In ancient mythology, Zeus was considered the “Lord of the Gods and of Mankind,” whose name means “The Enlightened One.” He was introduced to ancient Greece by Indo-European immigrants, probably from the steppes between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
His cult, which quickly gained supremacy over the Earth Goddess, was established in Greece around the second millennium BC. Called “the Gatherer of Clouds,” Zeus was the god of the skies, rain, lightning, and thunder. To reflect these powers, Zeus’s symbols were the thunderbolts, which were prepared for him by the Cyclopes and could be used as powerful weapons, as well as the eagle, the most majestic of birds.
In addition to being the God of the heavens, Zeus was also an important god to humans, ensuring that cities were governed by law and that their inhabitants’ homes were safe. According to Hesiod, Zeus first married the second-generation Titan goddess, Metis (meaning Wisdom).
According to legend, after a while, Zeus had a terrible headache and when Hephaestus, the God of the Blacksmith, opened his head with an axe to relieve the pain, the goddess Athena emerged, fully grown and armed to the teeth.
Athena was not Zeus’s last child, as he was famous for his adventures, which often angered his sister and second wife, Hera. In fact, depending on the sources we refer to, he had at least 100 children, some with goddesses and some with mortal women.
For example, Persephone, who would become the goddess of Hades, was the daughter of Zeus, whom he had fathered with his sister, Demeter. Zeus impregnated the Titan goddess Leto, with whom he fathered Apollo and Artemis. Semele, a mortal woman, was the mother of Dionysus. Hermes, the messenger god, was his son with Maia, a second-generation Titan.
The “legitimate” children that Zeus had with Hera were Ares, the god of war, as well as Hebe (of youth) and Eileithyia, (goddess of childbirth). Other children of Zeus were Achilles, the famous hero, and Heracles, whose mother was Alcmene, the niece of Zeus.
