Zeus in myth
Birth
Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father— an oracle that Zeus was to hear and avert. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Uranus and Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed.
Childhood
Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. According to varying versions of the story:
He was then raised by Gaia.
He was raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes— soldiers, or smaller gods— danced, shouted and clashed their spears against their shields so that Cronus would not hear the baby's cry. (See cornucopia.)
He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the Earth, the heavens and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father.
He was raised by a nymph named Cynosura. In gratitude, Zeus placed her among the stars.
He was raised by Melissa, who nursed him with goats-milk Zeus becomes king of the gods
After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge the other children in reverse order of swallowing: first the stone, which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, the Omphalos, then the rest. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, from their dungeon in Tartarus (The Titans; he killed their guard, Campe. As gratitude, the Cyclopes gave him thunder and the thunderbolt, or lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia.) Together, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, along with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans, in the combat called the Titanomachy. The defeated Titans were then cast into a shadowy underworld region known as Tartarus.
After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lots: Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead (the underworld). The ancient Earth, Gaia, could not be claimed; she was left to all three, each according to their capabilities, which explains why Poseidon was the "earth-shaker" (the god of earthquakes) and Hades claimed the humans that died. (See also: Penthus)
Gaia resented the way Zeus had treated the Titans, because they were her children. Soon after taking the throne as king of the gods, Zeus had to fight some of Gaia's other children, the monsters Typhon and Echidna. He vanquished Typhon and trapped him under a mountain, but left Echidna and her children alive as challenges for future heroes.
Zeus and Hera
Zeus was brother and consort of Hera. The only issue of their union was Ares, though Hera produced other offspring of her own: Hephaistos, Eileithyia, Hebe. The conquests of Zeus among nymphs and the mythic mortal progenitors of Hellenic dynasties are famous. Olympian mythography even credits him with unions with Demeter, Latona, Dione and Maia.
Among the mortals: Semele, Io, Europa and Leda. For more details, see below).
Mythic anecdote renders Hera as jealous of his amorous conquests and a consistent enemy of Zeus' mistresses and their children by him. For a time, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from his affairs by incessantly talking: when Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others.
Deific mother
Mother Children
Ananke Adrasteia
Moirae
Atropos
Clotho
Lachesis
Demeter Dionysus
Persephone
Dione Aphrodite
Hera Ares
Eileithyia
Hephaestus
Hebe
Eris Ate
Leto Apollo
Artemis
Maia Hermes
Metis Athena
Mnemosyne Muses (Original three)
Aoide
Melete
Mneme
Muses (Later nine)
Calliope
Clio
Erato
Euterpe
Melpomene
Polyhymnia
Terpsichore
Thalia
Urania
Selene Ersa
Nemea
Pandia
Thalassa Aphrodite
Themis Astraea
Dike
Horae
First Generation
Auxo
Carpo
Thallo
Second Generation
Dike
Eirene
Eunomia
Moirae
Atropos
Clotho
Lachesis
Mortal/nymph/other mother
Mother Children
Aegina Aeacus
Alcmene Heracles
Antiope Amphion
Zethus
Callisto Arcas
Carme Britomartis
Danae Perseus
Elara Tityas
Electra Dardanus
Harmonia
Iasion
Europa Minos
Rhadamanthys
Sarpedon
Eurynome Charites
Aglaea
Euphrosyne
Thalia
Himalia Cronius
Iodame Thebe
Io Epaphus
Lamia ???
Laodamia Sarpedon
Leda Polydeuces
Helen of Troy
Maera Locrus
Niobe Argos
Pelasgus
Olympias Alexander the Great
Plouto Tantalus
Podarge Balius
Xanthus
Pyrrha Hellen
Semele Dionysus
Taygete Lacedaemon
Thalia Palici
Male lover (non-Homeric) Ganymede
Unknown mother Litae
Unknown mother Nemesis
Unknown mother Tyche
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