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113-513: The Charites were usually considered the daughters of Zeus and Oceanid Eurynome . According to the Orphic Hymns , they were the daughters of Zeus and Eunomia , while Cornutus records other possible names of their mother by Zeus as Eurydome , Eurymedousa , or Euanthe. Rarely, they were said to be daughters of Dionysus and Coronis or of Helios and the naiad Aegle or of Hera by an unnamed father. Homer identified them as part of

226-471: A chthonic earth-god rather than a god of the sky. These local divinities were gradually consolidated, via conquest and religious syncretism , with the Homeric conception of Zeus. Local or idiosyncratic versions of Zeus were given epithets — surnames or titles which distinguish different conceptions of the god. Pasithea In Greek mythology , Pasithea ( Ancient Greek : Πασιθέα ), or Pasithee ,

339-672: A small painting now in the Musée Condé ( Chantilly , France). Among other artistic depictions, they are the subject of famous sculptures by Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen . The vast majority use a variant of the closed group pose. A group of three trees in the Calaveras Big Trees State Park are named "The Three Graces" after the Charites. (The Imagebase links are all broken) Zeus Zeus ( / zj uː s / , Ancient Greek : Ζεύς )

452-494: A bride, and names it Daidale. When preparations are being made for the wedding, Hera rushes down from Cithaeron, followed by the women of Plataia , and upon discovering the trick, the couple are reconciled, with the matter ending in joy and laughter among all involved. After his marriage to Hera, different authors describe Zeus's numerous affairs with various mortal women. In many of these affairs, Zeus transforms himself into an animal, someone else, or some other form. According to

565-511: A connection to Hera , where some ancient authors reference her as their nurse. In the Iliad , as part of her plan to seduce Zeus to distract him from the Trojan War , she offers to arrange Hypnos's marriage to Pasithea, who is referred to as one of the younger Charites. One of the Charites had a role as the wife of the smith god Hephaestus. Hesiod names the wife of Hephaestus as Aglaea. In

678-424: A cuckoo bird, landing on Mount Thornax. He creates a terrible storm, and when Hera arrives at the mountain and sees the bird, which sits on her lap, she takes pity on it, laying her cloak over it. Zeus then transforms back and takes hold of her; when she refuses to have intercourse with him because of their mother, he promises that she will become his wife. Pausanias similarly refers to Zeus transforming himself into

791-416: A cuckoo to woo Hera, and identifies the location as Mount Thornax. According to a version from Plutarch , as recorded by Eusebius in his Praeparatio evangelica , Hera is raised by a nymph named Macris on the island of Euboea when Zeus kidnaps her, taking her to Mount Cithaeron , where they find a shady hollow, which serves as a "natural bridal chamber". When Macris comes to look for Hera, Cithaeron,

904-524: A factor in the enduring popularity of the subject. One of the earliest known Roman representations of the Graces was a wall painting in Boscoreale dated to 40 BCE, which also depicted Aphrodite with Eros and Dionysus with Ariadne . The group may have also appeared on a small number of coins to symbolize the union between Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Minor and on other coins they were depicted in

1017-469: A fragment of Epimenides, the nymphs Helike and Kynosura are the young Zeus's nurses. Cronus travels to Crete to look for Zeus, who, to conceal his presence, transforms himself into a snake and his two nurses into bears. According to Musaeus , after Zeus is born, Rhea gives him to Themis . Themis in turn gives him to Amalthea, who owns a she-goat, which nurses the young Zeus. Antoninus Liberalis , in his Metamorphoses , says that Rhea gives birth to Zeus in

1130-547: A great alarum", and in doing so deceiving Cronus, and relates that when the Kouretes were carrying the newborn Zeus that the umbilical cord fell away at the river Triton. Hyginus , in his Fabulae , relates a version in which Cronus casts Poseidon into the sea and Hades to the Underworld instead of swallowing them. When Zeus is born, Hera (also not swallowed), asks Rhea to give her the young Zeus, and Rhea gives Cronus

1243-489: A man who was guilty of murdering his father-in-law, by purifying him and bringing him to Olympus. However, Ixion started to lust after Hera. Hera complained about this to her husband, and Zeus decided to test Ixion. Zeus fashioned a cloud that resembles Hera ( Nephele ) and laid the cloud-Hera in Ixion's bed. Ixion coupled with Nephele, resulting in the birth of Centaurus . Zeus punished Ixion for lusting after Hera by tying him to

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1356-579: A more complex narrative. Typhon is, similarly to in Hesiod, the child of Gaia and Tartarus, produced out of anger at Zeus's defeat of the Giants. The monster attacks heaven, and all of the gods, out of fear, transform into animals and flee to Egypt, except for Zeus, who attacks the monster with his thunderbolt and sickle. Typhon is wounded and retreats to Mount Kasios in Syria, where Zeus grapples with him, giving

1469-491: A particular connection to springs and rivers. One of the earliest centres of worship for the Charites was the Cycladic Islands including Paros , with epigraphical evidence for a cult to the Charites dating to the sixth century B.C.E. on the island of Thera . Scholars have interpreted them as chthonic deities connected to fertility due to the absence of wreaths and flutes in ceremonies. An aetiological explanation for

1582-522: A priestess of Hera, who is subsequently turned into a cow, and suffers at Hera's hands: according to Apollodorus, Hera sends a gadfly to sting the cow, driving her all the way to Egypt, where she is finally transformed back into human form. In later accounts of Zeus's affair with Semele , a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia , Hera tricks her into persuading Zeus to grant her any promise. Semele asks him to come to her as he comes to his own wife Hera, and when Zeus upholds this promise, she dies out of fright and

