1. Zeus

Zeus is the king of the gods and he is also the god of sky, thunder and lightning and law, order and justice. His symbols are the eagle, thunderbolt, bull and oak. Zeus was born on Crete. Zeus has two oracles, the Oracle at Dodona and the Oracle at Siwa.

Zeus overthrew his father Cronus and the older gods called the Titans (see page23 -24) and became king of the new Gods, called Olympians. Zeus then married Hera. He had 6 children with her Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus, Eris and Eileithyia and Enyo.

Hera was not his only partner. In total, Zeus had over 90 children. Some of them are Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hebe, Hermes, Heracles, Helen, Hephaestus, Minos, Perseus, the Muses and the Graces.

Other famous things which Zeus did are

• He turned Pandareus to stone for stealing the golden dog that had protected Zeus when he was young.

• He killed Salmoneus because he had tried to copy Zeus by going around in a bronze chariot and loudly copying thunder.

• A nymph called Chelone was turned into a tortoise because she refused to attend the wedding of Zeus and Hera.

• Zeus even sent his own son Tantalus to Tartarus, the worst part of the Underworld.

Zeus was definitely the most important god and this is only a few of the things that he did.