One of the earliest representations of Zeus enthroned cut Laconian 's Naucratis Painter , ca 560 BC. BC , Louvre (E 668)

Zeus (the ancient Greek / is the king of the gods in Greek mythology. He reigns over heaven and symbols for the eagle and the stroke of lightning . In ancient Greek, is found in the words / ndios and / Eudi which denote the midday (the climax of the day) and good weather.

This name is a component of many words: the name of Dioscuri ( / Dioskouroi, "youth of Zeus"), the city of Dioscourias , etc.. The Greeks swore often by the name of Zeus, through the expressions / My tone and Da N / Do your Dia.

Myth

Children

Rhea, Amalthea nursing and dance Curetes (drawing of a bas-relief of Roman altar)

Rhea has a swaddled stone to Cronos (drawing the bas-relief of a Roman altar)

Zeus was born the Titan Cronus and his sister Rhea , and is the youngest of their six children by Hesiod . This descent will be considered the branch as opposed to Olympian Titans. Cronos, as tyrannical as his father, for fear of the prediction of his parents, Ouranos and Gaia , it would create a rival who would reign in his stead, swallowed his children immediately after birth. Zeus had to quickly escape his terrible parent, and his mother, advised by his mother Gaia, replace the younger a stone swaddled. Taken to Crete where he was raised by the nymphs of Mount Ida in a secret cave Lyctos , the infant was nursed by the goat Amalthea , and her screams could betray his presence was covered by Curetes which in their war dances crashing their arms with a crash.

The advent

Zeus receiving the homage of the gods of Olympus (drawing of a bas-relief)

His first adult gestures will displace the cruel god who begot: Cronos , a giant monstrous and primitive as Ouranos , power-hungry without sharing, causing abortions father kicked and son engulfing his meal their newborns. If Uranus was neutralized by his own son who emasculated when a hug with Gaia , Zeus will take turn to shoot the power of Cronos. Titaness courting the Metis , who would become his first wife, he persuades her to absorb his father a drink emetic. Cronos will dismiss all children and swallowed . Zeus found her sisters: Hestia , their oldest daughter, who remains a virgin, Demeter and Hera to be his successive wives, and his two elder brothers with him forming a kind of "Trinity": Poseidon and Hades who will share after their younger brother who made heaven, the rest of the world: first, the Sea, the second Earth.

With the help of his brothers, children of the goddess Styx , an ally of Hell , some son of Gaia issued for the occasion of Tartarus : the three giants , the Cyclopes : Arges , Lightning, Brontes , Thunder, and Steropes , Lightning, all three weapons Jovian blacksmiths, three of the Giants, born of "blood" of the emasculation of their father Ouranos : Briareos and his two brothers Cottos and GYES ; called Hecatonchires , "giants the percent-arm " , even those who, after the victory of Zeus, will retain forever the Titans behind the doors of bronze in the unfathomable darkness below the Hades . All titan and some Titans, whose Iapetus and Ocean , which will be the progenitor of all gods and goddesses aquatic remain behind the war that lasted 10 years.

The Thomachie Olympian

The Gigantomachy

Gaia, after brooding hatred, had prompted her children to war, the Giants (or Gigants Gegenes, born from the Earth) to dethrone Zeus and the Titans issue of tartar. These monsters were both immunized against the blows of the gods and immortals on their native soil . Zeus had to lead with Alcmene , his last known fatal mistress, a hero of force without equal: Heracles whose arrows poisoned with deadly blood of the Hydra of Lerna , will marvel.

The brothers Otus and Ephialtes, Giants facetious, undertook to reach the sky and to threaten the gods. They stack on the Olympus mountains Pelion and Ossa , but will be diverted from them by their father Poseidon before the lightning strikes of Zeus. In another version, they are quickly defeated and imprisoned in Tartarus by Apollo , his sister Artemis and their father Zeus.

The plot of Hera

Helped to Apollo and Athena , she managed to bind Zeus but Briareos alerted by Thetis came to the god issue. This episode is recounted by Homer in the Iliad : epilogue was a lot about the symbolism of the god devoted to mankind, but stripped, tortured and bound to his rock in pain. Prometheus is an allegorical figure of the pantheon. It is without doubt the opportunistic creature, wily, and resourceful rebel whose ideal is to become a force equal to the gods Zeus and is now forced to take a certain level of consideration.

