Zeus or Dias
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ
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| Dias or Zeus, Archaeological Museum of Athens |
Zeus, great ruler in the sky, driving a winged chariot, goes first arranging everything and taking care of it. He is followed by an army of gods and demons divided into eleven divisions, because only the goddess Hestia remains in the house of the immortals. The others do not of the twelve gods, those who are ranked lords of the other orders precede in the appointed order." - Phaedrus 246e-247.
Zeus, "father of male gods" according to Homer, was the leading deity of the Greek twelve gods. According to the prevailing myth, he was born in Ideo Andros in Crete, where his mother Rhea fled to save him from his father, Kronos. Zeus had to fight the older deities (Titanomachy and Gigantomachy) to dominate. The Greeks imagined him to have his residence on the highest Greek mountain, Olympus, while important sanctuaries of Zeus existed in various parts of Greece (Olympia, Nemea, Dodoni). Over time, Zeus evolved from a punishing god who unleashes his thunderbolts into a guarantor of universal order, providence and justice and acquired nicknames such as Xenios, Ikesios, Themistios, Sotir.
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| Statue of Zeus found in Smyrna |
Zeus was called Zeus in Ancient Greek, a word that in its general declension was of Zeus, (rarely of Zenos), from where the modern Greek name came. The etymology of the word is as follows: It comes from the Indo-European root *Dyēus, which according to linguists comes from the early Indo-European day god *Dyeus ph2tēr ("father from heaven") which comes from the root *dyeu- ("to shine") and div-, which means sky and also gave the Greek word God, Latin Deus, Vedic Dyaus, Germanic Tiwaz, Gaelic Dia, Old Irish Dia which also means both God and Day and other words related to the divine. The name is also found among other Indo-European peoples, the Indians, the Umbrians, the Latins, etc. The expression Zeus patir corresponds to Diespiter (Juppiter) of the Romans, Jupater of the Umbrians and Dyaus Pita of the ancient Indians. From the same root comes the English day meaning day.
The oldest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek 𝐀𐀸, di-we and 𐀇𐀺, di-wo, written in the Linear B syllabic script.
Plato, in his Cratylus, gives a folk etymology of Zeus meaning "cause of life always in all things", due to puns between alternate titles of Zeus (Zen and Dia) with the Greek words for life and "reason". This etymology, along with Plato's entire method of deriving etymologies, is not supported by modern science.
Diodorus Siculus wrote that Jupiter was also called Zen because people believed he was the cause of life (zen). While Lactantius wrote that he was called Zeus and Zen, not because he is the giver of life, but because he was the first to live of the children of Saturn.
Jupiter was called by many alternative names or surnames, known as epithets. Some epithets are the surviving names of local gods that were consolidated into the myth of Zeus
Mythology
Zeus is the god of the sky and lightning in Greek mythology. He is the youngest child of Saturn and Rhea. In most traditions he is married to Hera, although in the oracle of Dodoni, Dione is mentioned as his wife. He is known for his love affairs. This led to many pious and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (from Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Hercules, Helen the Fair, Minos and the Muses (from the Titan Memory). From Hera he has fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus (another source says that Hera fertilized Hephaestus herself), while from Oceania Dione he fathered Aphrodite. Zeus has always been a meteorological god, controller of lightning, thunder and rain. He was the strongest and greatest of all mythological beings and gods. Theocritus around 265 BC. he wrote: "sometimes Jupiter is clear, sometimes it rains". In the Homeric epic of the Iliad, he sent lightning bolts to his enemies. His other emblems were the eagle and the aegis.
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| Cave of Psiloritis, also known as Idi, |
Birth
The Titan Cronus fathered many children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, but swallowed them all at birth, having learned from Gaia and Uranus that his son would overthrow him , as he himself had overthrown his own father. When Zeus was about to be born, Rhea asked Gaia to devise a plan to save him so that Cronus would be punished for his actions against his father Uranus and his children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in the Diktaean Andros on the northern side of Mount Diktis by handing Cronus a stone wrapped in an infant, which he swallowed. While Hesiod gives Lyctos as the birthplace of Zeus, he is the only source to do so, and other writers give different locations. The poet Eumelos the Corinthian (8th century BC), according to John of Lydia, believed that Zeus was born in Lydia, while the Alexandrian poet Callimachus (c. 310 – c. 240 BC), in the Hymn of Jupiter. , says he was born in Arcadia. Diodorus Sikeliotis (d. 1st century BC) seems at one point to give Mount Idis as his birthplace, but later states that he was born in Diktis, and the mythographer Apollodorus (first or second century AD) similarly says that he was born in a cave at Dikteo.
A Mycenaean variant of Zeus was thought to be "a divine child" who was abandoned by his mother and eventually raised by "nymphs, goddesses or even animals".
Infancy
The "Cave of Zeus" on Mount Idi in Crete
Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete and according to different versions of the story he was raised by:
Gaia
a goat, Amalthea, while the Kuretes-soldiers (minor gods) danced, shouted and struck their spears on their shields so that Saturn would not hear the baby's cry.
a nymph named Cynosura, whom Zeus, in gratitude, placed among the stars.
Melissa with goat's milk and honey.
a family of shepherds with the promise that their sheep will be saved from the wolves.
Hyginus, in his Fabulae, mentions a version in which Saturn throws Poseidon into the sea and Hades into the Underworld instead of swallowing them. When Zeus is born, Hera (also not swallowed), asks Rhea to give her the young Zeus, and Rhea gives Cronus a stone to swallow. Hera gives him to Amalthea, who hangs his cradle from a tree, where he is not in heaven, earth or sea, meaning that when Cronus later looks for Zeus, he cannot find him. Hyginus also says that Ida, Althea, and Adrasteia, who are usually considered the children of Oceanus, are sometimes called daughters of Melisseus and nurses of Zeus.
According to a passage from Epimenides, the nymphs Eliki and Kynosura are the nurses of the young Zeus. Cronus travels to Crete in search of Zeus, who, to hide his presence, transforms himself into a snake and his two nurses into bears. According to Musaeus, after the birth of Zeus, Rhea gives him to Themis. Themis in turn gives him to Amalthea, who has a goat, which nurses the young Zeus.
