Zeus, the most senior of the Olympian gods, was the son of Rhea and Cronus, the cruel Titan who devoured his newborn children out of the fear than one of him might usurp his throne. Zeus had the good fortune to avoid that fate, because his mother gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling-clothes to eat and hid her son in a cave on Mt Aegeum at Lycnus in Crete. When he grew up, Zeus overthrew Cronun in battle and after liberating his brothers fought the Titans because they refused to acknowledge him as their leader. After this fresh victory, Zeus had to face the terrible Giants, whom he overcame with the help of many other gods. Yet more trouble was in store for him: Typhon, the monstrous son of Tartarus and Ge, sought to destroy the world. Zeus attemped to prevent him, but Typhon cast him, unconscious, into a ravine. The help of Hermes and Pan was needed before the god could come to his senses and overcome the horrible monster.

After these exploits, Zeus was now justly recognised as the ruler of all the world. Yet his power was not without its restrictions, and he was not omnipotent. His role was primarily to co-ordinate the activities of the other gods and make sure that they were not exceeding their powers. He was, in any case, the guarantor of order in the sphere of divine as well as human affairs. The kings of the earth were seen as his descendants, and they were often described as born of Zeus and nurtured by Zeus. When the Greek cities ceased to have kings, Zeus was called Polieus and Poliouchos - the patron of the city. The defence of the Greek cities was among his responsibilities, which is why he was worshipped, with Athena (the goddess of martial prowess) as Promachus, leader in battle, and Soter, saviour. Another of his epithets was Eleutherius, liberator, because he granted freedom to those under his protection.

When the ancient Greeks referred to Olympian Zeus, as they often did, they meant the father of the gods and men who ruled the world from his palace on Mt Olympus or in the sky. He was the origin of heavenly light (hence his epithets Uranius, heavenly, and Aetherius, of the air) and he regulated meteorological phenomena. He sent the wind, the clouds, the rain and the thunder and lightning, in each of which roles he had a separate epithet. His symbols were connected with these powers, too: not only the thunderbolt, but the eagle, too, the sacred bird which flies higher in the sky than any other and faster than everything but lightning. The Greeks worshipped Zeus on mountain-tops, where the earth met the sky, the source of the epithet Acraeus. The phenomena, controlled by Zeus, which occured in the heavens were taken as signs from the gods and capable of providing people with information about things which were destined to happen. The oracle at Dodona, one of the most important in Greece, was dedicated to Zeus.

The father of the gods also exercised close control over earthly things. His rain made the fields fertile, and he was worshipped as Genethlius, the life-giver, and Georgus, the farmer. Here there was a connection between Zeus and the Underworld, the place where all the fruits of the earth lay in store, and so he was called Chthonius (subterranean), Plusius (rich) and Meilichius (he who sweetens the weather). In hounour of Zeus Meilichius, the festival called the Diasia was held, with whole pigs being burned as a symbol of fertility and productiveness.

There are countless myths associated with Zeus, and many of them are particularly striking. They include, notably, the narratives about his love affairs, which inspire wonder mixed, when seen in the light of modern morals, with certain questions. However, it is easy to understand these mythological traditions if we can identify their symbolic content. In describing the erotic encounters of their primary deity, what the ancient Greeks were doing was to attribute to some higher being the generation of all the elements of nature, of all laws and intellectual or spiritual poweres, of the rules which govern society, and even of the origins of mankind itself. Thus, according to these traditions, Zeus lay with Metis, the personification of wisdom or learning, and Athena was born. The he contracted a union with Themis, who symbolised law and the moral order, and brought into the world the Hours (in the ancient Greek scheme of things, these corresponded to the seasons of the year) and the Fates, which govern the destiny of all human beings. His union with Mnemosyne produced the nine Muses, source of all poetic inspiration, and on Demeter he fathered Persephone, who symbolised the regeneration and fertility of the earth. He and Leto were the parents of Apollo and Artemis - that is, of the light of the sun and moon - and from his union with Eurynome were born the Graces, who brought a touch of beauty into the lives of mortals. Zeus also lay with many of the nymphs and heroines, thus becoming the father of the patriarchs of the Greek tribes. With Pyrrha, he fathered Hellen, father of the Hellenes; with Taygete, Lecedaemon (the Lacedaemonians or Spartans); with Niobe, Argus (the Argives), with Thyia, Macedon (the Macedonians), and with Ida, Cres, father of the Cretans. Apart from any other factors which may have been involved, the formation of such myths satisfied the need felt by the aristocrats of the early historical period to trace their descent back to the greatest god worshipped by their nation, thus allowing them to feel themselves genuine successors to his powers.

The symbolic meaning of the mythological traditions was often hidden behind an amusing facade, and in many of these stories we can detect the ingenuity of the Greeks. In the texts of the ancient writers, Zeus is always coupled with Hera as his partner (though she was also his sister), and the life of the divine spouses is depicted as very similar to that of the ordinary patriarchal family. Zeus was systematically unfaithful to his wife, and thought up thousands of tricks to give himself opportunities to be with his lovers. Transformation was his favourite device: he appeared to Europa as a bull, to Leda as a swan, to Danae as a golden shower of rain, and to Antiope as a satyr. And once, when he fell passionately in love with the boy Ganymede, he turned himself into an eagle in order to snatch the lad and bear him off to Olympus, where he became cup-bearer at the banquets of the gods. Hera, distraught with jealousy, did everything in her power to frustrate Zeus in his amours, or to take revenge when he was unfaithful to her. But although the great god was the lord of all creation, he could not withstand his Fate, which was to bestow upon mankind the rich fruits of his amorous exploits.