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Period 2 Zeus

Page history last edited by Shreyas Panchagnula 1 yr ago

Zeus

page by Shreyas Panchagnula; Period 2

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Roman name:Jupiter

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Who is Zeus?

~Zeus is the King of all Greek Gods and the ruler of Mount Olympus.^[3]

~He is in charge of the sky and the weather, especially thunderstorms.^[4]

~A symbol that represents him is the thunderbolt, his main weapon. He is also represented by the eagle and the scepter.^[5]

What is the story of his birth?

~He was the youngest son of Cronus and Rhea (both shown below).^[6]

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~Cronus was the ruler Gods. With the fear that one of his sons would dethrone him, he started to eat his sons.^[8]

~When Zeus was born, his mother Rhea wanted to protect him. She hid him in a cave, where a goat raised Zeus as an infant.^[9]

~Rhea then wrapped a rock in cloth and gave it to Cronus so Cronus could believe he ate his own son.^[10]

~Later, when Zeus grew up to be an adult, he wanted to take revenge of Cronus^[11]

~He needed allies to help him overthrow Cronus, so he freed the Cyclopes from Tartarus; in gratitude, the Cyclopes gave thunderbolts to Zeus.^[12]

~ He overthrew his father Cronus after releasing his siblings and then married his sister Hera(shown below).^[13]

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~After Zeus overthrew his father, he took control of the heavens, his brother Poseidon took control of the sea, and his other brother Hades ruled the Underworld. They all agreed to rule the earth and mortals together.^[15]

Zeus and Metis

~An interesting story about Zeus was that his first love was Metis, the goddess of wisdom.^[16]

~Against her wishes, he made her pregnant and angered the goddess Gaia. Gaia then made the prophecy that the male offspring of Metis will dethrone Zeus.^[17]

~Zeus then swallows Metis, similar to what his father did. Metis gave birth to a daughter, who grew inside Zeus and gave him a headache.^[18]

~To relieve Zeus’s pain, Hera’s son Hephaestus(shown below) used a golden axe to cut Zeus’s head.^[19]

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~Out of Zeus’s split head emerged Metis’s daughter, the goddess of war, Athena.^[21]

~Athena (shown in the picture below) became Zeus’s advisor.^[22]

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Zeus's Life:

~Zeus had many affairs with goddesses and mortal women. Often Hera would be jealous and show her anger on Zeus’s mistresses.^[24]

~Once, Zeus had an affair with the goddess Leto. In turn, she bore Apollo, the sun god, and Artemis, the virgin goddess(both shown below). Hera was naturally jealous of Leto, and let her have difficulty in finding a place to bear her two children.^[25]

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~Another of Zeus’s affairs was with Leda, a Spartan queen. He seduced her in the form of a swann, and she consequently bore Helen, a major character in the Trojan War.^[28]

~Zeus was also very vindictive. When Prometheus gave fire to the mortals against Zeus’s wishes, Zeus chained him to a rock and let a vulture feast on him everyday. Later, Heracles (son of Zeus) freed Prometheus.^[29]

~Once, when the gods did not appreciate Zeus’s reign, they hatched a conspiracy and succeeded in disarming Zeus. However, Zeus escaped, and the plot failed. Zeus decided to be a better ruler.^[30]

~Zeus had some enemies. The mother of the Titans, Gaia, was angry at Zeus for imprisoning the Titans in Tartarus. She sent a troop of giants destined to be killed only by a mortal to besiege Mount Olympus. Zeus’s son Heracles helped his father killed the giants.^[31]

~In a final attempt to defeat Zeus, Gaia created the monster Typhoon, which had a human shape but snakes replaced with legs. The monster came to attack Mount Olympus, and all of the gods fled except Athena.^[32]

~Athena taunted Zeus by calling him a coward, and Zeus decided to stay in Mount Olympus and fight Typhoon. A fierce battle occured, and finally Typhoon was about to use a mountain to hurl at Zeus.^[33]

~Just then, Zeus shot 100 thunderbolts at Typhoon, and the monster fell with a mountain over it. Typhoon didn't die, but it shook occasionally, and still does today, under Mt.Aetna, the volcano.^[34]

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