1695-510: A prophecy from his parents, Gaia and Uranus, that one of his own children is destined to one day overthrow him as he overthrew his father. This causes Rhea "unceasing grief", and upon becoming pregnant with her sixth child, Zeus, she approaches her parents, Gaia and Uranus, seeking a plan to save her child and bring retribution to Cronus. Following her parents' instructions, she travels to Lyctus in Crete , where she gives birth to Zeus, handing

1808-438: A punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the human race. After Hephaestus does so, several other gods contribute to her creation. Hermes names the woman ' Pandora '. Pandora was given in marriage to Prometheus's brother Epimetheus . Zeus gave her a jar which contained many evils. Pandora opened

1921-587: A sacred cave in Crete, full of sacred bees, which become the nurses of the infant. While the cave is considered forbidden ground for both mortals and gods, a group of thieves seek to steal honey from it. Upon laying eyes on the swaddling clothes of Zeus, their bronze armour "split[s] away from their bodies", and Zeus would have killed them had it not been for the intervention of the Moirai and Themis ; he instead transforms them into various species of birds. According to

2034-490: A scholion on the Iliad (citing Hesiod and Bacchylides ), when Europa is picking flowers with her female companions in a meadow in Phoenicia, Zeus transforms himself into a bull, lures her from the others, and then carries her across the sea to the island of Crete, where he resumes his usual form to sleep with her. In Euripides ' Helen , Zeus takes the form of a swan, and after being chased by an eagle, finds shelter in

2147-518: A snake and raped her. Rhea became pregnant and gave birth to Persephone . Zeus in the form of a snake would mate with his daughter Persephone, which resulted in the birth of Dionysus . Zeus granted Callirrhoe's prayer that her sons by Alcmaeon , Acarnan and Amphoterus , grow quickly so that they might be able to avenge the death of their father by the hands of Phegeus and his two sons. Both Zeus and Poseidon wooed Thetis , daughter of Nereus . But when Themis (or Prometheus) prophesied that

2260-404: A stone to swallow. Hera gives him to Amalthea, who hangs his cradle from a tree, where he is not in heaven, on earth or in the sea, meaning that when Cronus later goes looking for Zeus, he is unable to find him. Hyginus also says that Ida , Althaea, and Adrasteia , usually considered the children of Oceanus , are sometimes called the daughters of Melisseus and the nurses of Zeus. According to

2373-583: A summary of an elgaic poem by 'Sostratus' (who is otherwise unknown) preserved by Eustathius in his commentary on the Odyssey . According to Eustathius's summary, part of the poem involves a variation of the Judgement of Paris . Tieresias attends the wedding of Peleus and Thetis , where a beauty contest is held between Aphrodite and the three graces – named as Pasithea, Kale and Euphrosyne – for which Tieresias acts as judge. He announces Kale to be

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2486-469: A transparent Indo-European etymology. Plato , in his Cratylus , gives a folk etymology of Zeus meaning "cause of life always to all things", because of puns between alternate titles of Zeus ( Zen and Dia ) with the Greek words for life and "because of". This etymology, along with Plato's entire method of deriving etymologies, is not supported by modern scholarship. Diodorus Siculus wrote that Zeus

2599-476: A tree which produces golden apples as a wedding gift. Eratosthenes and Hyginus attribute a similar story to Pherecydes, in which Hera is amazed by the gift, and asks for the apples to be planted in the "garden of the gods", nearby to Mount Atlas . Apollodorus specifies them as the golden apples of the Hesperides , and says that Gaia gives them to Zeus after the marriage. According to Diodorus Siculus ,

2712-416: A wheel that spins forever. Once, Helios the sun god gave his chariot to his inexperienced son Phaethon to drive. Phaethon could not control his father's steeds so he ended up taking the chariot too high, freezing the earth, or too low, burning everything to the ground. The earth itself prayed to Zeus, and in order to prevent further disaster, Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at Phaethon, killing him and saving

2825-430: A youthful affair between Zeus and Hera. In the Iliad , the pair are described as having first lay with each other before Cronus is sent to Tartarus, without the knowledge of their parents. A scholiast on the Iliad states that, after Cronus is banished to Tartarus, Oceanus and Tethys give Hera to Zeus in marriage, and only shortly after the two are wed, Hera gives birth to Hephaestus , having lay secretly with Zeus on

2938-682: Is an ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer about the Trojan war and the battle over the City of Troy , in which Zeus plays a major part. Scenes in which Zeus appears include: When Hades requested to marry Zeus's daughter, Persephone , Zeus approved and advised Hades to abduct Persephone, as her mother Demeter would not allow her to marry Hades. In the Orphic "Rhapsodic Theogony" (first century BC/AD), Zeus wanted to marry his mother Rhea . After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into

3051-593: Is born, emerging from Zeus's head, but the foretold son never comes forth. Apollodorus presents a similar version, stating that Metis took many forms in attempting to avoid Zeus's embraces, and that it was Gaia alone who warned Zeus of the son who would overthrow him. According to a fragment likely from the Hesiodic corpus, quoted by Chrysippus, it is out of anger at Hera for producing Hephaestus on her own that Zeus has intercourse with Metis, and then swallows her, thereby giving rise to Athena from himself. A scholiast on

3164-424: Is given "ephemeral fruits" by the Moirai , which reduce his strength. The monster then flees to Thrace, where he hurls mountains at Zeus, which are sent back at him by the god's thunderbolts, before, while fleeing to Sicily , Zeus launches Mount Etna upon him, finally ending him. Nonnus , who gives the longest and most detailed account, presents a narrative similar to Apollodorus, with differences such as that it

