zeus didn't want to be like his father, he swore that this time everything would be different. To keep his vow, he swallows his wife. And again love lost to the thirst for power.
While Metis was in captivity, Zev could use all her intellectual abilities. Zeus became smarter, wiser and more cunning than he was before.
Zeus and Hera - Zeus's new wife
Since Metis was gone, Zeus needed a new wife. Like his father, Zeus decides to take a wife from his own family. She became his sister, the goddess Hera.
Hera was not like the others, she was very powerful. It can be said that Zeus and Hera were more equal.
But Hera was also quite jealous. Zeus continued to increase the number of his lovers.
The myth of Zeus says that his lovers included both mortals and goddesses. Every relationship between Zeus and his lovers ended in pregnancy. They gave birth to more than a hundred children from Zeus.
Such promiscuity of Zeus could be explained by the secret desire of the Greeks themselves. Dreaming about many girls, they thought that almighty God would certainly not miss such an opportunity.
Soon, more and more cities of ancient Greece wanted to become related to God himself. They announced that in their city there was a girl pregnant from Zeus himself. As a result of this, the founders of local ruling dynasties were born. The cities themselves began to be named in honor of the born children of Zeus: Athens, Thebes, Magnesia, Macedonia.
However , I’m not happy about my husband’s love affairs. Hera did not like the fact that she was humiliated in front of the other gods; one day she could not stand it and swore that she would take revenge on Zeus for his numerous betrayals.
Gathering the rest of the Olympians, Hera persuades them to rebel against Zeus. She said that it was unfair that Zeus was in charge and if all the Olympians united, they could overthrow him.
The Olympians gather and chain Zeus while he sleeps. Waking up, Zeus discovers that he is chained. He did not expect such meanness from the relatives whom he had previously saved.
Zeus was always afraid of such an uprising, because not one mortal could challenge him. But having united, the Olympian gods could well have overthrown him.
Soon, help came to the chained Zeus in the form of old allies - the Hecatoncheires. Hearing that Zeus is in trouble, they come to Zeus to help. They break the chains that bind them, and the Olympians run away in fear.
Having survived this conspiracy, Zeus begins to take revenge. He hung his wife Hera on golden chains, between heaven and earth. Son Apollo and brother Poseidon were sentenced to hard labor (they had to build the impenetrable walls of Troy.)
The ancient Greeks could not explain the emergence of Troy (it was impossible to build a building of this level at that time), but myth explained its emergence.
The Wrath of Zeus and the Flood
According to legend, everyone who rebelled against Zeus received a well-deserved punishment, but God’s wrath also fell on people. The Flood is attributed to the wrath of Zeus.In ancient Greece, people were very afraid of the wrath of Zeus. After all, when doing a bad deed, Zeus could strike them with his lightning.
Hesiod wrote that if it were not for the fear of Zeus, people would turn into animals, and the weak would submit to the strong. Thus, Zeus brought order and justice to the world.
When natural disasters occurred in the world, the Greeks believed that Zeus sent them to punish the villains. Often, stories were invented about what angered God so much.
According to legend, Zeus went berserk if people ate their own kind. Once he saw how people were eating their own kind, Zeus fell into a rage and vowed to destroy all of humanity with a global flood.
Heavy rain pours for nine days and nights, flooding the entire earth. The water reaches the top of Mount Parnassus, which rose two and a half kilometers. People are dying all over the earth. When the rain finally stopped, only two mortals remained. They survived because they built the ark.
These stories are intertwined in an amazing way; the parallel with the Old Testament is more than obvious. Thus, we can say that different peoples of the world explained such a terrible natural phenomenon in different ways.
The Overthrow of Zeus – the Coming of Christianity
The myth of Zeus says that he was able to cope with the revolt of the Olympians, but could not cope with another rival, Jesus Christ.
In the 1st century AD, the teachings of Jesus Christ would spread throughout the world, overthrowing the power of the supreme Greek deity.
Christianity gave people hope. Hope for salvation after death. People began to believe that after death they would have eternal life. That's why Christianity had so many followers.
The power of Zeus over people with the spread of the new religion throughout the Mediterranean countries gradually faded away. The people who revered him, in the end, rejected him themselves.
In ancient Greece, only the force of fate was more powerful than Zeus. Even the supreme god himself could not resist fate. No matter how much he wants to change her or avoid her, he still submits to her will.
