Zeus was well known for his amorousness—a source of perpetual discord with his wife, Hera—and he had many love affairs with both mortal and immortal women.
Even after his marriage to Hera, he continued sleeping with both goddesses and mortals.
Thus, Zeus had sexual relations with a total of at least 57 others, a number of exceeds the number of Achaean deaths in the Iliad. It is certainly an outstanding achievement by the best and most righteous of the gods.
Zeus slept around because he thought it was fun. Zeus wanted to have as much offspring as possible.
Alcmene, the beautiful human daughter of the king of Mycenae, was trapped into sleeping with Zeus masquerading as her husband (betrothed in some sources), who was away at the time. The dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty was irresistible to the lustful Zeus, who had been watching her for some time.
Further, Zeus's infatuations were not limited to women, for when he fell in love with the youthful Ganymede he had the boy abducted by his eagle and brought up to Olympus to serve as cupbearer.
Suffice it to say that Zeus was constantly involved in extramarital affairs. Throughout the various and sometimes contradictory myths composed by Greek authors, there are at least 20 divine figures with whom he consorted, and about twice as many mortals.
Zeus was known in his time as much more than the father of the gods. He was also a womanizer, and as such, he fathered many, many offspring! He would transform into various animals to fulfill his desires; therefore, his 'children' are quite interesting.
Zeus had an eye for ladies from all walks of life, and his affairs with mortals often resulted in mortal children. Some estimates have come up with around 51 children of Zeus who were not divine in nature. Even though they were mere mortals, many of them went on to make history in other ways.
The God Zeus fell in love with Europa and wanted to take her away from her family to live with him. One day while Europa was wandering amongst her father's herds of cattle she saw a white bull. She was not aware that Zeus had turned himself into the bull in order to trick her.
Before his marriage to Hera, Zeus consorted with a number of the female Titanes (and his sister Demeter). These liaisons are ordered by Hesiod as follows: (1) Metis; (2) Themis; (3) Eurynome; (4) Demeter; (5) Mnemosyne; (6) Leto.
Zeus was very disappointed at mankind. He decided he was not going to give mankind a most important tool - fire! Without fire, humans were not going to last very long.
Zeus fell in love with her and, to protect her from the wrath of Hera, changed her into a white heifer. Hera persuaded Zeus to give her the heifer and sent Argus Panoptes (“the All-Seeing”) to watch her. Zeus thereupon sent the god Hermes, who lulled Argus to sleep and killed him.
A while later, he rapes her, she agrees to marry him and they create a family on Mount Olympus, the Deities' new home. Unfortunately, Zeus constantly cheats on Hera and he has done it over a hundred times, but in the end Hera always forgives him.
Gods aside, Zeus also had sexual affairs with 20 mortals, including one male, Ganymede, a prince ofTroy.
Zeus even managed to impregnate mortal women when he was a swan or a bull. Hercules was the illegitimate child of Zeus and a mortal woman, as were Perseus, Helen of Troy and Minos (among other very, very famous offspring of Zeus). Yep, the Greek God family tree is very, very tangled.
Some estimates put the count at well over a hundred, with the lovers being mostly but not exclusively female. In some cases, ancient authorities differ, so the exact lineage and relationships remain open to debate.
Zeus'favourite son is Heracles, & his favourite daughter is Athena. One thing that these 2 have in common is, neither one of them are Hera's children.
But representations of Zeus as a powerful young man also exist. Symbols or Attributes: Thunderbolt. Strengths: Highly powerful, strong, charming, persuasive. Weaknesses: Gets in trouble over love, can be moody.
Since he was considered the God of Justice, he can be viewed as an anti-villain in a sense his actions, while cruel, were designed to enforce order rather than create chaos.) He ate his pregnant wife Metis alive out of fear that their child would overthrow him.
In many of these stories, Zeus seduces unwitting maidens by changing form in order to trick them. Hera, jealous and bitter, ends up striking out against the mistresses time and time again. As a result of his infidelity, Zeus had lots of children.
To punish man, Zeus had Hephaestus create a mortal of stunning beauty. The gods gave the mortal many gifts of wealth. He then had Hermes give the mortal a deceptive heart and a lying tongue.
In his private life Zeus was quite the lothario, fathering an unbelievable number of around 100 children with many different women (but don't hate him too much – it's just a myth, after all). Of this 100, he fathered a mix of sons and daughters, many of whom were gods and goddesses, and some became great leaders.
Aphrodite later and of her own volition had an affair with Zeus, but his jealous wife Hera laid her hands upon the belly of the goddess and cursed their offspring with malformity. Their child was the ugly god Priapos.
Zeus has four siblings which include Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Hestia. Zeus also had six children which include Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, Athena, Ares, and Aphrodite. Together we will explore and learn about Greek Mythology, Zeus and his family through this beautiful gallery. This is a statue of the God, Zeus.