3277-752: Is his sister Demeter , with whom he has Persephone . Zeus's next consort is the Titan Mnemosyne ; as described at the beginning of the Theogony , Zeus lies with Mnemosyne in Piera each night for nine nights, producing the nine Muses. His sixth wife is the Titan Leto , who bears him the twins Apollo and Artemis , who, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo , are born on the island of Delos . In Hesiod's account, Zeus's seventh and final wife

3390-442: Is his sister Hera . While Hera is Zeus's seventh wife in Hesiod's version, in other accounts she is his first and only wife. In the Theogony , the couple has three children, Ares , Hebe , and Eileithyia . While Hesiod states that Hera produces Hephaestus on her own after Athena is born from Zeus's head, other versions, including Homer, have Hephaestus as a child of Zeus and Hera as well. Various authors give descriptions of

3503-612: Is instead Cadmus and Pan who recovers Zeus's sinews, by luring Typhon with music and then tricking him. In the Iliad , Homer tells of another attempted overthrow, in which Hera, Poseidon, and Athena conspire to overpower Zeus and tie him in bonds. It is only because of the Nereid Thetis , who summons Briareus, one of the Hecatoncheires , to Olympus, that the other Olympians abandon their plans (out of fear for Briareus). According to Hesiod, Zeus takes Metis , one of

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3616-654: Is married to Hera , by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares , Eileithyia , Hebe , and Hephaestus . At the oracle of Dodona , his consort was said to be Dione , by whom the Iliad states that he fathered Aphrodite . According to the Theogony , Zeus's first wife was Metis , by whom he had Athena . Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many divine and heroic offspring, including Apollo , Artemis , Hermes , Persephone , Dionysus , Perseus , Heracles , Helen of Troy , Minos , and

3729-420: Is not what Pasithea wishes. Pasithea confesses that her sorrow is not caused by Hypnos, but by the state of her father. She beseeches Aphrodite, as Dionysus's sister, to go to his aid, and Aphrodite sends Eros to shoot the warrior Morrheus with his arrows, making him fall in love with the bacchant Chalcomedeia and distracting him from the battle. Pasithea also appears in a self-contained story in book 24 of

3842-422: Is reduced to ashes. According to Callimachus, after Zeus sleeps with Callisto, Hera turns her into a bear, and instructs Artemis to shoot her. In addition, Zeus's son by Alcmene, the hero Heracles , is persecuted continuously throughout his mortal life by Hera, up until his apotheosis. According to Diodorus Siculus , Alcmene, the mother of Heracles, was the very last mortal woman Zeus ever slept with; following

3955-415: Is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology , who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus . His name is cognate with the first syllable of his Roman equivalent Jupiter . Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea , the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he

4068-556: Is unchanged. In Sparta , only Cleta and Phaenna were counted. The Charites' major mythological role was to attend the other Olympians, particularly during feasts and dances. They attended Aphrodite by bathing and anointing her in Paphos before her seduction of Ankhises and after she left Olympus when her affair with Ares is found out. Additionally, they are said to weave or dye her peplos . Along with Peitho , they presented Pandora with necklaces to make her more enticing. Pindar stated

4181-518: The Iliad , in contrast, states that when Zeus swallows her, Metis is pregnant with Athena not by Zeus himself, but by the Cyclops Brontes. The motif of Zeus swallowing Metis can be seen as a continuation of the succession myth: it is prophesied that a son of Zeus will overthrow him, just as he overthrew his father, but whereas Cronos met his end because he did not swallow the real Zeus, Zeus holds onto his power because he successfully swallows

4294-457: The Odyssey , which contains a story related by the rhapsode Demodocus . The story is that of Aphrodite and Ares being caught in flagrante delicto by Hephaestus in a trap of his own design – a skillfully made golden net of thread so fine as to be invisible. Once the two are caught, Hephaestus summons the other gods to the scene, who laugh at the situation the two lovers are in. When the two are finally freed Aphrodite flees to Paphos where

4407-689: The Cyclopes , who, in return, and out of gratitude, give him his thunderbolt, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Then begins the Titanomachy , the war between the Olympians, led by Zeus, and the Titans, led by Cronus, for control of the universe, with Zeus and the Olympians fighting from Mount Olympus , and the Titans fighting from Mount Othrys . The battle lasts for ten years with no clear victor emerging, until, upon Gaia's advice, Zeus releases

4520-525: The Dionysiaca , in which the story of Aphrodite trying to use the loom of Athena is told by rhapsode Leucos at the request of Lapethos. Because Aphrodite is unskilled in weaving and its related tasks, the thread she spins before she begins to weave is coarse and thick, and when she attempts to weave with it her work in uneven and the thickness of the thread causes the warp threads to break. Her attendants, Pasithea, Peitho and Aglaea help her by spinning

4633-503: The Fury Megaera , lent to Hera by Persephone , drives Dionysos mad, allowing his opponents to devastate his troops. In book 33, Pasithea, gathering shoots and flowers to make ointment for Aphrodite, sees the madness of Dionysus and returns to Aphrodite saddened by what she has seen. Aphrodite sees Pasithea's saddness and assumes it is due to Hypnos's efforts to woo her, and tells her that she will not force marriage upon her, if that

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4746-648: The Giants , who fight the Olympian gods in a battle known as the Gigantomachy. According to Hesiod, the Giants are the offspring of Gaia, born from the drops of blood that fell on the ground when Cronus castrated his father Uranus; there is, however, no mention of a battle between the gods and the Giants in the Theogony . It is Apollodorus who provides the most complete account of the Gigantomachy. He says that Gaia, out of anger at how Zeus had imprisoned her children,

