King of Sky and Thunder, Father of Gods and Men
The supreme ruler of Olympus. He overthrew his child-swallowing father Cronus, then drew lots with his brothers to split the world and won the sky. He wields the thunderbolt, and his temper runs as wild as his love life — half the heroes (and half the trouble) in Greek myth trace back to him.
Fearing a prophecy, Cronus swallowed each newborn child whole. Rhea wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes to fool her husband and hid baby Zeus on Crete. Grown, Zeus tricked his father into drinking an emetic; his five siblings were disgorged intact, and the six of them went to war together.
Zeus freed the imprisoned Cyclopes, who forged him the thunderbolt in return. After ten years of war the Titan dynasty fell, and the losers were cast into the abyss of Tartarus. The three brothers drew lots for the world: Zeus took the sky, Poseidon the sea, Hades the underworld.
He came to Leda as a swan, carried off Europa as a white bull, slipped into Danaë’s bronze tower as a shower of gold. Heracles, Perseus, Helen, and Dionysus were all his by other women. Hera’s fury over it rarely cooled — and it was usually the lovers and children who paid.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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