ZEUS
Father - Cronos
Mother - Rhea
Brothers - Poseiden, Hades
Sisters - Hera, Demeter, Hestia
Lovers - Many mortals and goddesses
Wives - Hera, Metis, Themis
Children - Athena, Artemis, Hermes, Dionysus, Apollo, Herakles and many more.
Symbols of Zeus - Eagle, Oak Tree, Thunder bolt.
Roman equivalent - Jupiter
Zeus was the most powerful of all the Greek gods and godesses. It all started when Gaia (the earth) and Uranus foretold Cronos a prophecy, that his children would over throw him and his son would defeat him, just as Cronos had done with his own father. Worried that the prophecy would come true, Cronos ate all of his children. Luckily for Zeus, his mother, Rhea, hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida, Crete, Rhea fed Cronos a stone instead.
Gaia raised Zeus and when he cried from the cave, the Kuretes, armed and crested would dance and bang drums as they did in worship of Cybele, this was to hide the sound of Zeus's sries from Cronos. Zeus was attended to by various attendants through his childhood.
When Zeus grew up, he fed his father, Cronos, an emetic and he coughed up all of his sons and daughters whom he had eaten. There is another version of this myth where Zeus cuts open the stomach of Cronos to release his brothers and sisters. All the Olympian siblings joined Zeus in defeating Cronos and the Titans, this was called Titanomachy. They stole lightening from the elder gods and used it against them. The rebel children won the battle and the universe. The Titans were punished by being sent to a part of the underworld called Tartarus, whilst one titan was punished by being forced to hold up the sky.
Zeus decided to share the world with his two brothers, they drawed lots out of a helmet, Poseiden won the waters of the earth, Hades won the land of the dead (underworld) and Zeus won the sky and the air. None could claim the earth, which was Gaia, but all could use the earth as they saw fit. Poseiden was known as the earth shaker because he had the power to cause earthquakes.
Zeus was depicted as a powerful and strong man with a beard. He ruled the seasons and the stars of the heavens, he punished wrong doers by striking thunderbolts at them. His thunderbolts were created for him by the Cyclopes. He was defender of the Greeks, he stood for friendship and hospitality, the virtue of law and justice.
Zeus had a taste for the mortal women. He is known to have had many affairs from his three wives with both goddesses and mortal women. He would visit the mortals as a swan, bull or even as a shower of gold, much to the dismay of his third wife Hera.
One of the mortal women who Zeus had an affair with was Leda, the faithful wife of the king of Sparta, Tyndareus. Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan before seducing her. She gave birth to two sets of twins, Clytemnestra and Helen (aka Helen of Troy) for the girls and Castor and Pollox for the boys, also know as the dioscuri. Zeus also seduced Alcmene who bore the demi-god Herakles.