Antoninus Liberalis, in his Metamorphoses, says that Rhea gives birth to Zeus in a sacred cave in Crete, filled with sacred bees, who become the infant's nurses. While the cave is considered forbidden ground for both mortals and gods, a group of thieves seek to steal honey from it. When he laid eyes on the young Zeus, their bronze armor "separated from their bodies", and Zeus would have killed them but for the intervention of the Fates and Themis. transforms them into different kinds of birds.
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| Enthroned Zeus (circa 100 BC) inspired by the Statue of Olympian Zeus at Olympia. |
Ascension to power and King of the gods
Zeus after he came of age forced Cronus to dry first the stone and then his siblings, in the reverse order of swallowing. In some versions, Oceania Metis gave Saturn an emetic to force him to dry up the babies. Along with his brothers, the Giants, the Cyclops, and the Centipedes, he overthrew Cronus and the other Titans in the fight known as the Battle of the Titans.
According to the Theogony, after Zeus comes of age, Saturn is forced to unload the five children and the stone "with the troops of Gaia, but also with the skills and power of Zeus", presumably in reverse order, taking out the stone first. then each of the five children in reverse order of ingestion. Zeus then sets up the stone at Delphi, to act as a "sign and wonder to mortal men." Zeus then frees the Cyclops, who in return, and out of gratitude, give him his thunderbolt, which Gaia had previously hidden. Then begins the Titanomachy, the war between the Olympians, led by Zeus, and the Titans, led by Saturn, for control of the universe, with Zeus and the Olympians fighting from Mount Olympus and the Titans fighting from mount Othrys. The battle goes on for ten years without a clear winner emerging, until, on the advice of Gaia, Zeus frees the Centipedes, who (like the Cyclops) were imprisoned beneath the surface of the Earth. He gives them nectar and ambrosia and revives their spirits and they agree to help him in the war. Zeus then unleashes his final attack on the Titans, hurling lightning bolts at them, while the Centuries attack with rocks and the Titans are finally defeated, with Zeus banishing them to Tartarus and assigning the Centuries to act. as their guardians.
Apollodorus provides a similar account, saying that when Zeus comes of age, he enlists the help of the Oceanian Metis, who gives Saturn an emetic, forcing him to get rid of the stone and Zeus' five brothers. Zeus then fights a similar ten-year war against the Titans, until, with Gaia's prophecy, he frees the Cyclops and Hecatontahires from the Tartarus, first killing their guardian, Cambes. The Cyclops give him his thunderbolt, Poseidon his trident, and Hades his helmet of invisibility, and the Titans are defeated and the Hundred-Handed made their guards.
According to the Iliad, after the battle with the Titans, Zeus shares the world with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by lot: Zeus receives the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld, with the earth and Olympus to remain common ground. .
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| Marble eagle from the sanctuary of Zeus the Great, Archaeological Museum of Zeus. |
Challenges to power
Upon assuming his position as King of the World, Jupiter's rule is quickly challenged. The first of these challenges to his power comes from the Giants, who battle the Olympian gods in a battle known as the Battle of the Giants. According to Hesiod, the Giants are the offspring of Gaia, born from the drops of blood that fell to the ground when Saturn castrated his father Uranus. the Theogony. It is Apollodorus who provides the most complete description of the Gigantomachia. He says that Gaia, out of anger at how Zeus had imprisoned her children, the Titans, gave birth to the Giants in the Sky. A prophecy comes to the gods that the Giants cannot be defeated by the gods alone, but can only be defeated with the help of a mortal. Gaia, upon hearing this, searches for a special medicine (herb) that will prevent the Giants from being killed. Zeus, however, orders Io (Dawn), Selini (Moon), and Helios (Sun) to stop shining, and gathers all the herb himself, before Athena summons Heracles. In the conflict, Porphyry, one of the most powerful of the Giants, launches an attack on Hercules and Hera. Zeus, however, makes Porphyrion lust after Hera, and when he is about to violate her, Zeus strikes him with his thunderbolt before Heracles can deliver the fatal blow with an arrow.
In the Theogony, after Zeus defeats the Titans and banishes them to Tartarus, his rule is challenged by the monster Typhon, a giant serpent creature who battles Zeus for control of the universe. According to Hesiod, Typhon is the offspring of Gaia and Tartarus, described as having a hundred fire-breathing serpent heads. Hesiod says that he "would have come to rule over mortals and immortals" if Zeus had not noticed the monster and gone with him quickly: the two meet in a cataclysmic battle, before Zeus easily defeats him with his thunderbolt and The creature is flung into Tartarus. Epimenides presents a different version, in which Typhon enters the palace of Zeus while he is asleep, only for Zeus to wake up and kill the monster with a thunderbolt. Aeschylus and Pindar give somewhat similar accounts to Hesiod, with Zeus defeating Typhon with relative ease, defeating him with his thunderbolt. Apollodorus, in contrast, provides a more complex account. Typhon is, as in Hesiod, the child of Gaia and Tartarus, created out of anger at Zeus' defeat by the Giants. The monster attacks heaven, and all the gods, out of fear, turn into animals and flee to Egypt, except Zeus, who attacks the monster with his thunderbolt and scythe. Typhon is wounded and retreats to Mount Cassius in Syria, where Zeus fights him, giving the monster a chance to wrap him in its coils and tear the claws from his hands and feet. Crippled, Zeus is carried by Typhon to the Korykeian Cave in Cilicia, where he is guarded by the "dragon" Delphini. Hermes and Aigipanus, however, steal Zeus' claws and replace them, reviving him and allowing him to return to battle, pursuing Typhon, who flees to Mount Nysa. there, Typhon is given "ephemeral fruits" by the Fates, which reduce his power. The monster then flees to Thrace, where he hurls mountains at Zeus, which are sent back at him by the god's thunderbolts, before, while fleeing to Sicily, Zeus hurls Etna at him, finally finishing him off. Nonnos, who gives the longest and most detailed account, presents a narrative similar to Apollodorus, with differences such as Cadmus and Panas regaining Zeus' nerve by luring Typhon with music and then tricking him.
