Introduction:
Zeus is the leader of the gods, the god of sky and weather, and law and order. His Roman counterpart is called Jupiter. He is usually seen as a man with a big beard in a throne and holding a thunderbolt. He is the son of Kronos and Rhea. He is married to Hera but have many affairs. He has many son and daughters including Ares, Hebe, Athena, etc. His symbols are thunderbolt and eagle.
Personality:
He is a strong, stubborn, bad temper player and control freak, but sometimes he is a caring, peacemaking, proud father. He can get anger quickly and cause a storm. He is very famous for have many affairs with many goddesses, titans, and mortals and has about 40 godly children while Aphrodite has about 10 godly children. As he is the king of the gods, he need to be judge fairly but he react violently if he feels threaten to be overthrown.
Relationships:
He is not very faithful to his wife, Hera. Although he is scared of Hera's wrath, he still sneaks out with other women. More half of the Olympians are his son or daughter. According to many myths, his favorite son is Hermes and his favorite daughter is Athena.
He usually liked to fight with his brother as they can be the real threat to his throne as the power of Poseidon and Hades can match Zeus. Also Poseidon sometimes challenges his seat of power.
Rise of the Olympians and Fall of the Titans:
Before the Titans, there were Gaia, primordial Earth-goddess and Uranus, primordial Sky-god. They gave birth to the Titans, the Cyclopes, and many monsters. Uranus disliked his offspring except the Titans and forced them to return to Gaia's womb. The pain angered Gaia. She called the Titans to help her to get revenge. Kronos came to her aid and overthrown Uranus with Gaia's help. Then, Kronos married his sister, Rhea.
According to a prophecy, one of Kronos' children will overthrow him like he overthrew Uranus. He tried to avoid this prophecy by swallowing his children. They had six children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Rhea can't stay that all her children will be eaten, so she tricked Kronos by giving him a stone in a blanket instead of Zeus. This shows that Zeus should be the youngest brother of the gods. There are at least 7 different versions to how Zeus was raised. The most well-known is Rhea hid him herself.
When Zeus grew up into manhood, he forced Kronos to throw his brothers and sister up. They were reunited again. They got the help from the Cyclopes. The Cyclopes made the ultimate weapons for the gods, Zeus' master bolt, Poseidon's trident, and Hades' helm of darkness. With the new weapons and the help of many allies, the gods overthrew Kronos. Then, they spilt up the world into three parts: Zeus got the sky, Poseidon got the sea, and Hades got tricked and had the underworld.
Interesting Facts:
It is said that when confronting Kronus, Zeus collaborated with his siblings who had been freed from the belly of their father. In the end Hades was the one to silently surprise Kronus by wearing an invisibility helmet, followed by Poseidon who immobilized his body. Zeus swiftly took advantage of the situation and destroyed his father by striking him with a deadly thunderbolt.
Zeus was well known for disguising himself in various animal forms to visit earth and seduce many appealing maidens.
He sometimes uses the fact that he helped his siblings to get out Kronos' stomach as blackmail.
