Zeus had several brothers and sisters who were also powerful gods and goddesses. He was the youngest, but the most powerful of three brothers. His oldest brother was Hades who ruled the Underworld. His other brother was Poseidon, god of the sea.
1. Apollo: Zeus' Best-Known Son. Of all the sons Zeus fathered, Apollo is perhaps the best known. Apollo was conceived during an illicit affair between Zeus and Leto (Zeus was married to Hera at the time), along with a twin sister named Artemis.
Zeus never cared much for his two legitimate sons, Ares and Hephaestus.
Dionysus, also spelled Dionysos, is the youngest of the Olympian Gods and was Zeus's son with either Demeter, Semele, and sometimes Persephone. Often depicted as an effeminate, long-haired youth, Dionysus was the God of Wine, festivity, ecstasy, and insanity.
According to Philostratus the Elder, Hebe was the youngest of the gods and the responsible for keeping them eternally young, and thus was the most revered by them.
Oceanus: Titan God Of The Sea & Water
The eldest of the Titans, Oceanus was married to his sister Thetis. Together the two produced over 6000 spirits of the oceans and streams, known as the Oceanids.
Generally, Zeus is believed to have had over 100 children, but the number could be even greater considering the number of concubines that he had.
Zeus had two brothers, Poseidon and Hades, who exercised supreme power withintheir own realms, and three sisters, his wife and queen Hera, and Demeter and Hestia. These other children of Kronos and Rhea will form the subject of the present chapter, along with the mythology of the Underworld and afterlife.
Heracles – Son of Zeus and Alcmene
He possessed superhuman strength and courage. Because he was a reminder of Zeus's unfaithfulness, Hera made it her mission to make his life miserable. At one point, she drove him to madness and he killed his own children. To atone for his sins, he went through his famous “Labors”.
Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many divine and heroic offspring, including Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses.
Hera. The most famous of Zeus' wives, Hera was also the sister of the father of the gods, and the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth.
Impregnation by Zeus
Nonnus classifies Zeus's affair with Semele as one in a set of twelve, the other eleven women on whom he begot children being Io, Europa, Plouto, Danaë, Aigina, Antiope, Leda, Dia, Alcmene, Laodameia, the mother of Sarpedon, and Olympias.
It is commonly thought that Nyx is the only goddess that Zeus is truly afraid of because she is older and more powerful than him. This traces back to one story in which Hera, Zeus' wife and goddess of marriage and childbirth, works together with Hypnos, the god of sleep, to trick Zeus.
The first god in Greek mythology was Chaos. Gaia, the personification of the Earth, emerged shortly afterwards, along with Tartarus and Eros. Gaia then produced Uranus, which is the sky. Their offspring were the Titans.
Zeus is the god of the sky, lightning and the thunder in Ancient Greek religion and legends, and ruler of all the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the sixth child of Cronos and Rhea, king and queen of the Titans.
Metis, an Oceanid or sea-nymph, was Zeus's first wife. Wise and prudent, she was endowed with the gift of prophecy. In their early years together, she was Zeus's closest ally and aide, helping him win the battle against Cronus.
Mnemosyne spent nine nights with Zeus, and on each of these nights, he fathered a child. The nine children were born in the same birth and were known as the nine muses, the goddesses of artistic inspiration. The nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus were: Calliope, muse of epic poetry.
Zeus fell in love with Io and seduced her. To try to keep Hera from noticing he covered the world with a thick blanket of clouds. This backfired, arousing Hera's suspicions. She came down from Mount Olympus and begain dispersing the clouds.
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.
Zeus is depicted with both fe- male and male aspects as he gives birth to the goddess Athena. Zeus is blessed by female embodiments of birth even as he completes birth in his own male way. This reflects patriarchal ideas in Greek society about the superiority of men and the male body.
Dioscuri, also called (in French) Castor and Polydeuces and (in Latin) Castor and Pollux, (Dioscuri from Greek Dioskouroi, “Sons of Zeus”), in Greek and Roman mythology, twin deities who succoured shipwrecked sailors and received sacrifices for favourable winds.
Curse of Ymir
Kruger during his final year The first Titan, Ymir Fritz, was killed thirteen years after acquiring the power of the Titans.
Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky), who then fertilized her. From that union the first Titans were born — six males: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus, and six females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys.
To Hesiod's twelve Titans, the mythographer Apollodorus, adds a thirteenth Titan, Dione, the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus.