Summary
After
deposing Cronus, Zeus and his brothers drew lots to see which portion of the
world would be ruled by each. Zeus thus gained the mastery of the sky, Poseidon
of the seas, and Hades of the underworld. It was also decreed that earth, and
Olympus in particular, would be common to all three. In addition to having the
most power, Zeus gained another advantage from his position as, a sky god,
since it allowed him free access to any beauty that took his fancy. Indeed, as
a sky god it was expected of him to fecundate the earth; and neither goddess, nymph,
nor mortal was able to resist his advances, for the most part.
Zeus
had had other wives before Hera. The first was Metis (Wisdom), whom Zeus
swallowed just before she gave birth to Athena because he knew that her second
child would dethrone him. Yet in order to allow Athena to live, as Metis'
firstborn, Zeus (in some Greek sources) had Hephaestus take an axe and
cleave his forehead open, and from Zeus's head sprang Athena, fully armed. By
swallowing Metis, however, Zeus had gained wisdom as part of his intrinsic
nature.
His
second wife, Theism (Divine Justice), gave birth to the Seasons, to Wise Laws,
to Human Justice, to Peace, and to the Fates. His third wife was Eurynome, an
ocean nymph, and she bore the three Graces. Zeus then was attracted by his sister
Demeter, who resisted him. But he violated her in the form of a bull, and from
their union came Persephone. His next wife was the Titaness Mnemosyne (Memory),
who produced the Nine Muses. Leto was said to be one of Zeus's consorts. She
gave birth to Artemis and Apollo after a good deal of persecution at Hera's
hands.
Zeus
finally became enamored of the goddess who was to become his permanent wife —
Hera. After courting her unsuccessfully he changed himself into a disheveled
cuckoo. When Hera took pity on the bird and held it to her breast, Zeus resumed
his true form and ravished her. Hera then decided to marry him to cover her
shame, and the two had a resplendent wedding worthy of the gods. It took no
great foresight to see that their marriage was bound to be quarrelsome and
unhappy, given Zeus's lust and Hera's jealousy.
Their
union brought forth four children: Hebe, the cupbearer to the gods; Ares, the
god of war; Ilithyia, a goddess of childbearing; and Hephaestus, the craftsman
of the gods. Perhaps in retaliation for Zeus's giving birth to Athena. Hera
claimed that Hephaestus was virgin-born. Zeus never cared much for his two
legitimate sons, Ares and Hephaestus. And his two legitimate daughters were
almost nonentities. One time Hephaestus interfered in a quarrel between Zeus
and Hera, siding with his mother. In a rage Zeus hurled his ugly son down from
Olympus to the isle of Lemnos, crippling him forever.
The
arguments between Zeus and Hera were fairly frequent As Zeus continued to have
one affair after another, Hera could not punish him because he was much
stronger than she was. But she could avenge herself on the females with whom
Zeus dallied, and she often took full advantage of this.
A
number of Zeus's affairs resulted in new gods and godesses. His liaison with
Metis, of course, produced the warrior goddess of wisdom and courage, Athena.
One night as Hera slumbered, Zeus made love to one of the Pleiades, Maia, who
gave birth to the tricky messenger of the gods, Hermes. By some accounts Zeus
begat the goddess of love, Aphrodite, on the Titaness Dione. And when he took
Leto as his consort he must have been married to Hera, for Hera persecuted Leto
by condemning her to bear her children in a land of complete darkness. After
traveling throughout Greece, Leto finally gave birth painlessly to Artemis, the
virgin huntress, on the isle of Ortygia. Nine days later she gave birth to
Apollo, the god of light and inspiration, on the island of Delos. Each of these
new gods and goddesses were full-fledged Olympians, having had two divine
parents.
One
important god, however, had Zeus as a father and a mortal woman as a mother.
This was Dionysus, the vine god of ecstasy, who was never granted Olympian
status. His mother was the Theban princess, Semele. Zeus visited her one night
in the darkness, and she knew a divine being was present and she slept with
him. When it turned out that Semele was pregnant she boasted that Zeus was the
father. Hera learned of this and came to Semele disguised as her nurse. Hera
asked how she knew the father was Zeus, and Semele had no proof. So Hera
suggested that Semele ask to see this god in his full glory. The next time Zeus
visited the girl he was so delighted with her that he promised her anything she
wanted. She wanted to see Zeus fully revealed. Since Zeus never broke his word,
he sadly showed himself forth in his true essence, a burst of glory that
utterly destroyed Semele, burning her up. Yet Zeus spared her unborn infant,
sewing it up inside his thigh until it was able to emerge as the god Dionysus.
His birth from Zeus's thigh alone conferred immortality on him.
Among
Zeus's offspring were great heroes such as Perseus, Castor and Polydeuces, the
great Heracles. Some were founders of cities or countries, like Epaphus, who
founded Memphis; Arcas, who became king of Arcadia; Lacedaemon, the king of
Lacedaemon and founder of Sparta. One was the wisest law-giver of his age, the
first Minos. Another was a fabulous beauty, the famous Helen of Troy. And one
was a monster of depravity: Tantalus, who served up his son Pelops as food to
the gods. As a general rule Zeus's mortal children were distinguished for one
reason or another.
