Zeus

God of the gods and of the sky, pictured with a thunderbolt or lightning in his hand, Zeus was the most powerful god. He had overturned his father Cronus and seized power, and everything was ultimately in his hands. Zeus was a weather god, as well as the protector of the law, the state, the society, the city, the family and strangers.

Zeus main shrine was in Dodona, where it was believed one could hear the future being told by the wind blowing through the the leafs of the holy oaktrees that grew there. In Olympia he was honoured every four years with the Olympic Games and Phidias statue of him there was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The Nemean Games were also held in his honour. The birds, especially the eagle, were believed to be Zeus messengers and so his priests were careful to try and foretell the future through the birds flight. Mountains were often named after Zeus and still today there are mountains of Zeus all over Greece, for example on Crete and Naxos.
On Crete Zeus was especially worshipped since it was believed he grew up there, in hiding from his father who would have eaten him had he known of Zeus existence. On Crete his worshippers believed he was born there, and that he also died there. There was even a tomb there said to be his.

The name Zeus is believed to originate in the Sanskrit dyaus which means heaven. The ancient Greeks also called him Dias, and this name has through the Latin Deus become a common word for God in many languages.

Apart from being the highest God, Zeus was also a mischievous one. Constantly unfaithful to his jealous wife and sister Hera, Zeus had many children with other women, both mortal and immortal. With Hera he had Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus and Eileithyia.

In the guise of a swan he had seduced queen Leda of Sparta, and she bore Helen of Troy and Polydeukes as a result. As a bull he kidnapped the Phoenician princess Europa and she gave birth to Minos and Rhadamanthus.