4859-671: The Hundred-Handers , who (similarly to the Cyclopes) were imprisoned beneath the Earth's surface. He gives them nectar and ambrosia and revives their spirits, and they agree to aid him in the war. Zeus then launches his final attack on the Titans, hurling bolts of lightning upon them while the Hundred-Handers attack with barrages of rocks, and the Titans are finally defeated, with Zeus banishing them to Tartarus and assigning

4972-457: The Iliad , Pasithea is one of the younger Charites/Graces. In book 14 Hera approaches Hypnos, the god of sleep, for help in temporarily removing Zeus from the action of the Trojan War . In exchange for his aid, Hera swears an oath on the Styx , promising Pasithea in marriage to Hypnos, who, it is stated, had always loved her. The same story is referenced, though not retold, by Quintus Smyrnaeus in

5085-450: The Iliad , she is called Charis, and she welcomes Thetis into their shared home on Olympus so that the latter may ask for Hephaestus to forge armor for her son Achilles . Some scholars have interpreted this marriage as occurring after Hephaestus's divorce from Aphrodite due to her affair with Ares being exposed. Notably, however, some scholars, such as Walter Burkert , support that the marriage of Hephaestus and Aphrodite as an invention of

5198-537: The Muses . He was respected as a sky father who was chief of the gods and assigned roles to the others: "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence." He was equated with many foreign weather gods , permitting Pausanias to observe "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". Zeus's symbols are the thunderbolt , eagle , bull , and oak . In addition to his Indo-European inheritance ,

5311-461: The Oceanid daughters of Oceanus and Tethys , as his first wife. However, when she is about to give birth to a daughter, Athena , he swallows her whole upon the advice of Gaia and Uranus, as it had been foretold that after bearing a daughter, she would give birth to a son, who would overthrow him as king of gods and mortals; it is from this position that Metis gives counsel to Zeus. In time, Athena

5424-497: The Odyssey , since it is not represented within other Archaic or Classical era literature or arts, and it does not appear to have a connection to cult. The cult of the Charites is very old, with their name appearing to be of Pelasgian , or pre-Greek, origin rather than being brought to Greece by Proto-Indo-Europeans . The purpose of their cult appears to be similar to that of nymphs, primary based around fertility and nature with

5537-683: The Posthomerica . She is mentioned briefly by the Roman poet Catullus (c. 84 – c. 54 BCE) in Poem 63 , and in an epigram attributed to Antipater of Thessalonica in the Greek Anthology as the consort of Hypnos. She is also mentioned passingly by the Roman poet Statius , who, in contrast to Homer, makes her the eldest of the Graces in his Thebaid , but gives no other details about her. Another brief mention or Pasithea comes from

5650-552: The Proto-Indo-European vocative * dyeu-ph 2 tēr ), deriving from the root * dyeu - ("to shine", and in its many derivatives, "sky, heaven, god"). Albanian Zoj-z and Messapic Zis are clear equivalents and cognates of Zeus . In the Greek, Albanian, and Messapic forms the original cluster *di̯ underwent affrication to *dz . Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such

5763-433: The Theogony , after Zeus reaches manhood, Cronus is made to disgorge the five children and the stone "by the stratagems of Gaia, but also by the skills and strength of Zeus", presumably in reverse order, vomiting out the stone first, then each of the five children in the opposite order to swallowing. Zeus then sets up the stone at Delphi , so that it may act as "a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men". Zeus next frees

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5876-587: The retinue of Aphrodite . The Charites were also associated with the Greek underworld and the Eleusinian Mysteries . In Roman and later art, the three Charites are generally depicted nude in an interlaced group, but during the Archaic and Classical periods of Greece, they were typically depicted as fully clothed, and in a line, with dance poses. The name and number of goddesses associated with

5989-517: The tutelary deity of the mountain, stops her, saying that Zeus is sleeping there with Leto. Photius , in his Bibliotheca , tells us that in Ptolemy Hephaestion 's New History , Hera refuses to lay with Zeus, and hides in a cave to avoid him, before an earthborn man named Achilles convinces her to marry Zeus, leading to the pair first sleeping with each other. According to Stephanus of Byzantium , Zeus and Hera first lay together at

6102-586: The Athenians, which are before the entrance to the Acropolis. Also, Socrates was known to have destroyed his own work as he progressed deeper into his life of philosophy and search of the conscious due to his iconoclastic attitude towards art and the like. All these are alike draped; but later artists, I do not know the reason, have changed the way of portraying them. Certainly to-day sculptors and painters represent Graces naked. Clark writes that "For some reason

6215-487: The Athenians, who from of old have worshipped two Graces, Auxo ("Increase" or "Growth") and Hegemone ("Leader" or "Queen"), until Hermesianax added Peitho ("Persuasion") as a third. It was from Eteocles of Orchomenus that we learned the custom of praying to three Graces. And Angelion and Tectaus, sons of Dionysus, who made the image of Apollo for the Delians , set three Graces in his hand. Again, at Athens, before

6328-408: The Charites arranged feasts and dances for the Olympians. They also danced in celebration of the birth of Apollo with Aphrodite, Hebe , and Harmonia . They were often referenced as dancing and singing with Apollo and the Muses . Pindar also referred to them as the guardians of the ancient Minyans and the queens of Orchomenus who have their thrones beside Apollo's . The Charites appear to have

6441-497: The Charites varied, although they usually numbered three. In Hesiod 's Theogony , the Charites are listed as Aglaea , Euphrosyne , and Thalia . Alternate names to those given by Hesiod include: Damia ("Earth Mother"), Auxesia ("Spring Growth"), Cleta ("Renowned"), Phaenna ("Bright"), Hegemone ("Leader"), Peitho ("Persuasion"), Paregoros ("Consolation"), Pasithea ("Relaxation"), Charis ("Grace"), and Kale ("Beauty"). Alternatively, an ancient vase painting attests

