Zeus

Zeus is the son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. He is the brother of his wife Hera, his other sisters Demeter and Hestia, and his brothers Hades, Poseidon.

• Divine Mates

Roman Equivalent:

The Roman name for Zeus is Jupiter and sometimes Jove. Jupiter is thought to be made up of a Proto-Indoeuropean word for god, *deiw-os, combined with the word for father, pater, like Zeus + Pater.

Attributes:

Zeus is shown with a beard and long hair. His other attributes include scepter, eagle, cornucopia, aegis, ram, and lion.
The cornucopia or (goat) horn of plenty comes from the story of his Zeus' infancy when he was nursed by Amalthea.

Powers of Zeus:

Zeus is a sky god with control over weather, especially of rain and lightning. He is King of the gods and a god of oracles -- especially in the sacred oak at Dodona. In the story of the Trojan War, Zeus, as a judge, listens to the claims of other gods in support of their side. He then renders decisions on acceptable behavior. He remains neutral most of the time, allowing his son Sarpedon to die and glorifying his favorite, Hector.

Sources:

Ancient sources for Zeus include: Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus, Hesiod, Homer, and Hyginus.

Etymology of Zeus and Jupiter:

The root of both "Zeus" and "Jupiter" is in a proto-Indo-European word for the often personified concepts of "day/light/sky".

Zeus and the Origin of Man:

Ages of Man

Zeus Abducts Mortals:

There are many myths about Zeus. Some involve demanding acceptable conduct of others, whether human or divine. Zeus was enraged with the behavior of Prometheus. The titan had tricked Zeus into taking the non-meat portion of the original sacrifice, so that mankind could enjoy the food. In response, the king of the gods deprived mankind of the use of fire so they wouldn't be able to enjoy the boon they'd been granted, but Prometheus found a way around this, and stole some of the gods' fire by hiding it in a stalk of fennel and then giving it to mankind. Zeus punished Prometheus with having his liver pecked out every day.
But Zeus himself misbehaves -- at least according to human standards. It is tempting to say that his primary occupation is that of seducer. In order to seduce, he sometimes changed his shape into that of an animal or bird.

• When he impregnated Leda, he appeared as a swan [see Leda and the Swan].
• When he abducted Ganymede, he appeared as an eagle [see Zeus and Ganymede] in order to take Ganymede to the home of the gods where he would replace Hebe as cupbearer; and
• when Zeus carried off Europa, he appeared as a tempting white bull
  [see Europa and Zeus] -- although why the Mediterranean women were so enamored of bulls is beyond the imaginative capacities of this urban-dweller -- setting in motion the quest of Cadmus and the settling of Thebes. The hunt for Europa provides one mythological version of the introduction of letters to Greece.

Olympics:
The Olympic Games were held to honor Zeus. Pausanias 5.7 says the Olympic origins lie with Zeus' victory over Cronus. The following passage also explains musical elements in the ancient Olympics.

 Now some say that Zeus wrestled here with Cronus himself for the throne, while others say that he held the games in honor of his victory over Cronus. The record of victors include Apollo, who outran Hermes and beat Ares at boxing. It is for this reason, they say, that the Pythian flute-song is played while the competitors in the pentathlum are jumping; for the flute-song is sacred to Apollo, and Apollo won Olympic victories.
Origins of the Olympics

Apollo

Apollo
Unlike most of the Olympian gods, there was no special Latin variant of his name, so the Romans also called him Apollo.
Phoebus Apollo
Sometimes the Romans referred to him as Phoebus, either alone or combined, as in Phoebus Apollo.
Sol
As sun god, he was also called by the Latin word for sun, Sol.

Attributes, Animals, and Powers:

Apollo is depicted as a beardless young man (ephebe). His attributes are the tripod, omphalos, lyre, bow and arrows, laurel, hawk, raven or crow, swan, fawn, roe, snake, mouse, grasshopper, and griffin. Although often associated with the sun, Apollo was not originally a sun god. In Homer, he is god of prophecy and plagues. He is also a warrior in the Trojan War. [Gods in the Iliad shows which side the gods favored.] Elsewhere Apollo is also a god of healing and the arts -- especially music (Apollo taught Orpheus to play the lyre) -- archery, agriculture . His arrows could send plague, as happens in the Iliad Book I.

• Titles of Apollo
• Apollo's Symbols

Apollo's Mates:

Apollo mated with many women and a few men. It wasn't safe to resist his advances. When the seer Cassandra rejected him, he punished her by making it impossible for people to believe her prophecies. When Daphne sought to reject Apollo, her father "helped" her by turning her into a laurel tree. Apollo sired mostly males, including Asclepius.
Apollo never married.

• Apollo's Mates

Apollo Becomes a Laborer:

Apollo is a healing god. He transmitted this power to his son Asclepius, who exploited his ability to heal by raising men from the dead. Zeus punished Asclepius by striking him with a thunderbolt. Apollo retaliated by killing the Cyclops, who had created the thunderbolt. Zeus punished his son Apollo by sentencing him to a year of servitude, which he spent as herdsman for the mortal king Admetus. Euripides' Alcestis tragedy tells the story of the reward Apollo paid Admetus.

