Zeus, or Jupiter,[8] as he was called by the Romans, was regarded as the supreme ruler of the universe. Sometimes he was pictured as a god of war. Then he rode in his thunder car, hurling the thunderbolt or lashing his enemies with a scourge of lightning. He wore a breastplate or shield of storm-cloud like the skin of a gray goat fearful to behold and made by the God of Fire. His special messenger was the eagle.
In his peaceful guise, he sat throned in the high clear heavens. There he was the gatherer of clouds and snows, the dispenser of gentle rains and winds, the moderator of light and heat and the seasons. He was worshipped with various rites in different places, but everywhere the loftiest trees and the highest mountain peaks were sacred to him.
HOW ZEUS CAME TO BE KING OF GODS
The story told of Zeus is that he had not always been the supreme god. Before him reigned his father, Cronus, and before Cronus his grandfather, Uranus. Cronus deposed Uranus, and having heard that he was destined to be deposed by one of his own children, he indulged in the queer habit of swallowing them all. His wife, Rhea, however, when Zeus was born thought of the happy expedient of giving Cronus a stone to swallow, which he, unsuspecting, did. The little Zeus was hidden in the island of Crete, where he was tended by nymphs and brought up on goat’s milk. When he became a full-grown god, he made his father disgorge the brothers and sisters he had swallowed—namely, Vesta, Ceres, Juno, Pluto, and Neptune—and then went to war against his cruel father. This war is a battle of the powers of light against the powers of darkness. Cronus is helped by his brothers the Titans, and Zeus is helped by the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants, and the Hecatonchires, hundred-handed monsters who had been confined for ages in Tartarus. Zeus and his hosts held Mount Olympus. For ages victory wavered in the balance, until by the advice of Rhea, Zeus released the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires. Instantly they hastened to the battle-field of Thessaly, the Cyclopes to support Zeus with their thunders and lightnings, the hundred-handed monsters with the shock of the earthquake. Provided with such artillery, shaking earth and sea, Zeus issued to the onslaught. With the gleam of the lightning the Titans were blinded, by the earthquake they were laid low, with the flames they were well-nigh consumed; overpowered and fettered by the hands of the Hecatonchires, they were consigned to the yawning cave of Tartarus. In the council of the gods following this great battle Zeus was chosen Sovereign of the World. He delegated to his brother Posidon or Neptune the kingdom of the sea and all the waters, to his brother Hades or Pluto the government of the underworld, dark, unseen, mysterious, where the spirits of the dead should dwell, and of Tartarus the prison of the subdued Titans. For himself Zeus retained heaven and earth. His dwelling and that of the gods was on the summit of an ideal mountain called Olympus. The gods all had their separate dwellings, but all when summoned assembled in the palace of Zeus, there to feast upon ambrosia and nectar. Their duties consisted in discussing the affairs of heaven and earth, while for amusement they had the melodies of Apollo’s lyre, and the songs of the muses. There was a gate of clouds to this heavenly city kept by goddesses, the Hours or Seasons, and through these gates the celestials passed when bent upon any errand to earth.
The Flying Mercury or Hermes. Giovanni di Bologna.
Hermes (Roman name, Mercury) was the personification of the wind and the messenger of Zeus, and, like the Valkyries, he had the office of conducting the souls of the dead to Hades. His summoning of the souls of the dead is beautifully described in this passage from the Odyssey, translated by the poet Bryant:
“In his hand he bore
The beautiful golden wand, with which at will
He shuts the eyes of men, or opens them