The battle against Typhon

Zeus fighting Typhon , hydria Chalcidian black-figure, ca 550 BC. BC , Staatliche Antikensammlungen

It was the most terrible battle that Zeus had to be taken. This immortal monster with a hundred heads of the dragon , the strokes of lightning from Zeus eventually push back and rejoin the Titans in the depths of Tartarus, where he blows since his rage in hurricanes. This simple version by Hesiod is the point of view of continuity of the narrative, the most satisfactory.

Yet the birth of this monster was an opportunity to Zeus, in a curious episode and describes eventful with variations according to the authors , a weak character and even distraught, threatening by its state of Impotence - leaving the ground, disjointed puppet, without the sinews of his four limbs, he had finally recovered - the cohesion of the universe. This episode shows analogies with the struggle of Baal and the fable Cphons Phoenician was also thought to bring the legend of "Seth" pursuing Egyptian Osiris. This is an example where the Greeks joined precisely theogony cosmogony. Furthermore, the myth of Typhon, evil genius and indestructible resurface later in other religions to embody Satan.

Wives

Polygamy is not a Zeus of Greek tradition from which it was not part of morals. Alliances of Zeus were first required to expand the pantheon and diversity of functions and powers divine. Free unions with earthly creatures on their side had the advantage of bridging the gap between too steep gods, nymphs and mortals. Are created demigods or heroes who are as much characters as symbolic virtues sometimes enlightening, sometimes caricatured. Are identified below that wives deemed divine.

• The three girls and two boys, Zeus and Poseidon of Cronos form the direct lineage of the "great Olympians." Second generation, only four "legitimate" children of Zeus were mostly admitted: the son of Hera, Hephaestus and Ares , and the twins Leto: Apollo and Artemis. The last three, Aphrodite , Dionysus and Athena , share of births difficult to establish, given the differences among authors. They were incorporated into the Greek Theogony but their remote origin is undoubtedly derived from foreign traditions in the Hellenic world. Only the essential scope of their symbolism has made them relate to the great Olympians. Athena Polias first is the ancient deity protector of the eponymous town. Dionysus , god of Thracian or Phrygian orgiastic cult had left a very popular though little appreciated aristocracies Greek. Aphrodite is an ancient god of erotic native Middle East whose celebration was passed by the people of Cyprus and Cythera.

• Metis , a Ocanide : motherhood was overshadowed by the prediction of Gaia warned Zeus that a girl who would be born as wise as his father and a son who would follow dethrone. Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife, but, according to a plausible version of the form of a fly which was hiding Mtis speedy disguise. His daughter Athena , once formed in his belly, falls adult and fully armed from his head open with an ax to Hephaestus.

• Themis , a Titaness : she bore Zeus three hours , and the Fates (or Fates , in Latin ). According to another version, Themis was the wife of the regular Titan Iapetus , with whom she would be Prometheus. It would be a bigamist in this case, but a conventional version indicates that the wife and real mother is the Ocanide Clymene. Themis was a gift of clairvoyance that later served to Zeus to avoid creating a son who would have supplanted, and Atlas who knew that a son of Zeus, Heracles , would steal the Golden Apples of the Hesperides. She presided over a time the Oracle of Delphi.

The birth of the three Fates remains a question: Hesiod gives them as the daughters of the royal couple they helped Zeus in his battle against the Titans - but are also referred to as the daughters of Nyx , divine creature born of Chaos who begat without male principle. This resolves the ambiguity specific birth of Zeus, the god of destiny, but obedient to the will of fate that it should, nor any other god, change the term. The two famous singers, Homer and Virgil, the paint always as simple executor of destiny, a balance of gold in his hands, and sending an independent force to which subject the gods of Olympus.

• Eurynome a Ocanide ; whom Zeus begat, the three Graces (or Thanksgiving ), best known for. These girls had no major role. Their relatives, their number and their names sometimes differ.

• Demeter , an Olympian, sister of Zeus: goddess of great importance, but whose relations with this husband episodic are limited. She is best known by its untangled to rescue their daughter Persephone , the victim of all sorts of vexations, that girl is born also in Styx , an infernal goddess. Demeter, goddess of the "fertile soil", easily found its equivalent in foreign traditions: the Romans Ceres and Cybele in Phrygia, to the best known.