In the Iliad, Homer tells of another attempted overthrow, in which Hera, Poseidon, and Athena conspire to defeat and bind Zeus. It is only because of Nereida Thetis, who calls Briareus, one of the Hundred-Handed, to Olympus that the other Olympians abandon their plans (for fear of Briareus).
The Titanomachy
Hesiod tells us about the mythical Battle of the Titans, stating that Zeus and his brothers fought against Saturn and the Titans for dominance over the Earth. Rushing from Olympus they fought the Titans who had fortified themselves in Orthys. This merciless war lasted ten years, until Zeus received the advice of Gaia, to descend into Tartarus and free the brothers of the Titans, the Cyclops and the Centuries. In Tartara he fought the mythical monster Campis and after defeating it, he freed the Cyclops and the Centuries, who have since become his allies. The Cyclops out of gratitude gave Hades and Poseidon weapons of war and supplied Zeus with lightning, thunder and hammer, which from then on became symbols of his power. And the Ecatogyres accompanied Zeus in the battle, where with their help the gods defeated the Titans by drowning them in Tartarus, putting the Ecatogyres as their guards. Saturn was imprisoned with the Titans in Tartarus and appointed Night as his guard. Later, he was pardoned and became king of the Elysian Fields, where he slept eternally. Zeus, following a proposal from Gaia, assumes supreme authority among the Gods and divides the world into three kingdoms: The sky, the sea and the underworld, placing himself, Poseidon and Hades as leaders respectively.
Giant battle
During his reign, Zeus was threatened by the Giants, who, prompted by Gaia, sought to avenge the Titans' defeat. In the Gigantomachia, as the ensuing war was called, Zeus emerged victorious. The Olympian gods, aided by Heracles and Dionysus, fought and won by killing or defeating all the Giants.
Family
Seven wives
According to Hesiod, Zeus takes as his first wife Metis, one of the Oceanid daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. However, when he is about to give birth to a daughter, Athena, he swallows her whole on the advice of Gaia and Uranus, as it was prophesied that after giving birth to a daughter, she would give birth to a son, who would overthrow him. as king of gods and mortals; it is from this position that Metis gives advice to Zeus. In time Athena is born, emerging from Zeus's head, but the foretold son never emerges. Apollodorus presents a similar version, stating that Metis took many forms in an attempt to escape the embraces of Zeus, and that it was only Gaia who warned Zeus of the son who would overthrow him. According to a passage probably from the Hesiodian corpus, quoted by Chrysippus, it is out of anger at Hera who alone produced Hephaestus that Zeus copulates with Metis and then swallows her, thus creating Athena from himself. In contrast, one scholar of the Iliad states that when Zeus swallows her, Metis conceives Athena not by Zeus himself, but by the Cyclops Brontes. The motif of Zeus swallowing Metis can be seen as a continuation of the succession myth: a son of Zeus is prophesied to overthrow him, as he overthrew his father, but while Saturn met his end because he did not swallow the real Zeus. , Jupiter retains its power because it successfully swallows the threat, in the form of the potential mother, and thus the "cycle of displacement" is ended. Additionally, the myth can be seen as an allegory of Zeus gaining Metis' wisdom for himself by swallowing her.
In Hesiod's account, Zeus's second wife is Themis, one of the Titan daughters of Uranus and Gaia, with whom he has the Hours, referred to as Eunomia, Justice and Peace, and the three Fates: Clotho, Lachesis and Shameless. A passage from Pindar calls Themis's first wife Zeus and mentions that she is brought by the Fates (in this version not her daughters) to Olympus, where she becomes the bride of Zeus and brings him the Hours. According to Hesiod, Zeus then marries the Oceanid Eurynome, with whom he has the three Graces, namely Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia. Zeus's fourth wife is his sister Demeter, with whom he has Persephone. Zeus's next wife is the Titan Memory. as described at the beginning of the Theogony, Jupiter is with Mnemosyne in Piera every night for nine nights, producing the nine Muses. His sixth wife is the Titan Leto, who bears him the twins Apollo and Artemis, who, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, are born on the island of Delos. In Hesiod's account, Zeus' seventh and last wife is Hera's sister.
Marriage of Zeus and Hera, wall painting from Pompeii
Jupiter and Hera
Zeus was the brother and husband of Hera. With Hera he had Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus (another version says that Hera alone gave birth to Hephaestus, out of jealousy that Zeus alone gave birth to Athena). Some include among their daughters Eileithyia (goddess of childbirth), Argi and Eris. Their relationship was turbulent, full of machinations and jealousies. It even included conspiracies or opposition of one against the will of another. It is argued, the enmity of the pair goes back to the rivalry of the primal pair Uranus - Gaia and reflects the position of the male in the historical years of patriarchy. Many myths refer to Hera being jealous of Zeus' amorous conquests and being an enemy of lovers and their children. For a year, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from his affairs by talking to her incessantly. When Hera discovered the deception, she cursed her to repeat the words of others.
Zeus and Metis
According to Hesiod, Zeus's first wife was the attractive Metis, goddess of knowledge. But Zeus received an oracle that from the son of Metis he would one day meet the same fate as his father (Saturn) and his grandfather (Uranus), who were dethroned by one of their children. However, since even Saturn's method had proved ineffective, he decided not to neutralize his children, but to neutralize Metis herself before she could give birth. So Zeus swallowed Metis, as Cronus had done with Rhea's children. Metis, however, was already pregnant with Athena, as a result of which Zeus got a terrible headache. Hephaestus hastening to help with his tools, contributed to the birth of Athena, who sprung armored from Zeus's head.
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| Zeus seducing Ganymede (Late Archaic terracotta, 480–470 BC) |
Affairs
After his marriage to Hera, various authors describe Zeus' numerous affairs with various mortal women. In many of these cases, Jupiter transforms into an animal, someone else, or some other form. According to one school of the Iliad (citing Hesiod and Bacchylides), when Europa is gathering flowers with her female companions in a Phoenician meadow, Zeus transforms himself into a bull, lures her away from the others, and then carries her off to the sea to the island of Crete, where he regains his usual form to sleep with her. In Euripides' Helen, Zeus takes the form of a swan and, after being chased by an eagle, takes refuge in the arms of Leda, subsequently seducing her, while in Euripides' lost work Antiope, Zeus apparently took the form of a satyr to sleep with Antiope. Various authors speak of Zeus raping Callisto, one of Artemis's consorts, in the form of Artemis herself according to Ovid (or, as Apollodorus states, in the form of Apollo), and Pherecydes states that the Zeus sleeps with Alcmene. the wife of Amphitryon, in the form of her own husband. Several accounts state that Zeus approached the Argive princess Danae in the form of a rain of gold and according to Ovid he abducted Aegina in the form of flame.
