This week our focus
was on Zeus the King of the Gods and the ruler of Mount Olympus. We looked at
many aspects of Zeus’ character and powers. Firstly we needed to consider
whether Zeus was a tyrant (tyrannos) or king. Zeus could be considered as a
tyrant as he killed and overthrew the previous king of the Gods (Cronus)
however Zeus is also King by progression (basileus) as he succeeded his father
that died. Some may argue that is makes Zeus a tyrant and a rightful king at
the same time because of the way he came to power.
We
also considered the powers Zeus has; one of these powers which are not always
thought about is Zeus’ power to overthrow his own fate. The Greeks believed
once your fate was decided there was no going back or being able to change it,
so it would have been a big thing to be able to overcome your own fate. Zeus managed to overthrow his fate of being
eaten by his father/ being killed. He was eaten but managed to survive and
overthrow his father fulfilling his father’s fate. Zeus’ fate like his father
was to have one of his children over throw him and kill him but that never
happened showing Zeus managed to overthrow his own fate and must have been
superior or very powerful as no one else could overthrow their fate. Mortals
such as King Laius from Oedipus try to overthrow their fate but do not succeed.
Laius was told his son would grow up and kill him and marry his wife. To avoid
this Laius exposed his son at birth however his son was passed on to people
from a neighbouring city and he survived and overthrew his father. This shows
Zeus was superior to Laius as he managed to overthrow his own fate. This could
show that Zeus was the rightful king of the Gods as he had powers that no one
else had so could arguably be superior to all the other Gods and mortals.
Hecate
was considered a titan due to her parentage of Persaeus (Perses) and Asteria. When
Zeus came to power he took all the powers away from all the titans accept Hecate
as he held her in such high regard. Hecate was left with her powers and was
held in high regards by the immortal Gods. This shows that even though Hecate
was the Goddess of witchcraft and ‘dark’ attributes she was still honoured and
respected by the other deities showing that she was considered a Goddess to
keep on your good side as she could help you in the long run.
The
image shows Zeus getting ready to throw a thunderbolt. The thunderbolt was one
of Zeus’ attributes. The Greeks believed that Zeus’ true form could have been a
thunderbolt as Gods could not appear to mortals in their true form as this
would kill the mortals so they would not have known. There is an argument that
is Zeus powerful because he has the thunderbolt or because he is the thunderbolt?
This is a hard argument to answer as no one would know if Zeus was a
thunderbolt or if he just held one. I think we would have to go back to the
belief system of the Ancient Greeks and they would probably say Zeus’s true
form was a thunderbolt as they believe that Olympia was the home of the Olympic
games because Zeus came down from Mount Olympus and that is where he landed,
others argue that Zeus threw a thunderbolt from mount Olympus and that Olympia
is where it landed. So I don’t think it is possible for us to answer whether
Zeus was a thunderbolt or whether he just held a thunderbolt.
Bibliography
Books
Hornblower, S and Spawforth, A. (1998). The
oxford companion to classical civilization (oxford)
Website
Images
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