• Mnemosyne , a Titaness : it begat the nine Muses.

• Leto , a Titaness : it gives to Zeus the twins, a boy, Apollo and a daughter Artemis. Their birth gave vent to very different versions. But it is undoubtedly the most beautiful offspring of the master of the gods. But children who had terrible, among others, the distinction of announcing the death to humans, with each of her sex: "the sweet arrows of Death" Homer sang.

• Dione , a goddess "primitive" lover of Zeus, his role seems to be related to the oracles. Homer actually one of Okeanos, Amphitrite and mother of Aphrodite. The paternity of Zeus for Aphrodite is recognized by the bard but denied by Hesiod that gave birth to the seed of Uranus spread over the sea (it is now known as the goddess Anadyomene, "born from the foam).

But more likely, the name of Dione is a feminine form of Zeus , some authors favor a "mother goddess" of course Mediterranean tradition, a counterpart of the patriarchal god, or else for an avatar of the wife of Zeus, when Hera was gradually assimilated.

• Maia , a Pliade : it is mentioned as a divine essence, but it was rather a fleeting love of Zeus already married to Hera. The latter, always quick to harshly punish the indiscretions of her husband, was not, however, no shade and was very sympathetic towards him. Union was born Hermes , faithful factotum of his father and great lover like him .

• Thetis , a Nereid , sister of Eurynome : the temptation was cut short because Zeus fell within the scope of the predictions of Gaia , who remain a real family curse: the son born of this liaison supplant his father. She was married as a precaution the mortal Peleus.

• Hera , herself the sister of Zeus: it is given as the bride and final "official" of the god. But it is often the turning stories that the couple had been dating for a long time. They had Ares , Hebe and Eileithyia and the tradition has not forgotten their son Hephaestus that Hesiod wants to be born without male principle of Hera (capacity normally reserved for primitive gods, or tartar as Gaia).

Hera, uncompromising on marriage, is the model of the faithful wife and protector of women. His petulance, his jealousy and resentment are the subjects of perpetual trouble for the master of the gods that ignites at the sight of any nymph or some other desirable beautiful creature whose heavenly or earthly goddess invariably becomes the persecutor. The two prominent Olympians will form the image of the couple in fidelity copy otherwise, at least stability. Their love affair has been widely praised by the Greek writers since their engagement to their honeymoon .

Hera had a separate cult of Zeus is shown in the mythology of a very mixed. Sometimes the victim of vengeful anger of her husband Zeus hanging by their feet to the skies with an anvil attached to each wrist to chastise his vexations against her son Hercules , he may also oppose a strong resistance and up 'to treachery, since, according to a story she did not hesitate, without the intervention of Thetis , to neutralize his power. So much so that the Iliad he was awarded the child of Typhon , generally considered a creature of tartar. While some countries honored his cult: the Elis , Argos and Samos , in a warlike temperament, she personifies, more usually, its beauty and dignified severe as evidenced by the statuary, the moral principles of family unity legitimate marital fidelity ( at least in the case), pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing .

Functions

Zeus, by relegating the Titans in the shallows of the Pantheon , crude and evil creatures, mythology begins the great Olympian and heralds the maturity of Greek culture, as Zeus and his fellows will now live intensely through imaginative stories, a Literature fly high and an amazing artistic taste. The Titans defeated fall into oblivion and remain forever free to worship and honor. There is hardly a pre-Hellenic countries that make reference directly or indirectly with a master-god, a stature similar to that of Zeus.

The god of the sky

Zeus holding thunderbolt and eagle (?), Amphora by the Painter of Berlin, 480-470. BC, Louvre

Zeus Upatos, Upsistos (very high, supreme)

Zeus, master of destiny, is sometimes depicted or described with a scale which considers the fate granted to each. Despite those that would encourage, even if the events can be altered, it does not change fate but realized . He received, during the division of the world, the celestial sphere, the most significant, the largest and most mysterious in the eyes of mankind. Heaven is a privileged position: Zeus observes the actions of men, can intervene and correct them. Hesiod wrote: "The eye of Zeus sees all, knows everything." This area is inaccessible to men paradoxically closer to them. Master from above, what God commands all machinery air. He is the master of the weather: storms, thunder, rain, snow, hail, lightning , windstorms, tornadoes, nebulous ... but heat waves and droughts. The god may show itself in his "bad day" Terpichraunos Zeus (who likes to handle lightning); Nphlgrts Zeus (who accumulates the clouds); Mamakts Zeus (blowing around) ... the welfare of humanity depends on his wishes, his whims or her anger.

