Editing Zeus (section)

=== Birth ===
In [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'' ({{circa|730}} – 700 BC), [[Cronus]], after castrating his father [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]],<ref>See Gantz, pp. 10&ndash;11; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:139-172 159&ndash;83].</ref> becomes the supreme ruler of the cosmos, and weds his sister [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], by whom he begets three daughters and three sons: [[Hestia]], [[Demeter]], [[Hera]], [[Hades]], [[Poseidon]], and lastly, "wise" Zeus, the youngest of the six.<ref>Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA67 p. 67]; Hansen, [https://archive.org/details/handbookofclassi0000hans/page/66/mode/2up?view=theater p. 67]; Tripp, [https://archive.org/details/crowellshandbook00trip/page/604/mode/2up?view=theater s.v. Zeus, p. 605]; Caldwell, [https://archive.org/details/hesiodstheogony00hesi/page/8/mode/2up?view=theater p. 9, table 12]; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:453-491 453&ndash;8]. So too [[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.5 1.1.5]; [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#68.1 68.1].</ref> He swallows each child as soon as they are born, having received a prophecy from his parents, [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] and Uranus, that one of his own children is destined to one day overthrow him as he overthrew his father.<ref>Gantz, p. 41; Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA67 p. 67&ndash;8]; Grimal, [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofclas0000grim/page/466/mode/2up?view=theater s.v. Zeus, p. 467]; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:453-491 459&ndash;67]. Compare with [[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.5 1.1.5], who gives a similar account, and [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#70.1 70.1&ndash;2], who does not mention Cronus's parents, but rather says that it was an oracle who gave the prophecy.</ref> This causes Rhea "unceasing grief",<ref>Cf. [[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.6 1.1.6], who says that Rhea was "enraged".</ref> and upon becoming pregnant with her sixth child, Zeus, she approaches her parents, Gaia and Uranus, seeking a plan to save her child and bring retribution to Cronus.<ref>Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA68 p. 68]; Gantz, p. 41; Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=zeus-bio-1 s.v. Zeus]; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:453-491 468&ndash;73].</ref> Following her parents' instructions, she travels to [[Lyctus]] in [[Crete]], where she gives birth to Zeus,<ref>Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA74 p. 74]; Gantz, p. 41; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:453-491 474&ndash;9].</ref> handing the newborn child over to Gaia for her to raise, and Gaia takes him to a cave on Mount Aegaeon (Aegeum).<ref>Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA74 p. 74]; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:453-491 479&ndash;84]. According to Hard 2004, the "otherwise unknown" Mount Aegaeon can "presumably ... be identified with one of the various mountains near Lyktos".</ref> Rhea then gives to Cronus, in the place of a child, a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallows, unaware that it is not his son.<ref>Hansen, [https://archive.org/details/handbookofclassi0000hans/page/66/mode/2up?view=theater p. 67]; Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA68 p. 68]; Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=zeus-bio-1 s.v. Zeus]; Gantz, p. 41; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:453-491 485&ndash;91]. For iconographic representations of this scene, see [[Louvre]] [https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010270223 G 366]; Clark, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2gtmbI-v35sC&pg=PA20 p. 20, figure 2.1] and [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/247308 06.1021.144]; ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|LIMC]]'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-74814fdcbeca1-e 15641]; [[Beazley Archive]] [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/D550FF52-B336-4E6F-80BF-822C069CCE23 214648]. According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:9.41.6 9.41.6], this event occurs at Petrachus, a "crag" nearby to [[Chaeronea]] (see West 1966, p. 301 on line 485).</ref>

While Hesiod gives Lyctus as Zeus's birthplace, he is the only source to do so,<ref>West 1966, p. 291 on lines 453–506; Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA75 p. 75].</ref> and other authors give different locations. The poet [[Eumelos of Corinth]] (8th century BC), according to [[John the Lydian]], considered Zeus to have been born in [[Lydia]],<ref>Fowler 2013, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 35], [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 50]; [[Eumelus of Corinth|Eumelus]] [https://archive.org/details/L497GreekEpicFragmentsVIIVcBC/page/n235/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 2 West, pp. 224, 225] [= [https://books.google.com/books?id=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA109 fr. 10 Fowler, p. 109] = ''PEG'' fr. 18 (Bernabé, p. 114) = [[John the Lydian|Lydus]], ''De Mensibus'' 4.71]. According to West 2003, [https://archive.org/details/L497GreekEpicFragmentsVIIVcBC/page/n235/mode/2up?view=theater p. 225 n. 3], in this version he was born "probably on [[Mount Sipylos|Mt. Sipylos]]".</ref> while the Alexandrian poet [[Callimachus]] ({{circa|310|240 BC}}), in his ''Hymn to Zeus'', says that he was born in [[Arcadia (region)|Arcadia]].<ref>Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA391 p. 391]; Grimal, [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofclas0000grim/page/466/mode/2up?view=theater s.v. Zeus, p. 467]; [[Callimachus]], ''Hymn to Zeus'' (1) [https://archive.org/details/callimachuslycop00calluoft/page/36/mode/2up?view=theater 4&ndash;11 (pp. 36&ndash;9)].</ref> [[Diodorus Siculus]] (fl. 1st century BC) seems at one point to give [[Mount Ida]] as his birthplace, but later states he is born in [[Dikti|Dicte]],<ref>Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA391 p. 391]; [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#70.2 70.2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#70.6 70.6].</ref> and the mythographer [[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] (first or second century AD) similarly says he was born in a cave in Dicte.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.6 1.1.6].</ref> In the second century AD, Pausanias wrote that it would be impossible to count all the people claiming that Zeus was born or brought up among them.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, Messenia, chapter 33, section 1 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:4.33.1 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

{{chart top|Children of Cronus and Rhea<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' 133&ndash;8, 453&ndash;8 (Most, pp. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.13.xml 12, 13], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.39.xml 38, 39]); Caldwell, [https://archive.org/details/hesiodstheogony00hesi/page/4/mode/2up?view=theater p. 4, table 2], [https://archive.org/details/hesiodstheogony00hesi/page/8/mode/2up?view=theater p. 9, table 12].</ref>}}
{{chart/start}}
{{chart}}
{{chart| | | | | | | | | | | URA |y| GAI |URA=[[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]]|GAI=[[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]]}}
{{chart| | | | | | | | | | | |,|-|^|-|.}}
{{chart| | | | | | | | | | | CRO |y| RHE |CRO=[[Cronus]]|RHE=[[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]}}
{{chart| | | |,|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|v|-|^|-|v|-|-|-|v|-|-|.}}
{{chart| | | HES | | DEM | | HER | | HAD | | POS | | ZEU |ZEU='''ZEUS'''|HER=[[Hera]]|POS=[[Poseidon]]|HAD=[[Hades]]|DEM=[[Demeter]]|HES=[[Hestia]]}}
{{chart/end}}
{{chart bottom}}