In accounts of Zeus's affairs, Hera is often depicted as a jealous wife, with various stories of her pursuing either the women Zeus sleeps with or their children by him. Several authors report that Zeus sleeps with Io, a priestess of Hera, who is then transformed into a cow and suffers at the hands of Hera: according to Apollodorus, Hera sends a fly to sting the cow, leading it to Egypt, where she eventually transforms back into human form.] In later accounts of Zeus' relationship with Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, Hera tricks her into getting Zeus to make any promise to her. Semele asks him to come to her as he comes to his wife Hera, and when Zeus keeps this promise, she dies of terror and turns to ashes. According to Callimachus, after Zeus sleeps with Callisto, Hera turns her into a bear and assigns Artemis to shoot her. Furthermore, Zeus' son by Alcmene, the hero Heracles, is constantly persecuted throughout his mortal life by Hera, until his deification.
According to Diodorus Siculus, Alcmene, the mother of Hercules, was the last mortal woman with whom Zeus ever slept. After the birth of Hercules, she stopped giving birth to humans and had no more children.
Companions Aegina, Leto, Leda, Aigis, Alcmene, Anaxithea, Antiope the Boeotian, Asterope, Cambyses, Callisto, Carmis, Cassiopeia, Chalcedon, Clymene, Danae, Demeter, Jupiter, Dione, Elara, Electra, Europa, Eurymedusa, Eurynome (Oceanida ), Gaia (mythology), Himalia, Hora, Io, Iodama, Isione, Laodameia, Myra, Maia, Mnemosyne, Niobe of Phoroneus, Nysa, Othreis, Pandora, Persephone, Plutus, Plutus, Protogenia, Selene, Semele, Taygetes, Thalia , Thrace (mythology), Thyia, Aphrodite, Calyx, Lamia, Podargis, Pyrrha, Calliope, Doris, Echidna, Heos, Eurydome, Etna, Eliki, unnamed daughter of Borysthenes, Kontoumelia, Coryphi, Crete, Cyrno, Eurynome, Nemesis, Lamia and Pythia
Progeny
There are many myths that present Zeus having love affairs with women. That is why he gave birth to many offspring, while it is characteristic that no myth has ever presented Zeus as barren. Many times also, Zeus changed form to approach and unite with his mistresses.
Descendants: Goddess Aphrodite (according to Homer), goddess Persephone, god Ares, goddess Hebe, goddess Eileithyia, god Hephaestus (according to one version the goddess Hera spelled it herself), god Hermes, god Dionysus, Hersis (Drosia), Hecate , god Apollo, goddess Artemis, goddess Athena, the Fates (Cloth, Lachesis, Atropos), the Hours (Eunomia, Judgment, Irene), the Graces (Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Thalia), the Muses (Calliope, Cleo, Euterpe, Terpsichore , Erato, Melpomene, Thalia, Polymnia and Urania), the Koryvantes (according to one version), Epaphos, goddess of Harmony (according to one version), Endymion, god of Panas, Titius, Britomartis, Zagreus, Kar, Kouretes, Cris, Minos, Rhadamanthys , Sarpedon, Greek, Hellene, Achaean, Myrmidon, Magnis, Macedon, Bithynus, Dardanus, Thebes, Asopus, Amphion, Zithos, Locrus, Orchomenus, Trophonius, Heracles, Argos, Perseus, Nemea, Lacedaemon, Fair Helen, the Dioscuri (Castor and Polydeukis), Arkas, Megaros and Aiakos
Prometheus and conflicts with humans
When the gods met at Mecone to discuss what portions to receive after a sacrifice, the titan Prometheus decided to trick Zeus so that the humans would receive the best portions. He sacrificed a large ox and divided it into two piles. In one pile he put all the meat and most of the fat, covering it with the grotesque stomach of the ox, while in the other, he coated the bones with fat. Prometheus then invited Zeus to choose. Zeus chose the pile of bones. This set a precedent for sacrifices where people would keep the fat for themselves and burn the bones for the gods.
Zeus, enraged by Prometheus' deception, forbade the use of fire by humans. Prometheus, however, stole fire from Olympus on a fennel stalk and gave it to humans. This further angered Zeus, who punished Prometheus by tying him to a cliff, where an eagle continually ate Prometheus' liver, which regenerated every night. Prometheus was finally released from his misery by Heracles.
Now Zeus, angry with the humans, decides to give humanity a punitive gift to compensate for the benefit he had been given. He commands Hephaestus to fashion from the earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose offspring would torment the human race. After Hephaestus does it, several other gods contribute to its creation. Hermes names the woman "Pandora".
Pandora married Prometheus' brother Epimetheus. Zeus gave her a jar containing a lot of poop. Pandora opened the jar and released all the evil that made mankind miserable. Only hope remained in the jar.
When Zeus was atop Olympus, he was horrified by human sacrifices and other signs of human decadence. He decided to wipe out humanity and flooded the world with the help of his brother Poseidon. After the flood, only Deucalion and Pyrrha remained. This account of the flood is a common motif in mythology.
Zeus in the Iliad
Rhapsody 2: Zeus sends the "plane" god Oniros to Agamemnon in the form of Nestor and urges him to attack the Trojans, because now is the time to defeat them.
Rhapsody 4: Zeus promises Hera the destruction of Troy at the end of the war.
Rhapsody 8: Zeus forbids all the gods to take part in the conflict and himself surveys the battlefield from Mount Ides.
Rhapsody 14: Hera borrows from Aphrodite her magic love belt and lures Zeus into amorous entanglements, after which the god falls into a deep sleep.