The mountains whose summit tu clouds and lightning will be through the sacred and privileged between Zeus and men: the Olympus mainly (the highest: about 2900 m) but also Parnes (Attica, Zeus Ombrios, the god of rain), the Pelion (in Thessaly, Akraios Zeus, the god of the summit), the Lykaion (in Arcadia today: Diaphorti Zeus Lykaios) ... From these heights he sometimes descends to Earth Men and it is natural that Iris whose colorful bow united earth to heaven was his messenger. Tempe Valley, carved by the waters of Peneus between Olympus and Ossa is attributed to the strong arm of Zeus divided the mountain. This event was celebrated during Plria (Plrios Zeus, almighty) became a great celebration of the harvest. The richness and fertility of the earth are in his power.

• Zeus is the god Chthonios equally, that is to say, the subterranean god, because the belly of the earth out crops. There is once again the extreme preponderance of Zeus: Hades , his brother, who is the god self was often supplanted in this role . This brother unloved, mainly linked to the dark forces of the depths of the earth, ie the world of the dead will be afraid and will never be popular.

For crops: at Athens , Zeus is being celebrated during Bouphonia (sacrifices of oxen) and Pandia Day (plantations) to curry the favor of Zeus pikarpios (god that gives fruits) and, Autumn is celebrated regularly Georgos Zeus (god grower). Zeus was probably an amalgam of many deities of the earth.

A god avenger and protector

Pater Zeus ( )

In Works and Days, Hesiod addresses Zeus to replace it with equity laws. The first act of god is to neutralize its bulky ancestors prolympiens to release the innocent tortured and restore its legitimate siblings. Sure of his strength and his right, he would be "the father of gods and men." Homer was, rightly, that of Zeus in the Iliad , the eldest of the family. It is indeed a true big brother he will exercise his authority. Later, his numerous offspring, divine or mortal, strengthen the character of the family patriarch. From its appearance of god-father of inspiration Indo-European but immersed in a Mediterranean society dominated by mother goddesses, Zeus is, according to Louis Sechan, "essentially, the great god immigrant Hellenes." Homer , by mixing the gods in human affairs, will contribute greatly to "humanize" the gods and thereby strengthen the links between them. Herodotus was already the difference between divinity "in human form" of Asians () and the deity "in nature human "of the Greeks () .

He is the protector of marriage (Zeus Teleios, the god who performs) the domestic hearth (Zeus Ktesios, household god) of the homestead (Herkeios Zeus, god of the fence) , to family or birthright (Sunamos Zeus, god of the race) for the safety of the city (Poliokos Zeus, the god who protects the city) . He is the benevolent god of the kings - they often come from hero - and the god of all royalties because they emanate from the divine power on earth, the rulers are the equivalent of gods and Homer is not afraid to call them " dioguns "and" Diotrephes "(born of Zeus and nourished by Zeus). It is still the guarantor of civil liberties (Zeus Eleftherios, liberating god) ; covenants and oaths (Orkios Zeus, the god of oaths), etc..

A benefactor and savior god

Zeus Soter

There are no other gods that are invoked by all the Greeks for the help and backup. In the spirit of the great masters, no important decisions without consulting him. He sacrificed after a trip and it is invoked before undertaking: Alexikakos Zeus, which rules out the evils. Many ports have a temple dedicated to Zeus Soter (savior god). The Athenians celebrate the last day of the year, the festival of Disotria. Is invoked to make amends by offering sacrifices to Zeus Melikios . Zeus is a god especially purifying and this gives rise to important festivals in Athens: Diasia (feasts of Zeus, "Dios"). In autumn, a period of sacrifice sheep to Zeus Phratrios lasted from 3 to 4 days in Athens and in large cities: they were Apatura (Apatouria) or festivals moieties. The sacrifices are indeed a way to reach God and obtain purification and reconciliation. Every criminal should not be punished before being purified because it was tainted in the eyes of Zeus and violates divine laws and not laws for men who ask only for revenge .