6554-666: The Charites were offered a portion of the produce. Regarding the foundation of their cult in Orkhomenos, Strabo wrote: Eteokles, one of those who reigned as king at Orkhomenos, who founded a temple of the Kharites, was the first to display both wealth and power; for he honored these goddesses either because he was successful in receiving graces, or in giving them, or both. For necessarily, when he had become naturally inclined to kindly deeds, he began doing honor to these goddesses; and therefore he already possessed this power. In cult,

6667-479: The Charites were particularly connected with Apollo and appear to be connect to his cult on Delos , however, this connection is not present in other cults to Apollo. In the Classical era and beyond, the Charites were associated with Aphrodite in connection to civic matters. There was a festival in honour of the Charites which was called Charisia (Χαρίσια). During this festival there were dances all night and at

6780-532: The Charites, from a relief at the Paros colony of Thasos dated to the beginning of the fifth century BCE, shows the Charites with Hermes and either Aphrodite or Peitho, which marked the entrance to the old city. The opposite side of the relief shows Apollo being crowned by Artemis with nymphs in the background. At the entrance of the Akropolis , there was a famous Classical era relief of the Charites and Hermes, and

6893-529: The Homeric "cloud collector" was the god of the sky and thunder like his Near-Eastern counterparts, he was also the supreme cultural artifact; in some senses, he was the embodiment of Greek religious beliefs and the archetypal Greek deity. Popular conceptions of Zeus differed widely from place to place. Local varieties of Zeus often have little in common with each other except the name. They exercised different areas of authority and were worshiped in different ways; for example, some local cults conceived of Zeus as

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7006-695: The Hundred-Handers the task of acting as their warders. Apollodorus provides a similar account, saying that, when Zeus reaches adulthood, he enlists the help of the Oceanid Metis , who gives Cronus an emetic , forcing to him to disgorge the stone and Zeus's five siblings. Zeus then fights a similar ten-year war against the Titans, until, upon the prophesying of Gaia, he releases the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers from Tartarus, first slaying their warder, Campe . The Cyclopes give him his thunderbolt, Poseidon his trident and Hades his helmet of invisibility, and

7119-672: The Lydian , considered Zeus to have been born in Lydia , while the Alexandrian poet Callimachus (c. 310 – c. 240 BC), in his Hymn to Zeus , says that he was born in Arcadia . Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC) seems at one point to give Mount Ida as his birthplace, but later states he is born in Dicte , and the mythographer Apollodorus (first or second century AD) similarly says he

7232-439: The Titans and banishes them to Tartarus, his rule is challenged by the monster Typhon , a giant serpentine creature who battles Zeus for control of the cosmos. According to Hesiod, Typhon is the offspring of Gaia and Tartarus , described as having a hundred snaky fire-breathing heads. Hesiod says he "would have come to reign over mortals and immortals" had it not been for Zeus noticing the monster and dispatching with him quickly:

7345-467: The Titans are defeated and the Hundred-Handers made their guards. According to the Iliad , after the battle with the Titans, Zeus shares the world with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lots: Zeus receives the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld, with the earth and Olympus remaining common ground. Upon assuming his place as king of the cosmos, Zeus's rule is quickly challenged. The first of these challenges to his power comes from

7458-406: The Titans, bore the Giants to Uranus. There comes to the gods a prophecy that the Giants cannot be defeated by the gods on their own, but can be defeated only with the help of a mortal; Gaia, upon hearing of this, seeks a special pharmakon (herb) that will prevent the Giants from being killed. Zeus, however, orders Eos (Dawn), Selene (Moon) and Helios (Sun) to stop shining, and harvests all of

7571-412: The better portions. He sacrificed a large ox , and divided it into two piles. In one pile he put all the meat and most of the fat, covering it with the ox's grotesque stomach, while in the other pile, he dressed up the bones with fat. Prometheus then invited Zeus to choose; Zeus chose the pile of bones. This set a precedent for sacrifices, where humans will keep the fat for themselves and burn the bones for

7684-449: The birth of Heracles, he ceased to beget humans altogether, and fathered no more children. The following is a list of Zeus's offspring, by various mothers. Beside each offspring, the earliest source to record the parentage is given, along with the century to which the source dates. When the gods met at Mecone to discuss which portions they will receive after a sacrifice, the titan Prometheus decided to trick Zeus so that humans receive

7797-428: The bridal clothing; she is so relieved that the couple are reconciled. According to a version from Plutarch, as recorded by Eusebius in his Praeparatio evangelica , when Hera is angry with her husband, she retreats instead to Cithaeron, and Zeus goes to the earth-born man Alalcomeneus, who suggests he pretend to marry someone else. With the help of Alalcomeneus, Zeus creates a wooden statue from an oak tree, dresses it as

7910-409: The cave and beat their spears on their shields so that Cronus cannot hear the infant's crying. Diodorus Siculus provides a similar account, saying that, after giving birth, Rhea travels to Mount Ida and gives the newborn Zeus to the Kouretes, who then takes him to some nymphs (not named), who raised him on a mixture of honey and milk from the goat Amalthea. He also refers to the Kouretes "rais[ing]

8023-424: The city of Hermione , having come there from Crete. Callimachus, in a fragment from his Aetia , also apparently makes reference to the couple's union occurring at Naxos . Though no complete account of Zeus and Hera's wedding exists, various authors make reference to it. According to a scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes ' Argonautica , Pherecydes states that when Zeus and Hera are being married, Gaia brings