Rhapsody 15: Zeus wakes up and realizes that his own brother Poseidon is helping the Greeks.
Rhapsody 16: Zeus is upset that he would not be able to help Sarpedon, because then it would contradict his previous decisions.
Rhapsody 17: Zeus is distressed by the fate of Hector.
Rhapsody 20: Zeus lets the other Gods help their respective sides in the war.
Rhapsody 24: Zeus sends Thetis to Achilles to give Hector's body.
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| Greek inscription that reads "Mount Zeus Milosiou" and leads to the top of Za |
The inscription of Mount Zas
On a rock at the top of Mount Zas there is the inscription "Mount Zeus Milosiou" (Zeus protector of sheep) in defaced letters.
Mount Zeus/Zas is the highest mountain peak, not only of Naxos, but also of the entire Cycladic complex. The mountain dominates the village of Filoti.
Other myths
When Hades asked to marry Zeus' daughter Persephone, Zeus approved and advised Hades to kidnap Persephone, as her mother Demeter would not allow her to marry Hades.
In the Orphic "Rhapsodic Theogony" (1st century BC/AD), Zeus wanted to marry Rhea's mother. After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into a snake and raped her. Rhea became pregnant and gave birth to Persephone. Zeus in the form of a snake mated with his daughter Persephone, which resulted in the birth of Dionysus.
Zeus granted Callirroe's prayer that her sons by Alcmaeon, Acarnan, and Amphoteros would grow up quickly so that they could avenge their father's death at the hands of Phigeus and his two sons.
Both Zeus and Poseidon deified Thetis, daughter of Nereus. But when Themis (or Prometheus) prophesied that the son born to Thetis would be stronger than his father, Thetis married the mortal Peleus.
Zeus was afraid that his grandson Asclepius would teach the resurrection to humans, so he killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt. This angered Asclepius' father, Apollo, who in turn killed the Cyclops who had created Zeus' thunderbolts. Angered by this, Zeus would have imprisoned Apollo in Tartarus. However, at the request of Apollo's mother Letos, Zeus ordered Apollo to serve as a slave to King Admetus of the Pherae for a year. According to Diodorus Siculus, Zeus killed Asclepius because of the complaints of Hades, who was concerned that the number of people in the underworld was decreasing because of Asclepius' resurrections.
The winged horse Pegasus carried the thunderbolts of Zeus.
Zeus took pity on Ixion, a man guilty of murdering his father-in-law, purifying him and bringing him to Olympus. However, Ixion began to lust after Hera. Hera complained about this to her husband and Zeus decided to test Ixion. Zeus made a Hera-like cloud (Nepheli) and placed the Hera-cloud on Ixion's bed. Ixion combined with Nepheli, resulting in the birth of the Centaur. Zeus punished Ixion for lusting after Hera by tying him to an eternally spinning wheel.
Once upon a time, Helios the sun god gave his chariot to the inexperienced son of Phaethon to drive. Phaethon couldn't control his father's horses, so he ended up taking the chariot too high, freezing the earth, or too low, burning everything on the ground. The earth itself prayed to Zeus, and to prevent further destruction, Zeus struck Phaethon with a thunderbolt, killing him and saving the world from further harm. In a satirical play, Dialogues of the Gods by Lucian, Zeus criticizes Helios for allowing this to happen. he returns the broken chariot to him and warns him that if he dares it again, he will strike him with one of those lightning bolts.
Roles and adjectives
Meteorology
Celestial, * Ethereal, * Nebula, * Silverthrower (heavy thunder), * Hypsiveremite, * Eridopus, * Asteropetis
Steropigeretis, * Argikeraunos, * Terpikeraunos, * Ombrios, * Hyetios, * Icmaios (summer meltemias), * Cataibatis
Kappotas, * Lightning, * Windy, * Kerasphoros, * Kelainefis (dark clouds), * Lykaios (the bright one, wolf "light")
Family - House
Erkeio (erkos = dam, enclosure), * Gamilius, * Heraeus, * Patir, * Patroos, * Phratrios
Mountaintops
Aeneos, * Akreos, * Epakrios, * Hellanios, * Apiris, * Larisios, * Parnithios, * Ithomatas, * Olympias, * Lycaeus
Difference
Orkios (oath), * High, * Greatest, * Excellent, * Polieus, * Voulaios, * Perfect, * Eleftherios, * Filios, * Xenios, * Ikesios,
Physios, * Sotir, * Ktisios (oikouros opis), * Meilichios, * Katachthonios
Cults
Panhellenic cults
The most important center where all the Greeks gathered to honor their main god was Olympia. Their quadrennial festival featured the famous Games. There was also an altar to Zeus made not of stone, but of ashes, from the accumulated remains of many centuries of animals sacrificed there.
Outside of the great sanctuaries of the city, there were no ways of worshiping Zeus that were exactly shared in the Greek world. Most of the titles listed below, for example, could be found in any number of Greek temples from Asia Minor to Sicily. Certain modes of ritual were also common: for example, the sacrifice of a white animal on a raised altar.
Dias Velchanos
With one exception, the Greeks were unanimous in recognizing Zeus' birthplace as Crete. The Minoan civilization contributed many key elements of ancient Greek religion: "by a hundred channels the old civilization was emptied into the new," observed Will Durant, and the Cretan Zeus retained his youthful Minoan features. The native child of the Great Mother, "a minor and inferior deity who took the roles of son and wife," whose Minoan name the Greeks Hellenized as Velchanos, in time received as an epithet from Zeus, as revealed in many other locations. and came to be worshiped in Crete as Zeus Velchanos ("boy-Jupiter"), often simply Kouros.
In Crete, Zeus was worshiped in many caves at Knossos, Ida and Palaikastro. In the Hellenistic period, a small sanctuary dedicated to Zeus Velhanos was founded on the site of the Holy Trinity of an earlier Minoan city. In general, modern coins from Phaistos show the form in which she was worshipped: a youth seated among the branches of a tree, with a rooster on his knees. On other Cretan coins Velchanos is represented as an eagle and in conjunction with a goddess celebrating a secret wedding. Inscriptions at Gortyna and Lyttos record a Velchanian festival, showing that Velchanius was still widely worshiped in Hellenistic Crete.