Before the coming of Christianity myth of Zeus ruled the entire Greek world for thousands of years. Zeus was the most formidable and revered among all the Olympian gods. He is one of the few deities who left a big mark on the history of mankind: Hercules, Hades, Medusa - stories about them open a window into a long-forgotten world.
With his sister Artemis, and golden Aphrodite, and the mighty daughter of Zeus Athena, and many other gods. Three beautiful Oras guard the entrance to the high Olympus and they raise a thick cloud covering the gates when the gods descend to earth or ascend to the bright halls of Zeus. High above Olympus, the blue, bottomless sky stretches wide, and golden light pours from it. There is no rain or snow in the kingdom of Zeus; There is always a bright, joyful summer there. And the clouds swirl below, sometimes covering the distant land. There, on earth, spring and summer are replaced by autumn and winter, joy and fun are replaced by misfortune and grief. True, even the gods know sorrows, but they soon pass, and joy reigns again on Olympus.
The gods feast in their golden palaces, built by the son of Zeus Hephaestus. King Zeus sits on a high golden throne. The courageous, divinely beautiful face of Zeus breathes with greatness and a proudly calm consciousness of power and might. At his throne is the goddess of peace Eirene and the constant companion of Zeus, the winged goddess of victory Nike. Here comes the beautiful, majestic goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus. Zeus honors his wife: all the gods of Olympus surround Hera, the patroness of marriage, with honor. When, shining with her beauty, in a magnificent outfit, the great Hera enters the banquet hall, all the gods stand up and bow before the wife of the thunderer Zeus. And she, proud of her power, goes to the golden throne and sits next to the king of gods and people - Zeus. Near the throne of Hera stands her messenger, the goddess of the rainbow, light-winged Iris, always ready to quickly fly on rainbow wings to carry out the commands of Hera to the farthest ends of the earth.
The gods are feasting. The daughter of Zeus, young Hebe, and the son of the king of Troy, Ganymede, the favorite of Zeus, who received immortality from him, offer them ambrosia and nectar - the food and drink of the gods. Beautiful harites and muses delight them with singing and dancing. Holding hands, they dance in circles, and the gods admire their light movements and wondrous, eternally youthful beauty. The feast of the Olympians becomes more fun. At these feasts the gods decide all matters; at them they determine the fate of the world and people.
From Olympus, Zeus sends his gifts to people and establishes order and laws on earth. The fate of people is in the hands of Zeus; happiness and unhappiness, good and evil, life and death - everything is in his hands. Two large vessels stand at the gates of the palace of Zeus. In one vessel there are gifts of good, in the other - evil. Zeus draws good and evil from them and sends them to people. Woe to the man to whom the Thunderer draws gifts only from a vessel of evil. Woe to those who violate the order established by Zeus on earth and do not comply with his laws. The son of Kron will move his thick eyebrows menacingly, then black clouds will cloud the sky. The great Zeus will be angry, and the hair on his head will rise terribly, his eyes will light up with an unbearable brilliance; he will wave his right hand - thunderclaps will roll across the entire sky, fiery lightning will flash, and high Olympus will shake.
Zeus is not the only one who keeps the laws. At his throne stands the law-keeping goddess Themis. She convenes, at the behest of the Thunderer, meetings of the gods on bright Olympus and people's meetings on earth, ensuring that order and law are not violated. On Olympus and the daughter of Zeus, the goddess Dike, overseeing justice. Zeus severely punishes unjust judges when Dike informs him that they do not comply with the laws given by Zeus. Goddess Dike is the defender of truth and the enemy of deception.
Zeus maintains order and truth in the world and sends happiness and sorrow to people. But although Zeus sends happiness and misfortune to people, the fate of people is still determined by the inexorable goddesses of fate - moiras, living on bright Olympus. The fate of Zeus himself is in their hands. Fate rules over mortals and gods. No one can escape the dictates of inexorable fate. There is no such force, such power that could change at least something in what is intended for gods and mortals. You can only humbly bow before fate and submit to it. Some Moiras know the dictates of fate. Moira Clotho spins the life thread of a person, determining his lifespan. The thread will break and life will end. Moira Lachesis takes out, without looking, the lot that falls to a person in life. No one is able to change the fate determined by the moiras, since the third moira, Atropos, puts everything that her sisters have assigned in a person’s life into a long scroll, and what is included in the scroll of fate is inevitable. The great, harsh moiras are inexorable. There is also a goddess of fate on Olympus - this is the goddess Tyukhe, goddess of happiness and prosperity. From the cornucopia, the horn of the divine goat Amalthea, whose milk Zeus himself was fed, she will send gifts to people, and happy is the person who meets the goddess of happiness Tyukhe on his life’s path; but how rarely does this happen, and how unhappy is the person from whom the goddess Tyukhe, who has just given him her gifts, turns away!