On
occasion their mothers were notable for something besides merely attracting
Zeus with their beauty. Leda, for example, after being visited by Zeus in the
form of a swan, gave birth to an egg from which came Helen and Clytemnestra,
and Castor and Polydeuces. But since Leda's husband Tyndarus also made love to
her shortly after Zeus, the exact paternity of these quadruplets was subject to
question.
Poor
Io was famous for her long persecution at the hands of Hera. Zeus fell in love
with Io and seduced her under a thick blanket of cloud to keep Hera from
learning of it. But Hera was no fool; she flew down from Olympus, dispersed the
cloud, and found Zeus standing by a white heifer, who of course was Io. Hera
calmly asked Zeus if she could have this animal, and Zeus gave it to her,
reluctant to go into an explanation. But Hera knew it was Io, so she put her
under guard. The watchman Argus with a hundred eyes was put in charge.
Eventually Zeus sent his son Hermes to deliver lo from Argus, which was very
difficult because Argus never slept. In disguise Hermes managed to put Argus to
sleep with stories and flute-playing, and then Hermes killed him. As a memorial
to Argus, Hera set his eyes in the tail of her pet bird, the peacock. But Hera
was furious and sent a gadfly to chase Io over the earth. Still in the form of
a heifer, Io ran madly from country to country, tormented by the stinging
insect. At one point she came across Prometheus chained to his rock in the
Caucasus, and the two victims of divine injustice discussed her plight.
Prometheus pointed out that her sufferings were far from over, but that after
long journeying she would reach the Nile, be changed back into human shape,
give birth to Epaphus, the son of Zeus, and receive many honors. And from her
descendants would come Heracles, the man who would set Prometheus free.
If
Hera was diligent about punishing lo, Europa escaped her wrath scotfree. One
morning this lovely daughter of the king of Sidon had a dream in which two
continents in female form laid claim to her. Europa belonged to Asia by birth,
but the other continent, which was nameless, said that Zeus would give Europa
to her. Later, while Europa and her girl companions were frolicking by the sea,
Zeus was smitten with the princess and changed himself into a marvelous bull of
great handsomeness. He approached the girls so gently that they ran to play
with him. Zeus knelt down and Europa climbed on his back. Then the bull charged
into the sea, and on the sea journey Europa and Zeus were accompanied by
strange sea creatures: Nereids, Tritons, and Poseidon himself. Europa then
realized that the bull was a god in disguise and she begged Zeus not to desert
her. Zeus replied that he was taking her to Crete, his original home, and that
her sons from this union would be grand kings who would rule all men. In time
Europa gave birth to Minos and Rhadamanthus, wise rulers who became judges in
the netherworld after death. And Europa gave her name to a continent.
Despite
his conquests Zeus was not always successful in his amorous pursuits. The nymph
Asteria managed to resist him only by the most desperate means — changing herself
into a quail, flinging herself into the sea, and becoming the floating island
of Ortygia. On one occasion Zeus himself renounced the nymph Thetis when he
learned that she would give birth to a son greater than its father. Further,
Zeus's infatuations were not limited to women, for when he fell in love with
the youthful Ganymede he had the boy abducted by his eagle and brought up to
Olympus to serve as cup bearer.
Analysis
In
previous sections we have seen Zeus's power as king of the gods and a dispenser
of justice to men, but here we see him as a pro creator. As H. J. Rose has
pointed out, the Greeks had a choice of making Zeus either polygamous or
promiscuous because the role of All-Father was indispensable to him. Zeus had
acquired wives as his worship spread from locality to locality and he had to
marry each provincial earth goddess. However, polygamy was foreign to the
Greeks and unacceptable, so they had to make him promiscuous. The same majestic
god who fathered seven of the great Olympians also fathered a number of human
beings, and many ruling or powerful families traced their lineage to Zeus. So
if his battles with Hera and his deceptions lessened his dignity, that was the
price the Greeks paid for their illustrious family trees.
The
myths about Zeus are primarily concerned with establishing his mastery over
gods and men. His predominance in the Olympian pantheon is largely asserted by
the fact that he fathered seven of the major gods. Once again we see the
humanization of the gods. Zeus and Hera have distinct personalities and a
realistic family situation. Everything they do has an understandable motive.
Thus, when Zeus changes himself into bestial forms he does so to satisfy his
lust. The Greeks had a driving passion for order. They continually rationalized
their myths, tried to explain obscurities, and attempted to make the fantastic
elements more believable. However, in making their gods humanly comprehensible
they tended to trivialize them as well, depriving them of some of their
original power and mystery. One could fill several gossip columns with spicy
anecdotes about the Greek gods, as though they were immortal versions of the
International Set. The following myths about the gods show human qualities
projected onto divinities, and many of those qualities are not of a very high
moral level. Pride, greed, lust, trickery are prominent features of the Greek
gods.
Comments
Post a Comment