The stories of Minos and Epimenides suggest that these caves were once used for divination by kings and priests. The dramatic setting of Plato's Laws is located along the pilgrimage route in such a space, emphasizing archaic Cretan knowledge. In Crete, Zeus was represented in art as a long-haired youth rather than a mature adult, and praised as ho megas kouros, "the great youth". Ivory figurines of the "Divine Boy" were discovered near the Labyrinth at Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans. Along with the Kouretes, a band of ecstatic armed dancers, he presided over the strict military-athletic training and secret rites of the Cretan schools.
The myth of the death of the Cretan Zeus is found at many mountain sites, although it is only mentioned in a relatively late source, Callimachus, along with Antoninus Liberalis' claim that a fire was lit annually from the birth cave that the infant shared with a mythical swarm of bees, suggests that Velchanos was an annual plant spirit. The Hellenistic writer Euimeros apparently proposed a theory that Zeus was indeed a great king of Crete and that after his death, his glory had slowly transformed him into a deity. Evimeros's own works have not survived, but Christian patristic writers took up the proposal.
Zeus Lycaeus
The epithet Zeus Lykaios (Lykaios; "wolf-Jupiter") is only appropriate in connection with the archaic Lycaean festival on the slopes of Mount Lykaion ("Mountain of the Wolves"), the highest peak in rustic Arcadia. Zeus had only a formal connection to the rituals and myths of this primitive rite with an ancient threat of cannibalism and the possibility of werewolf transformation for the teenage girls who participated. Near the ancient ash heap where the sacrifices took place was a forbidden enclosure in which, according to claims, there were never shadows.
According to Plato, a certain tribe would gather on the mountain to make a sacrifice every nine years to Zeus Lycaeus, and a single morsel of human entrails would be mixed with that of the animal. Anyone who ate human flesh was said to transform into a wolf and could only regain human form if they did not eat human flesh again until the next nine-year cycle ended. There were games associated with the Lycaea, which were removed in the fourth century to the first urbanization of Arcadia, Megalopolis. there the great temple was dedicated to Zeus Lycaeus.
There is, however, the crucial detail that Lykaios or Lykios (epithets of Zeus and Apollo) may come from Proto-Greek *lykes, "light," a noun still attested in compounds such as ἀφιλικη, "twilight," lykavas, "year This, argues Cooke, indeed throws much new 'light' on the subject as Achaeus, the contemporary tragedian of Sophocles, spoke of Zeus Lycaeus as 'stellar' and this Zeus Lycaeus may simply be the Arcadian Zeus, son of of Aether, described by Cicero. Again under this new meaning may be seen Pausanias' descriptions of Lycosura which was "the first city that the sun ever saw," and of the altar of Zeus, on the summit of Mount Lycaion, in front of which stood two columns which they bore gilded eagles and 'see the EAST'. Cooke further sees only the story of the sacred precinct of Zeus on Mt. Lycaeus that does not allow shadows referring to Zeus as "god of light" (Lycaeus).
Although etymology suggests that Zeus was originally a sky god, many Greek cities honored a local Zeus who lived underground. The Athenians and Sicilians honored Zeus Melichios (Meilichios, "gentle" or "honeyed"), while other cities had Zeus Chthonius ("earthly"), Zeus Katachthonius (Katachthonios, "under the earth") and Zeus Rich ("wealth"). "). These deities may be represented as snakes or in human form in visual art, or, for emphasis, as both together in one image. They also received offerings of black animal victims sacrificed in sunken pits, as did chthonic deities such as Persephone and Demeter, as well as the heroes in their tombs.The Olympian gods, in contrast, usually accepted white victims sacrificed on high altars.
In some cases, cities were not entirely sure whether the demon they sacrificed to was a hero or a subterranean Zeus. Thus, the sanctuary at Levadaea in Boeotia may belong to the hero Trophonius or to Zeus Trephonius ("the feeder"), depending on whether you believe Pausanias or Strabo. The hero Amphiaraus was honored as Zeus Amphiaraus on Oropos outside Thebes and the Spartans even had a shrine to Zeus Agamemnon. Ancient Molossian kings sacrificed to Zeus Areios (Areios). Strabo mentions that Zeus Larisaios (Larisaeus) was in Tralles. In Ithomi they honored Zeus Ithomes, they had a sanctuary and a statue of Zeus and they also held an annual festival in honor of Zeus called Ithomaia.
Massacre
Ekatomphonia (Ancient Greek: ἑκατομφονία), meaning killing a hundred, from ἑκατον "hundred" and foneio "to kill". It was a custom of the Messenians, in which they offered a sacrifice to Zeus when one of them had killed a hundred enemies. Aristomenes has offered this sacrifice three times in the Messenian wars against Sparta.
Non-panhellenic cults
In addition to the pan-Hellenic titles and conceptions mentioned above, local cults retained their own idiosyncratic ideas about the king of gods and men. Under the epithet Zeus Aetnaeus he was worshiped on Mount Etna, where there was a statue of him, and a local festival called Aetnaia in his honor. Other examples are listed below. As Zeus Aeneia or Zeus Aenesios (Aenesios), he was worshiped on the island of Kefalonia, where he had a temple on Mount Aenos.
Divination
Although most oracle sites were usually dedicated to Apollo, the heroes, or various goddesses such as Themis, some oracle sites were dedicated to Zeus. In addition, some foreign oracles, such as Baʿal at Heliopolis, were associated with Zeus in Greek or Zeus in Latin.
The Oracle in Dodoni
The worship of Zeus in Dodoni in Epirus, where there are evidences of religious activity from the second millennium BC. and then, centered on a sacred oak. When the Odyssey was written (around 750 BC), divination was done there by barefoot priests called Selloi, who would lie on the ground and observe the rustling of leaves and branches. By the time Herodotus wrote about Dodoni, female priestesses called peliades ("doves") had replaced the male priests.
Zeus's wife at Dodoni was not Hera, but the goddess Dione—whose name is a feminine form of "Jupiter." Her titanic status suggests to some that she may have been a more powerful pre-Hellenic deity, and perhaps the original occupant of the oracle.
