Zeus, son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, was the god of the
sky and thunder. His most feared weapon was his thunderbolt,
fashioned by the Cyclopes. He became ruler of the gods when
he led them in their defeat of the Titans during the Cosmic War.
Though he married the goddess Hera, he was famous for his
many other sexual conquests, which included goddesses,
nymphs, and mortal women. Some of the numerous children of
these liaisons wielded immense power over the people of Earth.Zeus
CLASSICAL EUROPE
Leda and the swan
Zeus took the form of a swan to woo the Spartan
queen, Leda. Their children included Helen of TroyEuropa and the bull
Europa, a Phoenician maiden, saw Zeus
in the form of a white bull. Just as she
stroked it lovingly and climbed on its
back, the bull sped away with her.Danaë and the shower of gold
Imprisoned by her father because her child
was destined to kill him, Danaë fell prey to
Zeus in the form of a golden shower.Zeus the ruler
Although he was the king
of the gods, Zeus generally
left the work of influencing
the lives of humans to his
many children, using his
personal power sparingly.THE DISGUISES OF ZEUS
Zeus’s shining body could terrify mortals and his thunderbolt
could burn to death anything that came too near. For these
reasons, and because many of his sexual partners were
unwilling, Zeus adopted various guises when approaching
his loves. He charmed Europa by taking the form of a bull,
got through Danaë’s prison by turning into a shower of gold,
became a satyr to rape Antiope, a princess of Thebes, and
approached Leda as a swan. He tricked Alcmene by
disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon, and
turned into an eagle to carry of Ganymede, a young
man he had fallen in love with. Zeus could disguise
the objects of his love too, turning Io, a priestess of
Hera, into a cow and Callisto, a nymph of Artemis,
into a bear to allay the suspicions of his wife.and the Dioscuri.18