Zeus

Father of the gods and men, ruler in the divine place of Olympos, Zeus was the god of the weather, thunder and the storms. His weapon was the thunderbolt. which instilled terror and awe in gods and men alike.Apart from the thunderbolt, which is depicted in the form of a lily, the other symbol of Zeus was the eagle.a bird that lived in the mountains and lorded over all things below.S upremacy and power were not given to Zeus, these he got through with fierce conflict with the Titans.The fear of losing power to his progeny also effected Zeus as much as it had his father Kronos and led to his systematic and methodic destruction of them. When Metis the wise became pregnant Zeus swallowed her and there followed the well - known and singular birth of Athena from his head. Because of this fear he avoided union with Thetis who then married Peleus and produced Achilles.This way he forestalled and eradicated any claiments to the throne. Feeling stronger and more at peace he then married his sister Hera.

This did not stop his philanderings with immortals and mortals thus he produced countless children and this made him father of the gods and of men.From Hera Zeus produced Ares, Hebe and Eileithyia. The other child Concieved by Hera is said to come from her self concieving without the help of any man but it is thought that he was in fact the son of Zeus. Zeus persued Asteria who , in order to escape changed first into a quail and then into a rocky island. After Asteria he persued Leto and joined with her in Miletus on the coast of Asia Minor. When the time came for her to give birth , she was persued by Hera and was taken in by her sister and Apollo and Artemis were born. Zeus then laid with Maria, one of the daughters of Atlas and fathered Hermes, messanger of the gods. Zeus then unitied with his second sisyer and fathered Persephone who later became the wife of Hades. Semele daughter of king Kadmos was the next to suffer at the hands of Hera whom it is said to have caused Zeus to kill with a thunderbolt.

As she was pregnant with Dionysos Zeus is said to have taken the child from the womb of the dead Semele and sewn it to his thigh until it was time for the birth. With Themis the daughter of Uranos and Gaia who was his aunt , he fathered the hours(Eunomia, Dike and Irene)and the Fates (Klotho, Lachesis and Atropos).However, the union of Zeus with his other aunt Mnemonsyne produced the nine Muses, who lived on Olympos and bestowed joy and serenity upon the gods and men. The sea nymph Eurynome, daughter of Okeanos and Tethys, bore him the three graces- Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thaleia. Zeus often desired mortal woman and would frequently resort to the method of metamorphosis in order to passess them. He also lay with Niobe and Lo in Argos. With Niobe he fathered Argos and Pelasgos. With Lo he fathered Epaphos. In order to mlay bwith another mortal Alcmene of Thebes, Zeus took on the shape of her husband Amphitryon. As she lay with her husband the next day when she gave birth to twins, it is said that each man had fathered a child, The first Herakles to Zeus and the second Iphicles to Amphityon.

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