The Oracle at Shiva
The oracle of Ammon at the Siwa Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert was not on the fringes of the Greek world before the time of Alexander, but it already loomed large in the Greek mind during the Archaic period: Herodotus mentions consultations with Zeus Ammon in his account Persian war. Zeus Ammonas was particularly favored in Sparta, where there was a temple to him during the time of the Peloponnesian War.
After Alexander made a trip to the desert to consult the oracle at Siva, the figure arose in the Hellenistic imagination of a Libyan Sibyl.
Identifications with other gods
Foreign gods
Zeus was identified with the Roman god Zeus and associated in comparative classical imagination (see interpretatio graeca) with various other deities, such as the Egyptian Ammon and the Etruscan Tinia. He, along with Dionysus, absorbed the role of the archphrygian god Sabasius into the comparative deity known in Rome as Sabasius. The Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes erected a statue of Olympian Zeus in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The Hellenized Jews referred to this statue as Baal Shamen (in English, Lord of Heaven). Jupiter is also identified with the Hindu deity Indra. Not only is he the king of the gods, but their weapon - thunder is similar.
Sun
Jupiter is occasionally confused with the Greek sun god Helios, who is sometimes either directly referred to as the eye of Jupiter, or clearly implied as such. Hesiod, for example, describes the eye of Jupiter as essentially the sun. This concept probably derives from earlier Proto-Indo-European religion, in which the sun is occasionally envisioned as the eye of *Dyḗus Pḥatḗr (see Hvare-khshaeta). Euripides in his now-lost tragedy The Mysias described Zeus as "sun-eyed", and Helios is elsewhere referred to as "the bright, life-giving eye of Zeus". In another Euripides tragedy, the Medea, the chorus refers to the Sun as "light born of Zeus."
Although the association of Helios with Zeus does not seem to have a basis in early Greek worship and writings, there are nevertheless many examples of direct identification in later times. The Hellenistic period gave birth to Serapis, a Greco-Egyptian deity conceived as a chthonic avatar of Zeus, whose solar nature is suggested by the sun's crown and rays with which the Greeks depicted him. Frequent joint dedications to "Jupiter-Serapis-Sun" have been found throughout the Mediterranean, for example, the Anastasia Papyrus (now housed in the British Museum equates Helios not only with Jupiter and Serapis, but also with Mithras, and a series of inscriptions from Trachonitis gives evidence of the cult of "Zeus the Unconquered Sun", meaning that the solar elements of the cult of Zeus could be as early as the fifth century BC.
The Cretan Zeus Tallaeus had solar elements in his worship. "Talosos" was the local equivalent of Helios.
Later performances
Philosophy
In Neoplatonism, the relationship of Zeus to the gods familiar from mythology is taught as the Demiurge or Divine Mind, specifically in the work of Plotinus, the Enneads and the Platonic Theology of Proclus.
The Bible
Zeus is mentioned in the New Testament twice, first in Acts 14:8–13: When the people living in Lystra saw the Apostle Paul healing a lame man, they considered Paul and his companion Barnabas to be gods, identifying Paul with Hermes and Barnabas. with Zeus, even trying to offer them sacrifices with the crowd. Two ancient inscriptions discovered in 1909 near Lystra testify to the worship of these two gods in this city. One of the inscriptions refers to the "priests of Zeus", and the other mentions "Mercury the Great" and "Zeus the sun god".
The second incident is found in Acts 28:11: the name of the ship in which the captive Paul sailed from the island of Malta, bore the guise of "Sons of Zeus" also known as Castor and Pollux (Dioscos).
Deuteronomy 2 Maccabees 6:1, 2 tells of King Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), who in his attempt to eradicate the Jewish religion, ordered the temple in Jerusalem to be desecrated and rededicated to Zeus (Olympius Zeus). .
Statue of Olympian Zeus
The Statue of Olympian Zeus was a colossal, seated figure of the god Zeus, about 42 feet (13 meters) tall, sculpted by the Athenian sculptor Pheidias about 435 BC. and placed inside the temple of Zeus, in the Sanctuary of Olympia. It was one of the most magnificent monuments built in antiquity, while the colossal statue was included in the Seven Wonders of the World, until its final loss and destruction in the 5th century AD.
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| Fantasy depiction of the Statue of Olympian Zeus |
History
It was sculpted by the famous sculptor of the time, Pheidias around 430 BC. and was placed as a cult statue in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia in ancient Ilia, in the western Peloponnese, near the banks of the Alpheus River. The hill above Altin was a place of worship for Saturn, father of Zeus, hence its name Kronios. The location is historic, since many battles took place here since ancient times, and since 1000 BC. Heraion, one of the oldest temples of Greece and dedicated to Hera, dominated there. Near this ancient temple was the stadium of the Olympic games.
In 470 BC the great temple of Zeus was built here, by the Helio architect Livon, which later became a model for several Doric temples due to its geometric rigor. The Ilians, therefore, having apparently heard about the famous Athena Partheno, the enormous chryselephantine statue created by the sculptor Phidias for the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, desired a similar artistic masterpiece. Thus, when the sculptor left Athens for political reasons related to the statue of Athena and ended up in Olympia, he was summoned by the locals for the construction of a magnificent work of art that would add more luster to the space. This would not only impress the inhabitants of Ilia and show the greatness of the god, but could turn into a strong attraction for people from all over Greece and the Mediterranean, as well as a sign of power. Indeed, after its construction, the cult statue in the nave of this temple became so famous in its time that many warriors and other people visited it to see it. For centuries it was one of the sights that every mortal had to see before he died.
The work's sculptor himself is said to have similarly extolled the value of his achievement. It is said that when the statue was already finished, Phidias prayed to his god to give him a sign if his own work was in accordance with his opinion. And immediately a bolt of lightning fell on some part of the ground, in which until the days of Pausanias they had placed a bronze hydria.
