NAME Zeus
EPITHET Father of the Human Race / The Shining / The
Cloud-Gatherer
ALTERNATIVE Dyaus (Skrt)
GENDER M
SYMBOL bull / oak /swan / cuckoo / peacock
CATEGORY deity
TYPE triple god (sky/war/fertility) / god of weather
(thunder and rain)
CULTURE Goidel ?
COUNTRY France
TERRITORY Gaul
LANDMARKS Mont Blanc (Olympus) Piedmont Alps
SITES Dodona
AGE Bronze
DATES BC 14th-13th c / BC 1240 (defeat of Troy)
BATTLES Trojan War
RELATIVES Uranus (grandfather); Gaia (grandmother); Cronos
(father); Rhea (mother); Poseidon, Dis (Hades)
(brothers); Hera, Demeter (sisters/consorts);
Metis, Themis, Electra, Maria, Aegina,
Nemesis,
Danae, Dione, Leto, Alcmene, Leda (consorts);
Athena, Artio (Artemis), Aphrodite, Helen and
Hebe (daughters); Dardanus, Aeacus, Ares,
Castor, Pollux, Apollo, Hermes, Perseus,
Belenos
(Hercules), Tantalus, Proserpine and Hephaistos
(sons)
ENEMIES Achaean / Danann
SEE ALSO Ares / Artio / Aphrodite / Apollo / Athena /
Belenos / Danae / Dis / Esus / Helen /
Hephaistos / Hera / Hercules /
Hermes / Poseidon
/ Taranis / Teutates
REMARKS Zeus was a son of Cronos and Rhea and grandson
of Uranus (sky) and Gaia (earth). When the universe was
divided up among the gods, Zeus was given the sky to
control. Zeus was responsible primarily for the weather,
especially thunder and rain.
Zeus lived on the highest peak of Olympus (of the Many
Necks), which is suggested by Wilkens to be present-day
Mont Blanc in the Piedmont Alps of France. The oak was
sacred to him and his major site of veneration was Dodona.
He had many consorts and children, and figured in many
mythologies. During the Trojan war, Zeus supported the
Trojans.
Zeus bears a resemblance to the triad of deities
Taranis, Esus and Teutates, and he may have been an earlier
figure whose attributes were separated into three
personalities for clarification. This is also implied by
his ancestry, as he was closely related to the primitive
divisions of sky, water and earth. His Indo-European name
means "Shining" which has close parallels in the Sanskrit
"Dyaus", the Anglo-Saxon "Tiw" and the Latin "Jupiter". He
was sometimes referred to as The Father of the Human Race.