Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

ZEUS 359crops. She was invoked at sowing and harvestingtimes.ZephyrusGod of the south winds. Roman. Announces thearrival of spring.ZethosGod. Greek. Theban twin god who had mortalweaknesses. Comparable to Kastor.ZEUS (sky father)ORIGIN Greek. Head of the Greek pantheon.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 800 BC butundoubtedly earlier until Christianization circaAD 400.SYNONYMS Dyaus (Indo-European); Diu-pater,JUPITER (Roman).CENTER(S) OF CULT Athens (sanctuary begun byPisastratus and completed by Hadrian) andthroughout Greek sphere of influence where, inevery city, the major temple is that of Zeus.ART REFERENCES abundant sculpture and carving;votive inscriptions, etc.LITERARY SOURCES Iliad (Homer); Theogony(Hesiod).Zeus leads the pantheon of twelve great Greekgods illustrated on the Parthenon frieze and isprobably modeled on a western Asiatic precedent.His father is KRONOS, his mother RHEA, or inalternative tradition METIS (wisdom). His officialconsort, though barely more so than in name, isHERA. He is a universal deity and through himcomes all mortal sovereignty. He earned the finestand most opulent sanctuaries throughout theGreek world. According to tradition, he lives onthe mountain in Thessaly which came to be knownas Olympus and where the storm clouds are said togather. Tradition also has it that his grave is onMount Yuktas, near Knossos on the sand of Crete,where he was “buried” by the KOURETES.Symbolized by the eagle and earning the sacrificeof bulls, Zeus is the strongest among thedeities, but in origin he is a weather god parallellingIŠKUR (Sumerian), TEŠUB (Hittite) andHADAD (Semitic). He rules the clouds and rain,delivers lightning and hurls thunderbolts forgedby the one-eyed Cyclopes, the thunderbolt beinghis invincible weapon. In the same vein he is saidto determine the outcome of battle; victors oncedraped his statues and other monuments withspoils of war. The great and enduring festival ofZeus is that of Olympia, which became the modernOlympic Games.The father of gods and men alike, according totradition, Zeus won his position of authority in aprimeval battle against the TITANS who had heldsway in the time of his father Kronos; Kronosswallowed all his other children, but Zeus’s motherRhea saved him by turning him into a stone andZeus overthrew his father. He swallowed Metis,thus combining strength and wisdom in a singlegodly entity. His noos, his ability for pragmatism,became renowned and infallible and his judgmentwas beyond criticism. Homer pictures him carryingthe golden scales of justice. Zeus is surroundedfrom birth by attendant youthful warriors knownas Kouretes or Korybantes.He is possessed of enormous sexual vigor andsired a vast number of offspring through an incessantparade of goddesses and mortal partners. Inthis respect his philandering became an embarrassmentin the late Hellenic philosophical age.His fathering of other deities included APOLLOand ARTEMIS through LETO, HERMES whosemother is MAIA, PERSEPHONE and DIONYSOS byDEMETER, and ATHENA whose mother was said tobe Metis, but who emerged in full armor from herfather’s forehead. Among the more notable of hismortal children are HERAKLES, Perseus, ZETHOS