Zeus is a god who need supplies for omens and he is attentive to petitions (Hiksios Zeus, the god of suppliants) and, according to Hesiod , the final appeal of the oppressed . Zeus communicate its intentions in various ways: ornithomancie (flying birds), oneiromancy , noise (the kldons), ecstasy, draw (the Klro; Latin: kind), and number of atmospheric events. Three main shrines were consecrated him to hear his oracles.

Shrines

Ruins of Temple of Zeus at Dodonaios Dodona

Jupiter dodonen

• The site of Dodona : in Thesprotia , at the foot of Mount Taumaros, the oldest dating back to the Pelasgians and most mythical because it is mentioned by Sophocles and consulted with Homer in his two stories. Priestesses made by oracles "dendromancie": listening to rumors of a sacred oak leaves or more, sometimes amplified by the bronze cauldrons resonant / Sup>. It is likely that there were many divination methods such as ecstasy or the sacred doves, and other noises that were consulted. At the same time or perhaps earlier, there was a kind of prophets, " Selles . The shrine was originally devoted to Dione , attached to Naios goddess, some avatar of Zeus. Parties, called Naa, consisting of athletic games and artistic (music and theater), were given in the valley.

• The site of Delphi , which officiates "the Apollo of Delphi," the prophet of his father Zeus. Website wild Phocis , deep in a gorge between Mount Cirphis and Parnassus where the waters welling fountain of Castalia , and informed by Phaedriades, clear rocks that reflect the sun. The oracles were made in early spring inspired by a priestess in a trance, the Pythia , who pronounced himself hoisted on a tripod. He remained the most prestigious Greek sanctuary and amphictyony gathered in the best agreement Dorians, Ionians, Athenians, Spartans, Corinthians and Thebans.

• The site of Olympia : the oracles were from a time of consideration of the flame burning "forever" on the altar dedicated to him. They were delivered by a long line of prophets, Iamides, stemming from Iamos , son of Apollo and a mortal. Games were organized, which became, according to Hippias , the Games' penttriques "(returning every four years), Olympic Games , which he dates the rebuilding in 776 BC. AD The site will also house the temple of the famous colossal statue of Zeus chryselephantine majestically sculpted by Phidias.

Jupiter Ammon, horned ram

Jupiter thundering

• The Oracle of Libya

Herodotus described the place was a sanctuary dedicated to the god Amon (for Egyptians ) or Zeus Ammon (for Greeks ) and the sources from which flowed the Fountain of the Sun which was used for lustrations. It kept up with the cool places "a perpetual spring." The oracles were made by priests who would interpret the signals sent by the god.

Pindar , the greatest Greek lyric poet who was much celebrated Apollo , Zeus has always placed above all others. The mystic poet of Thebes ruled out all the stories that did not quite an idea worthy of divine power, and religious conceptions of high moral values were much higher than those of Homer. His reverence for the master of the gods was so great that his god almighty seems "closer to the supreme god of a monotheistic religion . " Pindar , respectful of the oldest deities worshiped especially at Zeus- Ammon of Libya. He was said to be not only dedicated hymns but also erected a chapel.

Ancient authors ( Plutarch , Diodorus , Strabo , Macrobius , etc..) join the cult of Jupiter maintained at Thebes (also known as the Magna-Diospolis) and coinciding with that of Amun who is originally the god king Egypt. This Jupiter (Zeus Kratophoros) is shown with the armed front of the horns of a ram (rarely with the entire head), another Egyptian mythical beast that represents the generative force of Nature . The ram was the first of the twelve signs of the celestial system in which Jupiter was to the Oracle of Claros , the sun of spring.

The Oracle of Libya had a reputation that extended far beyond the region. He had the support of Sparta which had erected a temple "in the sand" of Libya , today the Siwa oasis , about 250 km from the Libyan coast facing the island of Crete. The worship of Jupiter Ammon , the Eleans already honored in ancient times, according to Pausanias (Book on the Laconia ), is also found in Ethiopia and had, from there, set up Crete which was the introduction of land in Greece to Libya this god who was reborn in a thundering Jupiter. His worship will win the Laconia, the Arcadia and Elis. The worship of Zeus-Ammon was thus common to the three countries of north-east Africa. According to Diodorus of Sicily and Eustathius, a procession with the statue of Ammon entrenched at the head of a procession of images of other gods, left each year Diospolis, Upper Egypt, entered Ethiopia and Libya, and returned after a journey of twelve days . The Ammon Zeus Greek and Cretan were gradually merged into a single deity.

