Uranus , the god of the
heavens and husband of Gaea, the goddess of the earth. Uranus was the father
of the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the 100-handed giants. The Titans, led
by their ruler, Cronus, dethroned and mutilated Uranus, and from the blood
that fell upon the earth sprang the three Erinyes, or Furies, who avenge
crimes of patricide and perjury. Although Uranus may have been worshipped
as a god by earlier inhabitants of Greece, he was never an object of worship
by the Greeks of the historical period.
Zephyrus, the god of
the west wind. He was the son of the Titan Astraeus and of Eos, the goddess
of the dawn. Zephyrus was said to be the husband of Iris, the goddess of
the rainbow and a messenger of the gods. His brothers were Boreas and Notus,
the gods of the north and south winds, respectively.
Zeus, the god of the sky
and ruler of the Olympian gods. Zeus corresponds to the Roman god Jupiter.
Zeus was considered, according to Homer, the father of the gods and of
mortals. He did not create either gods or mortals; he was their father
in the sense of being the protector and ruler both of the Olympian family
and of the human race. He was lord of the sky, the rain god, and the cloud
gatherer, who wielded the terrible thunderbolt. His breastplate was the
aegis, his bird the eagle, his tree the oak. Zeus presided over the gods
on Mount Olympus in Thessaly. His principal shrines were at Dodona, in
Epirus, the land of the oak trees and the most ancient shrine, famous for
its oracle, and at Olympia, where the Olympian Games were celebrated in
his honor every fourth year. The Nemean games, held at Nemea, northwest
of Argos, were also dedicated to Zeus. Zeus was the youngest son of the
Titans Cronus and Rhea and the brother of the deities Poseidon, Hades,
Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. According to one of the ancient myths of the
birth of Zeus, Cronus, fearing that he might be dethroned by one of his
children, swallowed them as they were born. Upon the birth of Zeus, Rhea
wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes for Cronus to swallow and concealed
the infant god in Crete, where he was fed on the milk of the goat Amalthaea
and reared by nymphs. When Zeus grew to maturity, he forced Cronus to disgorge
the other children, who were eager to take vengeance on their father. In
the war that followed, the Titans fought on the side of Cronus, but Zeus
and the other gods were successful, and the Titans were consigned to the
abyss of Tartarus. Zeus henceforth ruled over the sky, and his brothers
Poseidon and Hades were given power over the sea and the underworld, respectively.
The earth was to be ruled in common by all three. Beginning with the writings
of the Greek poet Homer, Zeus is pictured in two very different ways. He
is represented as the god of justice and mercy, the protector of the weak,
and the punisher of the wicked. As husband to his sister Hera, he is the
father of Ares, the god of war; Hebe, the goddess of youth; Hephaestus,
the god of fire; and Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth. At the same
time, Zeus is described as falling in love with one woman after another
and resorting to all kinds of tricks to hide his infidelity from his wife.
Stories of his escapades were numerous in ancient mythology, and many of
his offspring were a result of his love affairs with both goddesses and
mortal women. It is believed that, with the development of a sense of ethics
in Greek life, the idea of a lecherous, sometimes ridiculous father god
became distasteful, so later legends tended to present Zeus in a more exalted
light. His many affairs with mortals are sometimes explained as the wish
of the early Greeks to trace their lineage to the father of the gods. Zeus's
image was represented in sculptural works as a kingly, bearded figure.
The most celebrated of all statues of Zeus was Phidias's gold and ivory
colossus at Olympia.