The floor of the temple in front of the statue was slightly deeper and filled with olive oil, reflecting the golden parts of Zeus. The chryselephantine statue of Zeus was repaired by the sculptor Damophon the Messenian during the first half of the 2nd century BC, because it showed cracks. It is even said that he did it with too much skill. In fact, there were also special repairers of the statue, the so-called "Phaeidrydae" or "Stilbotae of Pheidius", who lived in Olympia. At that time classicist tendencies prevailed in Hellenistic sculpture. During the late 4th century BC the king of Syria Antiochus I Sotir sent as a vow to Olympia a woolen curtain, decorated with woven Assyrians and dyed with purple from Phoenicia. This is probably what was placed behind the statue of Zeus, thus giving the work another dimension that combined the imposing Eastern artistic tradition with the perfection of a majestic Western artefact. Later, in the time of Julius Caesar, a lightning struck the temple area and the statue, but without causing extensive damage.
Loss and destruction
According to Suetonius, the Roman emperor Caligula had ordered it to be taken to Rome and its face changed, giving it the form of the emperor, but this was not done, because the ship waiting at the port to load it was struck by lightning and burned. According to another tradition, the statue gave a very loud bang, which sounded like the sound of laughter, so that the scaffolding surrounding it collapsed and the workers fled. Fortunately for them, the emperor had already been assassinated when they returned to Rome, empty-handed.
After the abolition of the Olympic Games in 393 AD. the temple declined. In 426 AD in the time of Theodosius, the temple was set on fire and the statue destroyed or dismembered and looted, although the circumstances of its eventual destruction are relatively unknown. According to another version, Theodosios in 390 AD. he transferred it to Constantinople. There, it was placed inside the Palace of Lavsus, a Greek Christian eunuch, along with other great works of art, where it was destroyed by a great fire in AD 475. remaining there for about 60 years. While the Sanctuary of Olympia was collapsing due to negligence, the statue, which was considered the greatest work of classical sculpture, was lost in the surrounding Vasilevousa.
And the temple had no better fate than the statue. By order of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II, around 426, the sanctuary was looted, while earthquakes in the years 522 and 551 caused the partial burial of the ruins of the temple of Zeus. According to another view, the architecture of Livon was looted by the Goths and its remains were turned into a Christian temple, until it was destroyed by an earthquake, while later the ruins were covered by the bed of the river Alpheios. In 1875 a German expedition made archaeological excavations and by 1881 had brought the ruins back to light, under four meters of soil. In 2004, the year of the Olympic Games in Athens, a colonnade of the temple was restored, which shows the visitors of Olympia the size and former grandeur of the temple.
Specifications
The construction of the project lasted two Olympic seasons, i.e. eight years. Pheidias' technique was essentially based on wood, as the body of his statues was made of wood and soaked in a special liquid to prevent it from drying out. The wood was covered with layers of gold and ivory plates, the eyes were of precious stones, while the mantle was of marble covered with gold leaves. And the laurel wreath on the head was made of green enamel. The seated Zeus stood out inside the temple on three steps and according to estimates reached 12 meters in height. "It was as if Zeus were raising his stature" writes the Greek geographer Strabo in a report in the 1st century BC. The statue was surrounded by thirty-six tall granite columns.
Zeus sat on a throne made of ivory, gold, ebony and other precious stones. In his right hand, Zeus held a golden-ivory statue of the goddess Nike, which wore a band and crown on the head, while in his left hand his scepter, which was made of all kinds of metals and topped with the trademark eagle God's. Two imitations of resting lions stood near his feet, giving the impression of watchful protection. On the robe of the figure were carved small animals (zῴdia) and the lilies of the flowers. The throne was awash with painted imitations of animals and sculptural representations of other majestic scenes. As we know from depictions on coins of Ilia and from ancient descriptions, the arms of the throne supported sculpted depictions of Sphinxes abducting Theban youths. The slaying of Niobe's children by Apollo and Artemis was represented under the two Sphinxes. On each leg of the throne were a total of four figures of Victory who appeared to be dancing, while two others were placed towards the sole of each of the god's feet. In the space between the legs of the throne were four belts, each of which went from leg to leg. On the zone directly facing the entrance were seven statues, but the eighth of them had already been lost since the time of Pausanias, and no one knew how. These sculptures depicted the most ancient competitions, while in some the figure of a self-crowned youth resembled Pantarkis, a youth from Ilia who was the lover of Pheidias. Another reference to Pantarkis was the phrase carved on a finger of Zeus that read "PANTARKIS KALOS" ("Pantarkis is handsome"). In the remaining zones, those who fought alongside Heraclea the Amazons were depicted, and the opposing figures were twenty-seven in total, as Theseus was also included among the allies of Thebes. On the upper part of the throne, above the head of the figure, Phidias created on one side the Graces and on the other the Hours, three on each. On the side members were metal plates engraved with representations of the Rising Venus, the chariot of the Sun, and the chariot of the Moon. There were also paintings on the walls blocking access to the throne, by the painter and relative of Pheidias, Panainus. Some of them represented Theseus with his friend Peirithos, Atlas who supported the sky and the earth and near him Heracles, the personifications of Greece and Salamis, as well as another Hippodamia, which was represented in a sculpture in the east pediment of the temple. The roof over the statue was open to let in plenty of light.
Sources
The sculpture was presented to Louis XIV as Aesculapius but restored as Zeus, ca. 1686, by Pierre Granier, who added the upraised right arm brandishing the thunderbolt. Marble, middle 2nd century CE. Formerly in the 'Allée Royale', (Tapis Vert) in the Gardens of Versailles, now conserved in the Louvre Museum (official on-line catalog)
Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.
Wells, John C. (1990). Longman pronunciation dictionary. Harlow, England: Longman. ISBN 0582053838. entry "Zeus"
www.wikipedia.com
Hesiod, Theogony 542 and other sources.
This annually reborn god of vegetation also experienced the other parts of the vegetation cycle: holy marriage and annual death when he was thought to disappear from the earth" (Dietrich 1973:15).
Richard Wyatt Hutchinson, Prehistoric Crete, (Harmondsworth: Penguin) 1968:204, mentions that there is no classical reference to the death of Zeus (noted by Dietrich 1973:16 note 78).
Rodney Castleden, Minoans: Life in Bronze-Age Crete, "The Minoan belief-system" (Routledge) 1990:125
Pointed out by Bernard Clive Dietrich, The Origins of Greek Religion (de Gruyter) 1973:15.
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