The Myth Zeus, God Of The Sky

The myth of Zeus talks about the most important of the Olympian gods. He acquired this dignity by defeating Cronos, his father, who had absolute dominance before the confrontation. From its origin, Zeus had a particular destiny.

The myth of Zeus tells that Cronos, absolute god of creation, received a prophecy from his mother, Gaea. This predicted that one of his sons would end up stripping him of the throne. Since then, Cronos gobbled up all the offspring he had with his wife Rea.

Distressed by the situation, Rea wanted to save the youngest of her children. So when it was time to give birth, she went to the Island of Crete and secretly had her baby. Then he handed Cronos some stones wrapped in swaddling clothes. The father god swallowed the package, not suspecting the trap.

The myth of Zeus: the origin

There are several versions about the childhood of the god of the sky, in the myth of Zeus. The most conventional is that the little one was suckled by a goat named Amalthea. Around him were lesser gods, called Curetes or Corbiantes, who danced and shouted when the child cried, so that Cronos would not hear him.

Another of the most widespread versions of the myth of Zeus indicates that the god’s upbringing was in charge of a nymph named Adamantea. She knew that Cronos ruled the heavens, the earth, and the sea. So to hide the little one, he hung him from a tree with ropes. Thus it was suspended between sky, land and sea and Cronos could not see it.

When Zeus became an adult, he forced Cronos to regurgitate everything he had swallowed, starting with the swaddling stone. Then his brothers, in the reverse order they had been swallowed. After this, he released the Hecatonchires, giants with 100 arms and 50 faces, who were brothers of Cronos and had been imprisoned in Tartarus.

Likewise, the myth of Zeus says that he freed the Cyclops, giants with one eye on the forehead, who were also confined in a dungeon in Tartarus. To free these beings, Zeus killed Campe, a monster that was half woman and half dragon. He had heads of dangerous animals on his waist and hair made of snakes.

The new Olympus

To establish their dominance, Zeus and his brothers, in addition to the beings he had liberated, fought a colossal war against the Titans. This confrontation was known as “Titanomachy”. In the end he won and the defeated were locked in Tartarus, in the deepest place on Earth.

After the victory, Zeus and his older brothers, Poseidon and Hades, took control of the world to chance. Zeus was given by lot the dominion of the sky and the air; Poseidon was left with the dominion of the oceans and Hades corresponded to him the world of the dead, or underworld. All three would have dominion over Earth.

The first wife of Zeus was Metis, a prudent and cunning titan. She had helped the god of heaven give a potion to Cronos, which would poison him and cause the regurgitation of his children. She herself prophesied that she would give birth to a daughter who would rule the world. Zeus then gobbled it up. Later, from his forehead was born Athena who, in any case, never overthrew her father.

An imposing god

Later, he points out the myth of Zeus, that this god married Hera, who was also his sister. She did not want to accept it, but the god turned into a wounded bird. Thus, when Hera cradled her to her chest, Zeus reverted to her form and raped the woman. So she agreed to marry him.

Zeus and Hera had four children: Ares the god of war, Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth, and Hephaestus, the god of fire. However, the sky god had countless other adventures with different goddesses and mortals. With Themis, goddess of justice, he had six daughters. He also had children with Demeter and Leto.

With mortal women he had many other children, such as Hercules, Dionysus, Castor and Pollux and Helen of Troy, among others. Zeus appears in almost every episode of Greek mythology and none of them refer to his power having been usurped by some other being.