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Zeus - The King Of Gods

According to the ancient greeks Zeus is the sky and thunder god who rules as king of the gods of mount Olympus. He was respected as an all-father who was chief of the gods, and assigned roles to the others. Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as father and all the gods rise in his presence.

Zeus's Childhood

He is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born. Cronus was the leader and youngest of the first generation of titans, the divine descendants of the primal gods Uranus and Gaia. He overthrew Uranus, his own father and became king. Yet it was prophesied by Gaia and Uranus, that he will be overthrown by one of his sons just as he did to his father. He sired several children by Rhea. Hestia, Demitar, Hera, Hades and Poseidon are his oldest children.

Fearing the prophecy he swallowed them as soon as they were born. When Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought help from Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children.

Rhea gave birth to Zeus in create, handing Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes which he promptly swallowed. Some say Rhea gave Zeus to a nymph named Amalthea. Since Cronus ruled over the earth, the heavens and the sea, the nymph hide him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea and sky and making invisible to his father. Others say that Amalthea is not a nymph but a goat and raised Zeus in a cave called Dickton Antron. A company of soldiers called Karites danced shouted and clashed their spears against their shields so that Cronus would not hear the baby's cry.

Titanomachy

After reaching manhood zeus fought against his father and made him disgorge what he swallowed. First came the rock then his siblings in reverse order of swallowing. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes killing their guard Campe the dragon placed by Cronus. As a token of their appreciation the Cyclopes gave him thunder and the thunderbolt or lightning which was hidden by Gaia.

Zeus, his brothers and sisters Hecatenchires and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other titans in the combat called the Titanomachy. The defeated titans were then cast into Tartarus. Atlas one of the titans who fought against Zeus was punished by having to hold up the sky.

After Titanomachy

After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers Poseidon and Hades. Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters and Hades the world of the dead which is the underworld. He did this so Gaia would not be able to claim on earth

Gaia resented the way Zeus had treated the Titans because they were her children. Soon after taking the throne as king of the gods, Zeus had to fight some of Gaia's other children, the Typhon and Echidna. He vanquished Typhan and trapped him under mount Aetna but left Echidna and her children alive.

Zues and Hera

Zeus made his sister Hera his wife and sired Aries and Hephiestus. But Zeus had many conquests including immortals, mortals and nymphs. Many myths show that Hera as jealous of his amorous conquests and a consistent enemy of Zeus mistresses and their children by him.

For a time a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from his affairs by talking constantly. And when Hera discovered the deception she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others.

In Other Belives

Zeus was identified with the Roman god Jupiter, Egyptian god Ammon and the Etruscan god Tinia. He is mentioned in the new testament of the bible twice.

"In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them."

Acts 14:8–13

When the people living in Lystra saw the apostle Paul heal a lame man, they considered Paul and his partner Barnabas to be gods identifying Paul with Hermes and Barnabas with Zeus. Even trying to offer them sacrifices with the crowd.

"After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux."

Acts 28:11

The name of the ship in which the prisoner Paul set sail from the island of Malta bore the figurehead sons of Zeus also known as Caster and Pollux.

Symbols

Zeus symbols are the thunderbolt eagle, bull and oak. The sun is considered to be one of Zeus eyes.

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