Zeus (
;
[3] Ancient Greek:
Ζεύς,
Zeús,
[zdeǔ̯s];
[4] Modern
Greek:
Δίας,
Días [ˈði.as]) was the
sky and
thunder god in
ancient Greek religion, who ruled as
king of the gods of
Mount Olympus. His name is
cognate with the first element of his
Roman equivalent Jupiter.
Zeus is the child of
Cronus and
Rhea,
the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the
eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most
traditions, he is married to
Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered
Ares,
Hebe, and
Hephaestus.
[5] At the
oracle of
Dodona, his consort was said to be
Dione, by whom the
Iliad states that he fathered
Aphrodite.
[8] Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including
Athena,
Apollo,
Artemis,
Hermes,
Persephone,
Dionysus,
Perseus,
Heracles,
Helen of Troy,
Minos, and the
Muses.
[5]
He was respected as an
allfather who was chief of the gods
[9] and assigned the others to their roles:
[10] "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."
[11][12] He was
equated with many foreign
weather gods, permitting
Pausanias to observe "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men".
[13] His symbols are the
thunderbolt,
eagle,
bull, and
oak. In addition to his
Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" (Greek:
Νεφεληγερέτα,
Nephelēgereta)
[14] also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the
Ancient Near East, such as the
scepter.
Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses:
standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised
right hand, or seated in majesty.