A unified mythology

The importance of Zeus in all areas will become so constant that it will go up over all other religions. Aeschylus wrote: "Zeus is the ether, Zeus is the earth, Zeus is the sky, yes, Zeus is all that is above all. "While some deities were worshiped especially in certain regions, Zeus remained one universal god honored everywhere. It was truly Panhellenic hyphen. Epithets (or "epicleses") that received the father god are endless. Many gods of Olympus in the entourage of Zeus are personifications of moral concepts: justice, wisdom, beauty, fate, revenge, etc.., Or instruments of divine laws: the trinity ( Fates , Erinyes , Gorgons , etc. ;. Mr. Grant recalled that philosophers like Xenophanes ( ^sixth century ) or the pious Socrates - who was nevertheless sentenced to death for impiety - have outraged some stories that were caricatured figures of gods, without moral and immoral.

"What unites all Greeks, same blood and common language, common shrines and sacrifices, like manners and customs, that the Athenians could not betray him ... Such was the response to the concern of the Athenians of their Spartan allies on the eve of the battle of Plataea in 479 BC. J.-C .

Love

Zeus is famous for his numerous affairs with mortal (the) s, goddesses and nymphs: Danae , Alcmene , Semele , Leto , Europe , Ganymede , and so on. He is the father of many gods: Ares , Athena , Dionysus , Hermes , Apollo , Aphrodite and Artemis , and many heroes: Heracles , Perseus , Castor and Pollux , etc..

These numerous infidelities of Zeus to his third wife, Hera - after Metis and Themis - are the cause of frequent disputes between the divine husband. Moreover, the goddess is showing a very vindictive character, pursued often revenge mistresses ( Io , Leto , etc..) or even children ( Heracles ) of her husband.

Io and Zeus, by Correggio

Homeric epithets, attributes and shrines

• Homeric epithets :
  • Father Zeus ( / Zeus pater)
  • assembler clouds ( / nephelgerta)
  • (Terrible) Cronide (() / (ains) Kronids)
  • powerful voice ( / Euryops)
  • father of gods and men ( / andron pater te theon te),
  • the black cloud ( / kelainephs)
  • Master of Ida ( / dthen medn)
  • savior ( / Soter)
  • protecting hosts and guardians of the rules of hospitality (Xenios)
  • protector of the house (herkios)
  • guardian of properties (kleisos)
  • protector of marriage (gamelios)
• Its attributes: the lightning, the oak , the umbrella ;
• His favorite animals: the eagle ;
• Sanctuary: The sanctuary of Elis , the oracle of Dodona and the oak forest in Epirus , the temple of Zeus at Olympia (contains chryselephantine statue of Phidias , one of the seven wonders of the world ).

Notes

Sources

• George W. Cox, The ancient gods, 1880 [trad. S. Mallarme]
• Collective: Historical review of 1904
• William Sherwood Fox, Greek and Roman Mythology, 1916
• Michael Grant & John Hazel, Who's Who in Classical Mythology, 1973
• Paul Decharme, Mythology of Ancient Greece, 1886
• Sechan Louis, Mythology and Religion, 1959
• Anatole Bailly, Greek-French dictionary, Hachette, 1894-2000

See also

Bibliography

• (In) Arthur Bernard Cook, Zeus: a Study in Ancient Religion, 3 vols. Cambridge University Press, 1914-1940.
• (In) Ken Dowden, Zeus, Routledge, New York, 2005 ( ISBN 0-415-30503-9 ).
• (In) Karl Kerenyi, Zeus and Hera: Archetypal Image of Father, Husband and Wife, Princeton University Press, Princeton and London, 1975.
• (In) Hugh Lloyd-Jones, The Justice of Zeus, University of California Press, Sather Classical Lectures vol. 41, Berkeley (California), Los Angeles and London, 1971.
• Timothy Gantz, Myths of ancient Greece, Belin, 2004 [ retail edition ].

Related Articles

• Olympian gods
• Ammon Zeus

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