But Rhea, his wife, saved the infant Zeus by substituting a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes for Cronus to swallow and hiding Zeus in a cave on Crete. There he was nursed by the nymph (or female goat) Amalthaea and guarded by the Curetes (young warriors), who clashed their weapons to disguise the baby's cries.
Rhea. Rhea was the wife of Cronus. Cronus made it a practice to swallow their children. To avoid this, Rhea tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, saving her son Zeus.
In some versions of Greek mythology, Zeus ate his wife Metis because it was known that their second child would be more powerful than him. After Metis's demise, their first child Athena was born when Hephaestus cleaved Zeus's head open and the goddess of war emerged, fully grown and armed.
Hera Plans to Overthrow Zeus
While Zeus was not the faithful husband he should have been, Hera was not perfect either. Her unloyalty lied in the fact that she wanted to rule over Zeus and devised a plan to do so. In order to overthrow Zeus, Hera decided that she would drug Zeus and make him fall asleep.
When Zeus was born, however, Rhea hid him in Crete and tricked Cronus into swallowing a stone instead. Zeus grew up, forced Cronus to disgorge his brothers and sisters, waged war on Cronus, and was victorious.
Kronos generally did not have temples of his own. Eventually, Zeus forgave his father and allowed Kronus to be king of the Elysian Islands, an area of the Underworld.
He howled so loudly it could be heard throughout the earth. The other gods came to see what the problem was. Hermes realized what needed to be done and directed Hephaestus to take a wedge and split open Zeus's skull. Out of the skull sprang Athena, full grown and in a full set of armour.
The Great Dane, the world's tallest dog, died last week. He was 5. Zeus, the world's tallest dog, is no more. The Great Dane's owner, Kevin Doorlag, told the Kalamazoo Gazette that Zeus died last week of old age.
Poseidon warned Kratos that Olympus' destruction meant the world's destruction. The Ghost of Sparta did not react and told him to prepare for his own death, Kratos proceeded to brutally beat on the sea god, before finally finishing Poseidon by gouging out his uncle's eyes with his thumbs and snapping his neck.
The sun is sometimes referred to as the "eye of Zeus." Two other gods that are somewhat equatable to Zeus are Poseidon and Hades, brothers of Zeus. Poseidon was the god of the seas, and Hades was the god of the underworld. Both of these gods had similar power to Zeus, but of them, Zeus was ultimately the most powerful.
So when Zeus decreed that man must present a portion of each animal they scarified to the gods Prometheus decided to trick Zeus. He created two piles, one with the bones wrapped in juicy fat, the other with the good meat hidden in the hide. He then bade Zeus to pick. Zeus picked the bones.
King Lycaon of Arcadia is a legendary king from Greek mythology. He was turned into a wolf because he (or his sons, depending on the version one is reading) tried to feed Zeus human flesh in an offering.
Amalthaea, in Greek (originally Cretan) mythology, the foster mother of Zeus, king of the gods. She is sometimes represented as the goat that suckled the infant god in a cave in Crete, sometimes as a nymph who fed him the milk of a goat.
Typhon attempted to overthrow Zeus for the supremacy of the cosmos. The two fought a cataclysmic battle, which Zeus finally won with the aid of his thunderbolts. Defeated, Typhon was cast into Tartarus, or buried underneath Mount Etna, or in later accounts, the island of Ischia.
Zeus and his brothers and sisters finally defeated the Titans after 10 years of fierce battles (the Titanomachia). The Titans were then hurled down by Zeus and imprisoned in a cavity beneath Tartarus. Hesiod's Works and Days preserves the idea of the Titans as the golden race, happy and long-lived.
The gods eventually won and overthrew the Titans. Zeus then cut up his father Cronus and threw him into the pit of Tartarus. His Roman equivalent is Saturn.
Hercules then asked for help from the gods to end his life, and he received it. The Greek god Zeus sent lightning to consume Hercules' mortal body and took him to live with the gods on Mount Olympus. This was the apotheosis, the transformation of Hercules into a god.
Haides was also the god of the hidden wealth of the earth, from the fertile soil with nourished the seed-grain, to the mined wealth of gold, silver and other metals. Haides was devoured by Kronos (Cronus) as soon as he was born, along with four of his siblings.
So, when Poseidon raped Medusa she became pregnant. When her head was chopped off by Perseus, her children came to be. Pegasus and Chrysaor sprung from the severed neck of Medusa. Pegasus is also one of the most famous characters in Greek mythology, the winged white horse.
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.
Description. Standing on his hind legs, Zeus stretched 7 feet 5 inches (2.26 meters), and when measured in October 2011, Zeus was 3 feet 8 inches (1.12 meters) from his foot to his withers.
Zeus does not really have an age, since he is an immortal god who was born at an unknown time in the distant past. However, in art, he is usually portrayed as having the face of an older man, with the body of a younger man. The worship of Zeus may be several thousand years old, and pre-date the Greeks.
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.
Athena (Minerva), the goddess of war and wisdom, had a strange birth. Her father Zeus (Jupiter) had swallowed his pregnant consort Metis (“wisdom”), because he was afraid she would bear a son who would overthrow him.
Meet Perseus, a demigod of Greek mythology who was famous for killing Medusa by cutting off her head, which he displays in one hand.