Who is Zeus: features of the character, personal life and cult in the modern world

God Zeus is the main deity in ancient Greece, which played a special role in the lives of people. The Greeks were sure that thanks to him people learned what is law and order, due to him people changed their views on life.

In the myths Zeus is represented as a great warrior. He had a muscular body and a long beard. Also, the Greeks believed that he was a real hot lover. He was married several times and had many extramarital affairs.

Zeus' father was Kronos. When Cronus was predicted that one of his children would dethrone him, he began to devour every baby his wife Rhea gave him. But Zeus escaped this terrible fate. His mother fled with him to the island of Crete and slipped Cronus a stone wrapped in diapers. When Zeus grew up, he gave Cronus a special drink, which made the children swallowed by Cronus come out of him.

For his special strength and power, the name Zeus is often used in the modern world.

Mythology 

According to mythology, Zeus was a powerful god who ruled the entire world. He had strict control over what happened on Earth. His weapons were lightning and thunder.

Zeus had special powers. For example, he could turn into an animal or into rain. The Greeks saw him sitting on his throne with a scepter in one hand and a bundle of lightning in the other.

Zeus punished people and gods very severely for their misdeeds. For example, Prometheus was chained to a rock when he stole fire for the people punished by Zeus. Every day an eagle flew to this rock and pecked Prometheus' liver.

Zeus had three official wives. The first was the ocean Metida. She was notable for her special intelligence. Metida helped prepare a potion that made Cronus regurgitate his swallowed children. A sad end awaited Metida. When Zeus was foretold that Metida would bear him a child who would dethrone him, he turned her into a fly and swallowed her. Metida grew Athena in his head, who later came out of him.

Zeus' second wife was Themis. She had the gift of divination. From Zeus she had three oras.

The third wife was Hera. She was very jealous and had a hard time with her husband's betrayals. She sent various trials on Zeus's mistresses and on her illegitimate children. However, the hardships made them even stronger. From Zeus, Hera gave birth to Hephaestus. The boy was born ugly and Hera decided to throw him off a cliff. But Hephaestus survived. He became a great blacksmith in the future. Hephaestus dug Zeus' lightning bolts.

Zeus also had many mistresses out of wedlock. Demeter was one of them. She gave birth to Persephone. Persephone would later become the wife of Hades.

Cadma: Hera made Zeus' thunderbolts burn her. Cadma was pregnant. Zeus succeeded in saving the child. He took the child out of the dead woman's womb and sewed it into his thigh. Subsequently, Dionysus was born from Zeus' thigh.

 

Zeus had an attraction to earthly women as well. Among them: Niobe, Europa, Middle, and Trouble. Many of Zeus' children were great heroes.

Places of Worship

Zeus was greatly revered and worshipped in the ancient world. In honor of Zeus, as a sign of worship, a temple was erected in 471-456 BC. The Greeks prayed there and asked for forgiveness. Today only some fragments of the temple are extant. The building was impressive in its magnificence. In 406 BC, the Greek governor Theodosius gave orders to destroy all the temples of Olympia, as it was a sign of pagan worship. The remains of the temple were finally destroyed by earthquakes in 522 and 551. The remaining parts of the temple are preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia and in the Louvre in Paris.

There are also many holy sites that are dedicated to Zeus. The most famous are:

  1. The cave on Mount Ida. It is located in Psiloritis. Ida is the highest mountain in Crete. This place developed in ancient Greece. According to legends, this is where Rhea brought the infant Zeus, saving him from Cronus. In this cave Zeus grew up.
  2. Dodona. This is an ancient Greek city in Epirus. This place was created to worship Zeus and also to honor the oracle who lived there.
  3. Arcadia is a unique place in Greece that is located in the central part of the Peloponnesian Peninsula. It was a place where people made sacrifices. Among them were human beings. Some people practiced cannibalism here.

Movies, games about Zeus

There are also so many feature films about Zeus in the modern world:

  • "Battle of the Titans."
  • "Hercules" cartoon.
  • "Thor: love and thunder."
  • "Hercules": the 1990 series.
  • Netflix animated series "Blood of Zeus."
  • The serial "Three: The Fall of the City."

Today, the name Zeus is often used for the names of gambling games and clubs. This is due to the fact that the theme of the game is based on ancient Greek mythology, particularly with the god Zeus. This helps to get through the game without various problems. Among the symbols of these games can also be found the god Zeus, Pegasus and many other symbols of ancient Greece.