8136-458: The classical "cloud-gatherer" ( Greek : Νεφεληγερέτα , Nephelēgereta ) also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the ancient Near East , such as the scepter . The god's name in the nominative is Ζεύς ( Zeús ). It is inflected as follows: vocative : Ζεῦ ( Zeû ); accusative : Δία ( Día ); genitive : Διός ( Diós ); dative : Διί ( Dií ). Diogenes Laërtius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling

8249-429: The end a cake was given to those who remained awake during the whole time. Despite the Charites usually being depicted nude entwined in a "closed symmetrical group" for the last two millennia, this was a later development, as in depictions from Archaic and Classical Greece , they are finely dressed, and usually shown in a line, as dancers. In contrast, the third century BCE poets Callimachus and Euphorion describe

8362-559: The entrance to the Acropolis , the Graces are three in number; by their side are celebrated mysteries which must not be divulged to the many. Pamphos (Πάμφως or Πάμφος) was the first we know of to sing about the Graces, but his poetry contains no information either as to their number or about their names. Homer (he too refers to the Graces) makes one the wife of Hephaestus , giving her the name of Charis ("Grace")." He also says that Sleep

8475-494: The following names as: Antheia ("Blossoms"), Eudaimonia ("Happiness"), Euthymia ("Good Mood"), Eutychia ("Good Luck"), Paidia ("Play"), Pandaisia ("Banquet"), and Pannychis ("Festivity"), all refer to the Charites as patronesses of amusement and festivities. Pausanias interrupts his Description of Greece (Book 9.35.1–7) to expand upon the various conceptions of the Charites that developed in different parts of mainland Greece and Ionia : The Boeotians say that Eteocles

8588-469: The fourth Century CE Greek poet Quintus Smyrnaeus refers to Hypnos and Hera as being related via marriage, thus making Hera Pasithea's mother. In the Dionysiaca her father is named as Dionysus , and separately, her mother as Hera . Nonnus does not explain how these two, who are opponents throughout the epic, came to be her parents. In book 48 Nonnos makes Dionysos and Coronis the parents of 'the three Graces', which probably includes Pasithea. In

8701-453: The gods. Zeus, enraged at Prometheus's deception, prohibited the use of fire by humans. Prometheus, however, stole fire from Olympus in a fennel stalk and gave it to humans. This further enraged Zeus, who punished Prometheus by binding him to a cliff, where an eagle constantly ate Prometheus's liver, which regenerated every night. Prometheus was eventually freed from his misery by Heracles . Now Zeus, angry at humans, decides to give humanity

8814-463: The hands of Juno or Venus . The Graces were common subject matter on Roman sarcophagi, and they were depicted on several mirrors. On the representation of the Graces, the second century CE guide book author Pausanias wrote: Who it was who first represented the Graces naked, whether in sculpture or in painting, I could not discover. During the earlier period, certainly, sculptors and painters alike represented them draped. At Smyrna , for instance, in

8927-409: The herb himself, before having Athena summon Heracles . In the conflict, Porphyrion , one of the most powerful of the Giants, launches an attack upon Heracles and Hera; Zeus, however, causes Porphyrion to become lustful for Hera, and when he is just about to violate her, Zeus strikes him with his thunderbolt, before Heracles deals the fatal blow with an arrow. In the Theogony , after Zeus defeats

9040-459: The island of Samos beforehand; to conceal this act, she claimed that she had produced Hephaestus on her own. According to another scholiast on the Iliad , Callimachus , in his Aetia , says that Zeus lay with Hera for three hundred years on the island of Samos. According to a scholion on Theocritus ' Idylls , Zeus, one day seeing Hera walking apart from the other gods, becomes intent on having intercourse with her, and transforms himself into

9153-431: The jar and released all the evils, which made mankind miserable. Only hope remained inside the jar. When Zeus was atop Mount Olympus he was appalled by human sacrifice and other signs of human decadence. He decided to wipe out mankind and flooded the world with the help of his brother Poseidon . After the flood, only Deucalion and Pyrrha remained. This flood narrative is a common motif in mythology. The Iliad

9266-479: The lack of music and garlands was from a myth involving Minos . He was said to have been sacrificing to the Charites on the island of Paros when he learned of his son's death in Athens and stopped the music and ripped off his garlands in grief. Dance, however, appears to be strongly connected with their cult, which is similar to the cults of Dionysus and Artemis . Although the Charites were most commonly depicted in

9379-474: The lap of Leda , subsequently seducing her, while in Euripides's lost play Antiope , Zeus apparently took the form of a satyr to sleep with Antiope . Various authors speak of Zeus raping Callisto , one of the companions of Artemis , doing so in the form of Artemis herself according to Ovid (or, as mentioned by Apollodorus, in the form of Apollo ), and Pherecydes relates that Zeus sleeps with Alcmene ,

9492-460: The location of the marriage is in the land of the Knossians , nearby to the river Theren, while Lactantius attributes to Varro the statement that the couple are married on the island of Samos. There exist several stories in which Zeus, receiving advice, is able to reconcile with an angered Hera. According to Pausanias, Hera, angry with her husband, retreats to the island of Euboea, where she

9605-520: The monster a chance to wrap him in his coils, and rip out the sinews from his hands and feet. Disabled, Zeus is taken by Typhon to the Corycian Cave in Cilicia, where he is guarded by the "she-dragon" Delphyne . Hermes and Aegipan , however, steal back Zeus's sinews, and refit them, reviving him and allowing him to return to the battle, pursuing Typhon, who flees to Mount Nysa; there, Typhon