In the Trojan War:

The Trojan War was a pivotal event for the Greeks. In the Iliad (attributed to Homer), the god Zeus attempts to maintain neutrality during the war, but other gods and goddesses choose sides. Apollo and his sister Artemis side with the Trojans in the Trojan War. In the first book of the Iliad, he is angry with the Greeks for refusing to return the daughter of his priest Chryses. To punish them, the god showers the Greeks with arrows of plague, possibly bubonic, since the plague-sending Apollo is a special aspect connected with mice, sort of an Apollo the Mousey God.

• Pride of Agamemnon and Achilles
  Provides more details on how Agamemnon's behavior provoked Apollo. As the title suggests, it also explains the relationship between the two excessively proud warriors.

Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo:

There is a hymn called the Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo, because it was attributed to Homer, that was written to honor the Apollo who slew the python. There is another Homeric hymn, to Delian Apollo, honoring Delos, his birthplace.

Apollo and the Laurel Wreath of Victory:

Apollo slew the python, competed musically with another god, Pan, and insulted still another god, the god of love (Eros/Amor/Cupid). As a result of the last, Cupid shot him with one of his special arrows: Apollo was fated to a disastrous and unrequited love. Daphne, the object of his love, metamorphosed into a laurel tree to avoid him. Leaves from the laurel tree were thereafter used to crown victors at the Pythian games.

• The Victory Laurel
• Apollo at Delphi
  Apollo's expiation for the crime of the murder of the Python is connected with laurel, as well. The Pythian games featured musical competitions.
  

Apollo in 20th Century Culture:

Apollo Mission: The U.S. used the name of the Greek god Apollo for NASA's Apollo Program (1963 - 1972), whose purpose was to take people to the moon.
Who Mourns for Adonais? (1967):
Apollo also made a memorable appearance in the original Star Trek television series where he was trying to find worshipers.

Apollo and the Sun:

Apollo has many attributes, but he wasn't originally the chariot-riding sun god Helios. He was god of prophecy, healing, music, archery, light, and truth, the twin brother of Artemis (Greek) or Diana (Rome) who became associated with the moon. Perhaps the earliest reference to Apollo as the sun god Helios occurs in the surviving fragments of Euripides' Phaethon. Phaethon was one of the chariot horses of the Homeric goddess of the dawn, Eos. It was also the name of the son of the sun god who foolishly drove his father's sun-chariot and died for the privilege.
By the Hellenistic period and in Latin literature, Apollo is associated with the sun. The firm connection with the sun may be traceable to the Metamorphoses of the popular Latin poet Ovid (43 B.C. - A.D. 17).

See "Apollo and the Sun-God in Ovid," by Joseph E. Fontenrose. The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 61, No. 4. (1940), pp. 429-444.

Greek GODs

In Greek mythology, Greek gods frequently interact with humans, especially attractive young women, and so you will find them in genealogy charts for the important figures from Greek legend.
These are the main Greek gods you will find in Greek mythology:

• Apollo
• Ares
• Dionysus
• Hades
• Hephaestus
• Hermes
• Poseidon
• Zeus
• Below you will find a some information about each of these Greek gods with hyperlinks to their more complete profiles.
  

  1. Apollo - Greek God of Prophecy, Music, Healing, and Later, the Sun

  CC Maciej Szczepanczyk
  Apollo is a many-talented Greek god of prophecy, music, intellectual pursuits, healing, plague, and sometimes, the sun. Writers often contrast the cerebral, beardless young Apollo with his half-brother, the hedonistic Dionysus, god of wine.
  

  2. Ares - Greek God of War

  Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons.
  Ares is a war and violence god in Greek mythology. He was not well liked or trusted by the Greeks and there are few tales about him.While most of the Greek gods and goddesses are closely related to their Roman counterparts, the Romans revered their version of Ares, Mars.
  

  3. Dionysus - Greek God of Wine

  Clipart.com
  Dionysus is the Greek god of wine and drunken revelry in Greek mythology. He is a patron of the theater and an agricultural/fertility god. He was sometimes at the heart of frenzied madness that led to savage murder.
  

  4. Hades - Greek God of the Underworld

  Credits: Paula Chabot, 2000 From VROMA http://www.vroma.org/
  Although Hades is one of the Greek gods of Mt. Olympus, he lives in the Underworld with his wife, Persephone, and rules the dead. Hades is not the god of death, however. Hades is feared and hated.
  
  

  5. Poseidon - Greek God of the Sea

  Keightley's Mythology, 1852.
  Poseidon is one of the three brother gods in Greek mythology who divided the world among themselves. Poseidon's lot was the sea. As sea god Poseidon is usually seen with a trident. He is the god of water, horses, and earthquakes and was considered responsible for shipwrecks and drownings.
  

  6. Zeus - King of the Greek Gods

  Keightley's Mythology, 1852.
  Zeus is father of Greek gods and men. A sky god, he controls lightning, which he uses as a weapon, and thunder. Zeus is king on Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods.
  
  

Greek Mythology

Greek Gods - The Major Greek Gods

Here are the main Greek gods. Most of these are called Olympian gods.

• Who Were the Greek Gods?
• 12 Olympian Gods
• Apollo
• Ares
• Dionysus
• Hades

• Hephaestus
• Hermes
• Poseidon
• Zeus
• Roman Names for the Greek Gods and Goddesses

Greek Goddesses - The Major Greek Goddesses

Here are the main Greek goddesses. Most of these are called Olympian goddesses.

• Who Were the Greek Goddesses?
• Aphrodite
• Artemis
• Athena
• Demeter

• Hera
• Hestia
• Persephone
• Roman Names for the Greek Gods and Goddesses