Thus, surrounded by a host of bright gods, the great king of people and gods, Zeus, reigns on Olympus, protecting order and truth throughout the world.
High on the bright Olympus (1) Zeus reigns, surrounded by many gods... Beautiful Oras (2) guard the entrance to high Olympus and raise a thick cloud covering the gates when the gods descend to earth or ascend to the bright palaces of Zeus. High above Olympus, the blue, bottomless sky stretches wide, and golden light pours from it. There is no rain or snow in the kingdom of Zeus; There is always a bright, joyful summer there. And the clouds swirl below, sometimes covering the distant land.
There, on earth, spring and summer are replaced by autumn and winter, joy and fun are replaced by misfortune and grief. True, even the gods know sorrows, but they soon pass, and joy reigns again on Olympus.
The gods feast in their golden palaces, built by the son of Zeus Hephaestus (3). King Zeus sits on a high golden throne. The courageous, divinely beautiful face of Zeus breathes with greatness and a proudly calm consciousness of power and might. At his throne are the goddess of peace Eirene and the constant companion of Zeus, the winged goddess of victory Nike. Here comes the beautiful, majestic goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus. Zeus honors his wife: all the gods of Olympus surround Hera, the patroness of marriage, with honor...
The gods are feasting... offering them ambrosia and nectar - the food and drink of the gods. Beautiful harites and muses (4) delight them with singing and dancing. Holding hands, they dance in circles, and the gods admire their light movements and wondrous, eternally youthful beauty. The feast of the Olympians becomes more fun. At these feasts the gods decide all matters; at them they determine the fate of the world and people.
From Olympus, Zeus sends his gifts to people and establishes order and laws on earth. The fate of people is in the hands of Zeus; happiness and unhappiness, good and evil,...
Gods - Olympians (myth of ancient Greece)
The most powerful of all the sons of Cronus - Zeus - remained on Olympus, he was given the sky by lot, and from here he began to reign over the whole world.
Below, on Earth, hurricanes and wars are raging, people are aging and dying, but here, on Olympus, peace and tranquility reigns. There is never winter or frost here, it never rains or the winds blow. A golden glow spreads around day and night. Immortal gods live here in the luxurious golden palaces that Master Hephaestus built for them. They feast and have fun in their golden palaces. But they don’t forget about business, because each of them has their own responsibilities. And now Themis, the goddess of law, called everyone to the council of the gods. Zeus wanted to discuss how best to control people.
The great Zeus sits on a golden throne, and in front of him in a spacious hall are all the other gods. Near his throne, as always, is the goddess of peace Eirene and the constant companion of Zeus, the winged Nike, the goddess of victory. Here are the fleet-footed Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, and the great warrior goddess Pallas Athena. Beautiful Aphrodite shines with her heavenly beauty.
The always busy Apollo is late. But now he flies up to Olympus. Three beautiful Oras, who guard the entrance to high Olympus, have already opened a thick cloud in front of him to clear his way. And he, shining with beauty, strong and mighty, throwing his silver bow over his shoulders, enters the hall. His sister, the beautiful goddess Artemis, a tireless hunter, joyfully rises to meet him.
And then the majestic Hera, in luxurious clothes, a beautiful, fair-haired goddess, the wife of Zeus, enters the hall. All the gods rise and respectfully greet the great Hera. She sits down next to Zeus on her luxurious golden throne and listens to what the immortal gods are talking about. She also has her own constant companion. This is the light-winged Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. At the first word of her mistress, Iris is ready to fly to the most remote corners of the Earth to fulfill any of her instructions.
Today Zeus is calm and peaceful. The rest of the gods are also calm. This means that everything is in order on Olympus, and things are going well on Earth. Therefore, today the immortals have no sorrows. They joke and have fun. But it also happens differently. If the mighty Zeus gets angry, he will wave his formidable right hand, and immediately a deafening thunder will shake the entire Earth. One after another he throws dazzling fiery lightning. Things go badly for those who somehow displease the great Zeus. It happens that even an innocent person at such moments becomes an involuntary victim of the uncontrollable anger of the ruler. But there’s nothing you can do about it!