9718-519: The most beautiful, which incurs the wrath of Aphrodite, who turns him into an old woman. In response Kale makes Tieresias beautiful and takes her to Crete . Pasithea has a larger role in the Dionysiaca than in any other surviving source, albeit still small. The epic relates the story of Dionysus from his birth up to his acceptance as one of the Olympian gods . In book 13 of the poem, Zeus orders Dionysus to "drive out of Asia with his avenging thyrsus

9831-400: The myth of Zeus. In Hesiod 's Theogony (c. 730 – 700 BC), Cronus , after castrating his father Uranus , becomes the supreme ruler of the cosmos, and weds his sister Rhea , by whom he begets three daughters and three sons: Hestia , Demeter , Hera , Hades , Poseidon , and lastly, "wise" Zeus, the youngest of the six. He swallows each child as soon as they are born, having received

9944-766: The nakedness of the Graces was free from moral opprobium, and in consequence they furnished the subject through which pagan beauty was first allowed to appear in the 15th century". Indeed, a large marble Graeco-Roman group, which was a key model in the Renaissance, when it was in the Piccolomini Library , is now displayed in Siena Cathedral . The Charites are depicted together with several other mythological figures in Sandro Botticelli 's painting Primavera . Raphael also pictured them in

10057-681: The name Ζάς . The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek 𐀇𐀸 , di-we (dative) and 𐀇𐀺 , di-wo (genitive), written in the Linear B syllabic script. Zeus is the Greek continuation of * Di̯ēus , the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called * Dyeus ph 2 tēr ("Sky Father"). The god is known under this name in the Rigveda ( Vedic Sanskrit Dyaus/Dyaus Pita ), Latin (compare Jupiter , from Iuppiter , deriving from

10170-450: The newborn child over to Gaia for her to raise, and Gaia takes him to a cave on Mount Aegaeon (Aegeum). Rhea then gives to Cronus, in the place of a child, a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallows, unaware that it is not his son. While Hesiod gives Lyctus as Zeus's birthplace, he is the only source to do so, and other authors give different locations. The poet Eumelos of Corinth (8th century BC), according to John

10283-448: The number of the Graces nor their names, says that they are daughters of Aegle and the Sun. The elegiac poet Hermesianax disagrees with his predecessors in that he makes Persuasion also one of the Graces. Nonnus gives their three names as Pasithea, Peitho and Aglaia. Sostratus gives the names as Pasithea, Cale ("Beauty") and Euphrosyne; Pasithea for Thalia and Cale for Aglaia, Euphrosyne

10396-463: The opponents of Dionysus. As in Homer, the proffered reward for helping Hera is the hand of Pasithea – explicitly named as Hera's daughter – in marriage. She gives Iris a list of places in which she might find Hypnos, including Pasithea's home, Orchomenus . Again, as in Homer, Hypnos accepts the offer. In book 32, whilst Zeus is asleep through the machinations of Hera, and thanks to the help of Hypnos,

10509-626: The popular belief was that the sculptor was Socrates , although this is very unlikely. Kenneth Clark describes the "complicated" pose of the Three Graces facing inwards with interlaced arms as "one of the last beautiful inventions of antique art". He thought it was invented in the 1st century BCE, based on the proportions of the figures, and notes that none of the many survivals from antiquity are of "high quality". The opportunity for artists to show their skill in representing figures with three nude female figures seen from different angles has been

10622-406: The proud race of Indians untaught of justice". A series of protracted battles over many years follow, with Hera always taking the side of Dionysus' opponents. In book 31, Nonnus reuses Homer's deception of Zeus episode in a different context. Hera commands Iris to take on the form of Nyx , the mother of Hypnos, and visit him to convince him to make Zeus fall asleep for a day so that Hera can help

10735-424: The request of Apollo's mother, Leto , Zeus instead ordered Apollo to serve as a slave to King Admetus of Pherae for a year. According to Diodorus Siculus , Zeus killed Asclepius because of complains from Hades, who was worried that the number of people in the underworld was diminishing because of Asclepius's resurrections. The winged horse Pegasus carried the thunderbolts of Zeus. Zeus took pity on Ixion ,

10848-737: The sanctuaries of other gods, there were at least four temples exclusively dedicated to them in Greece. The temple regarded as their perhaps most important was that in Orkhomenos in Boeotia , where their cult was thought to have originated. There were also temples to the Charites in Hermione , Sparta , and Elis . A temple was dedicated to the Charites near the Tiasa river in Amyclae , Laconia that

10961-682: The sanctuary of the Nemeses , above the images have been dedicated Graces of gold, the work of Bupalus; and in the Music Hall in the same city there is a portrait of a Grace, painted by Apelles . At Pergamus likewise, in the chamber of Attalus , are other images of Graces made by Bupalus; and near what is called the Pythium there is a portrait of Graces, painted by Pythagoras the Parian. Socrates too, son of Sophroniscus , made images of Graces for

11074-488: The son born of Thetis would be mightier than his father, Thetis was married off to the mortal Peleus . Zeus was afraid that his grandson Asclepius would teach resurrection to humans, so he killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt. This angered Asclepius's father, Apollo , who in turn killed the Cyclopes who had fashioned the thunderbolts of Zeus. Angered at this, Zeus would have imprisoned Apollo in Tartarus. However, at

11187-470: The thread, preparing the wool for spinning, and passing the spun thread to Aphrodite respectively. When Athena discovers what Aphrodite is doing so summons the other gods to see, and their laughter and mockery results in Aphrodite giving up the task and returning to her own domain of affairs, allowing marriages and other aspects of life related to love to resume. The scene is a clear reference to book 8 of

