Zeus
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If we are interested in studying Zeus, the Greek god of the skies and heaven, we might compare him to Christ. For if we want to know how Zeus influenced the way the Greek people shaped their everyday life around him, we need only look at how Christians in the 20th century shaped their life and society around Christ. In studying Zeus, however, we see he seems to be a deity who had a lot more fun than Christ. The ancient Greeks perceived their gods in a polytheistic religious worldview as men and women. Zeus, above all gods, was the god of ancient Greek society. In large measure, this is because Zeus was thought of as the father of all the other gods, “Zeus was believed to be the father of all the gods as well as god of the sky. He used storms and lightning to show his wrath and administered justice on earth and in heaven. He was the brother and husband of the goddess Hera and the father of countless heroes” (Roberts 95).Zeus was influential in all aspects of daily life. He was available to the polis as well as the common man. His authority in the skies and heaven was matched by his authority as the chief “tax collector” in Greek society, “There are functions of Zeus at the level of the family which are easily extended both to individuals and to the polis. Since property is indispensable for the constitution of a household, Zeus is also protector of property; as such, he receives cults from families, from cities, and from individuals” (Hornblo
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., the initial stages of monotheism). All of this transpired in Greek society mainly by and through art, “The main document of this monotheism, however, is the hymn to Zeus by the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes; Zeus, mythical image of the Stoic logos, becomes the commander of the entire cosmos and its ‘universal law’, and at the same time the guarantor of goodness and benign protector of man. This marks the high point of a development—other gods, though briefly mentioned, become insignificant besides Zeus” (Hornblower et al 788).
All of this is not to say that Zeus did not possess some qualities that are not so ideal or desirable in human form. One of these was his great temper and lust for vengeance when wronged. His merciless treatment of Prometheus is legendary to this day, “Prometheus gave mankind fire, which, unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel. But when Zeus learned of it, he had him nailed in Mount Caucasus, where every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver, which grew by night” (Parada 3). The other of these less desirable traits of Zeus was the reason he was responsible as the father of so many children—his numerous liaisons with women of both mortal and immortal nature. Z
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Approximate Word count = 1438
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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