And there are also two mysterious vessels standing at the gates of his golden palace. In one vessel lies good, and in the other - evil. Zeus scoops up from one vessel, then from another and throws handfuls onto the Earth. All people should receive an equal share of good and evil. But it also happens that someone gets more good, while someone gets only evil. But no matter how much Zeus sends good and evil to Earth from his vessels, he is still unable to influence the fate of people. This is done by the goddesses of fate - the Moiras, who also live on Olympus. The great Zeus himself depends on them and does not know his fate.
One of these inexorable goddesses, Lachesis, even before the birth of a person, draws out lots for him without looking. Whoever gets what fate, so it will be. Her sister, Moira Clotho, tirelessly spins the thread of life. As soon as it ends, a person’s life ends. No one can change either the fate or the life span that Clotho and Lachesis assigned to a person, because there is also a third sister, Moira Atropos. She writes down a long list of everything her sisters have assigned. And what is included in the scroll of fate will never change.
Many immortal gods and goddesses live on Olympus. There are cruel and evil among them, like Ares, for example, the god of unjust war, and although he is the son of the thunderer Zeus, his father does not like him for his bloodthirstiness and ferocity. Nothing pleases the heart of the evil and formidable Ares more than the blood and groans of warriors falling in a mortal battle, without looking Ares strikes with his terrible sword and sows death and destruction around himself. And there are others - bright and kind, like the goddess of happy fate Tyukhe. She walks the earth with her cornucopia and showers happiness on everyone she meets along the way. But for some reason she walks along secret paths, and no one knows where they are. But if someone meets Tyukhe, he will always be the happiest person in the world. Although such meetings are rare, every person hopes that someday he will meet Tyukhe, the beautiful goddess of happiness, on his way.
High on the bright Olympus (1) Zeus reigns, surrounded by many gods... Beautiful Oras (2) guard the entrance to high Olympus and raise a thick cloud covering the gates when the gods descend to earth or ascend to the bright palaces of Zeus. High above Olympus, the blue, bottomless sky stretches wide, and golden light pours from it. There is no rain or snow in the kingdom of Zeus; There is always a bright, joyful summer there. And the clouds swirl below, sometimes covering the distant land. There, on earth, spring and summer are replaced by autumn and winter, joy and fun are replaced by misfortune and grief. True, even the gods know sorrows, but they soon pass, and joy reigns again on Olympus.
The gods feast in their golden palaces, built by the son of Zeus Hephaestus (3). King Zeus sits on a high golden throne. The courageous, divinely beautiful face of Zeus breathes with greatness and a proudly calm consciousness of power and might. At his throne are the goddess of peace Eirene and the constant companion of Zeus, the winged goddess of victory Nike. Here comes the beautiful, majestic goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus. Zeus honors his wife: all the gods of Olympus surround Hera, the patroness of marriage, with honor...
The gods are feasting... offering them ambrosia and nectar - the food and drink of the gods. Beautiful harites and muses (4) delight them with singing and dancing. Holding hands, they dance in circles, and the gods admire their light movements and wondrous, eternally youthful beauty. The feast of the Olympians becomes more fun. At these feasts the gods decide all matters; at them they determine the fate of the world and people.
From Olympus, Zeus sends his gifts to people and establishes order and laws on earth. The fate of people is in the hands of Zeus; happiness and unhappiness, good and evil, life and death - everything is in his hands. Two large vessels stand at the gates of the palace of Zeus. In one vessel there are gifts of good, in the other - evil. Zeus draws good and evil from them and sends them to people. Woe to the man to whom the Thunderer draws gifts only from a vessel of evil. Woe to those who violate the order established by Zeus on earth and do not comply with his laws. The son of Kron will move his thick eyebrows menacingly, then black clouds will cloud the sky. The great Zeus will be angry, and the hair on his head will rise terribly, his eyes will light up with an unbearable brilliance; he will wave his right hand (5) - thunderclaps will roll across the entire sky, fiery lightning will flash, and high Olympus will shake...
(1) Olympus is a sacred mountain of the ancient Greeks, considered the seat of the gods.
(2) Ora - goddesses who were in charge of the change of seasons and order in nature.
(3) Hephaestus - god of fire and blacksmithing.
(4) Charites (among the Romans - grace) - patroness of beauty, joy, the personification of female charm; muses are the patroness of singing, poetry, arts and sciences.
(5) Right hand - right hand.