11300-505: The threat, in the form of the potential mother, and so the "cycle of displacement" is brought to an end. In addition, the myth can be seen as an allegory for Zeus gaining the wisdom of Metis for himself by swallowing her. In Hesiod's account, Zeus's second wife is Themis , one of the Titan daughters of Uranus and Gaia, with whom he has the Horae , listed as Eunomia , Dike and Eirene , and

11413-609: The three Moirai : Clotho , Lachesis and Atropos . A fragment from Pindar calls Themis Zeus's first wife, and states that she is brought by the Moirai (in this version not her daughters) up to Olympus, where she becomes the bride of Zeus and bears him the Horae. According to Hesiod, Zeus next marries the Oceanid Eurynome , with whom he has the three Charites , namely Aglaea , Euphrosyne and Thalia . Zeus's fourth wife

11526-460: The trio as being nude. The earliest representation of these goddesses was found in a temple of Apollo in Thermon dated to the seventh to sixth century BCE. It is possible, however, that the Charites are represented on a Mycenean golden seal ring that depicts two female figures dancing in the presence of a male figure, who has been interpreted as Hermes or Dionysus. Another early representation of

11639-511: The two of them meet in a cataclysmic battle, before Zeus defeats him easily with his thunderbolt, and the creature is hurled down to Tartarus. Epimenides presents a different version, in which Typhon makes his way into Zeus's palace while he is sleeping, only for Zeus to wake and kill the monster with a thunderbolt. Aeschylus and Pindar give somewhat similar accounts to Hesiod, in that Zeus overcomes Typhon with relative ease, defeating him with his thunderbolt. Apollodorus, in contrast, provides

11752-473: The universal nature and general pleasantness of sleep. Josef Korn, writing under the pseudonym Friedrich Nork, (1843) took it to mean 'die von Allen veherte Göttin' ('the Goddess revered by all'), assuming that it originally referred to Aphrodite. Although Pasithea is named in the Iliad of Homer , and offered in marriage to Hypnos by Hera , no explicit parentage for her is given. In his Posthomerica

11865-530: The wife of Amphitryon , in the form of her own husband. Several accounts state that Zeus approached the Argive princess Danae in the form of a shower of gold, and according to Ovid he abducts Aegina in the form of a flame. In accounts of Zeus's affairs, Hera is often depicted as a jealous wife, with there being various stories of her persecuting either the women with whom Zeus sleeps, or their children by him. Several authors relate that Zeus sleeps with Io ,

11978-558: The world from further harm. In a satirical work, Dialogues of the Gods by Lucian , Zeus berates Helios for allowing such thing to happen; he returns the damaged chariot to him and warns him that if he dares do that again, he will strike him with one of this thunderbolts. Zeus played a dominant role, presiding over the Greek Olympian pantheon. He fathered many of the heroes and was featured in many of their local cults . Though

12091-524: Was a lover of Pasithea ("Hallucination"), and in the speech of Sleep there is this verse: Verily that he would give me one of the younger Graces. Hence some have suspected that Homer knew of older Graces as well. Hesiod in the Theogony (though the authorship is doubtful, this poem is good evidence) says that the three Graces are daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, giving them the names of Aglaia, Euphrosyne and lovely Thalia. The poem of Onomacritus agrees with this account. Antimachus , while giving neither

12204-411: Was also called Zen, because the humans believed that he was the cause of life (zen). While Lactantius wrote that he was called Zeus and Zen, not because he is the giver of life, but because he was the first who lived of the children of Cronus . Zeus was called by numerous alternative names or surnames, known as epithets . Some epithets are the surviving names of local gods who were consolidated into

12317-521: Was born in a cave in Dicte. While the Theogony says nothing of Zeus's upbringing other than that he grew up swiftly, other sources provide more detailed accounts. According to Apollodorus, Rhea, after giving birth to Zeus in a cave in Dicte, gives him to the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida , daughters of Melisseus , to nurse. They feed him on the milk of the she-goat Amalthea , while the Kouretes guard

12430-599: Was one of the Graces and the wife of Hypnos . In the Dionysiaca , the epic poem of Nonnus (fifth century CE), she is one of the three attendant Graces of Aphrodite . The meaning of the name is obscure and no recent proposals have been made. Benjamin Hederich (1770) states that 'Ihr Namen soll so viel heißen, als die zu allen laufende' ('her name supposedly means "the one who runs to all"'), which he takes to refer to

12543-402: Was raised, and Zeus, unable to resolve the situation, seeks the advice of Cithaeron, ruler of Plataea , supposedly the most intelligent man on earth. Cithaeron instructs him to fashion a wooden statue and dress it as a bride, and then pretend that he is marrying one "Plataea", a daughter of Asopus . When Hera hears of this, she immediately rushes there, only to discover the ruse upon ripping away

12656-472: Was reportedly founded by the ancient King of Sparta, Lacedaemon . In Orkhomenos, the goddesses were worshipped at a very ancient site with a trio of stones, which is similar to other Boiotian cults to Eros and Herakles . The local river Kephisos and the Akidalia (or Argaphia) spring was sacred to the three goddesses. Orkhomenos was an agriculturally prosperous city because of the marshy Kopaic plain, and

12769-464: Was the first man to sacrifice to the Graces. Moreover, they are aware that he established three as the number of the Graces, but they have no tradition of the names he gave them. The Lacedaemonians , however, say that the Graces are two, and that they were instituted by Lacedaemon , son of Taygete , who gave them the names of Cleta ("Sound" or "Renowned") and Phaenna ("Light" or "Bright"). These are appropriate names for Graces, as are those given by

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