A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ZEUS. ZEUS. 1323
~ 1; Hes. Theog. 617, &c.) The Titans were golden eagles. The sacrifices offered there were
conquered and shut up in Tartarus (T/zeog. 717), kept secret. (Paus. viii. 38. ~ 5; Callim. I. c. 68.)
where they were henceforth guarded by the Heca- 2. The Dodonaean Zeus (ZEbS Aw MwzRa7OS or
tonchcires. Thereupon Tartarus and Ge begot fIehaoyLcos's) possessed the most ancient oracle in
Typhoeus, who began a fearful struggle with Zeus, Greece, at Dodona in Epeirus, near mount Tomarus
but was conquered. (Theog. 820, &c.) Zeus now (Tmarus or Tomurus), from which he derived his
obtained the dominion of the world, and chose name. (Hom. In. ii. 750, xvi. 233; Herod. ii. 52;
Metis for his wife. ( Theog. 881, &c.) When she Paus. i. 17. ~ 5; Strab. v. p. 338, vi. p. 504; Virg.
was pregnant with Athena, he took the child out Eclog. viii. 44.) At Dodona Zeus was mainly a
of her body and concealed it in his own, on the ad- prophetic god, and the oaktree was sacred to him
vice of Uranus and Ge, who told him that thereby but there too he was said to have been reared by
he would retain the supremacy of the world. For if the Dodonaean nymphs (Hyades; Schol. ad Hoen.
Metis had given birth to a son, this son (so fate had I. xviii. 486; Hygin. Fab. 182; Ov. Fast. vi. 711,
ordained it) would have acquired the sovereignty. Met. iii. 314). Respecting the Dodonaean oracle
After this Zeus, by his second wife Themis, be- of Zeus, see Diet. of Ant. s. v. Oraculumz.
came the father of the Horae and Moerae; of the 3. The Cretan Zeus (Zeus Au-Kraeos or Kp7r1a..
Charites by Eurynome, of Persephone by Denieter,'yEvys). We have already given the account of
of the Muses by Mnemosyne, of Apollo and Arte- him which is contained in the Theogony of Hesiod.
mis by Leto, and of Hebe, Ares, and Eileithyia He is the god, to whom Rhea, concealed from
by Hera. Athena was born out of the head of Cronos, gave birth in a cave of mount Dicte,
Zeus; while Hera, on the other hand, gave birth to and whom she entrusted to the Curetes and
Hephaestus without the co-operation of Zeus. the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, the daughters of
(Tlheog. 886, &c.) The family of the Cronidae Melisseus. They fed him with milk of the goat
accordingly embraces the twelve great gods of Amaltheia, and the bees of the mountain provided
Olympus, Zeus (the head of them all), Poseidon, him with honey. (Apollod. i. 1. ~ 6; Callim. 1. c.;
Apollo, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hestia, De- Diod. v. 70; comp. Athen. xi. 70; Ov. Fast.
meter, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, and Artemis. v. 115.) Crete is called the island or nurse of the
These twelve Olympian gods, who in some places great Zeus, and his worship there appears to have
were worshipped as a body, as at Athens (Thucyd. been very ancient. (Virg. Aen. iii. 104; Dionys.
vi. 54), were recognised not only by the Greeks, Perieg. 501.) Among the places in the islanld
but were adopted also by the Romans, who, in which were particularly sacred to the god, we must
particular, identified their Jupiter with the Greek mention the district about mount Ida, especially
Zeus. Cnosus, which was said to have been built by the
In surveying the different local traditions about Curetes, and where Minos had ruled and conversed
Zeus, it would seem that originally there were with Zeus (Hom. Odct. xix. 172; Plat. de Leg.
several, at least three, divinities which in their i. 1; Diod. v. 70; Strab. x. p. 730; Cic. de Nut.
respective countries were supreme, but which in Deor. iii. 21); Gortyn, where the god, in the form
the course of time became united in the minds of of a bull, landed when he had carried off Europa
the people into one great national divinity. We from Phoenicia, and where he was worshipped under
may accordingly speak of an Arcadian, Dodonaean, the surname of Hecatombaeus (Hesych. s. v.);
Cretan, and a national Hellenic Zeus. further the towns about mount Dicte, as Lyctos
1. The Arcadian Zeus (Zeus AKca7os) was born, (Hes. Theog. 477), Praesos, Hierapytna, Biennos,
according to the legends of the country, in Arcadia, Eleuthernae and Oaxus. (Comp. Hoeck, Creta, i.
either on Mount Parrhasion (Callim. Hymn. in p. 160, &c., 339, &c.)
Jov. 7, 10), or in a district of Mount Lycaeon, 4. The national HIellenic Zeus, near whose temple
which was called Cretea. (Paus. viii. 38. ~ 1; at Olympia in Elis, the great national panegyris
Callim. I. c. 14.) He was brought up there by was celebrated every fifth year. There too Zeus
the nymphs Theisoa, Neda, and Hagno; the first was regarded as the father and king of gods and
of these gave her name to an Arcadian town, the men, and as the supreme god of the Hellenic nation,
second to a river, and the third to a well. (Paus. His statue there was executed by Pheidias, a few
viii. 38. ~ 2, &c., 47. ~ 2; comp. Callim. i.c. 33.) years before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian
Lycaon, a son of Pelasgus, who built the first and war, the majestic and sublime idea for this statue
most ancient town of Lycosura, called Zeus Lycaeus, having been suggested to the artist by the words
and erected a temple andinstituted the festival of the of Homer,; I. i. 527. (Comp. Hygin. Fe!b. 223.)
Lyceia in honour of him; he further offered to him According to the traditions of Elis, Cronos was the
bloody sacrifices, and among others his own son, in first ruler of the country, and in the golden age
consequence of which he was metamorphosed into there was a temple dedicated to him at Olympia.
a wolf (Akos; Paus. viii. 2. ~ 1, 38. ~ I; Callim. Rhea, it is further said, entrusted the infant Zeus
1. c. 4; Ov. Mlet. i. 218.) No one was allowed to to the Idaean Dactyls, who were also called Curetes,
enter the sanctuary of Zeus Lycaeus on Mount and had come from moiunt Ida in Crete to Elis.
Lycaeon, and there was a belief that, if any one Heracles, one of them, contended with his brother
entered it, he died within twelve months after, Dactyls in a footrace, and adorned the victor with
and that in it neither human beings nor animals a wreath of olive. In this manner he is said to
cast a shadow. (Paus. viii. 38. ~ 5; comp. Schol. have founded the Olympian games, and Zeus to
ad C'allima. IIysnn. in Jov. 13.) Those who en- have contended with Cronos for the kingdom of
tered it intentionally were stoned to death. unless Elis. (Paus. v. 7. ~ 4.)
they escaped by flight; and those who had got in The Greek and Latin poets give to Zeus an
by accident were sent to Eleutherae. (Plut. immense number of epithets and surnames, which
Quaest. Gr. 39.) On the highest summit of Ly- are derived partly from the places where he was
caeon, there was an altar of Zeus, in front of which, worshipped, and partly from his powers and functowards the east, there were two pillars bearing tions. He was worshipped throughout Greece and