Zeus

Zeus (/ˈzjuːs/ zews; Ancient Greek: Ζεύς, Zeús, [zdeǔ̯s]; Modern Greek: Δίας, Días [ˈði.as]) is God of the Sky, and of lightning, thunder, law, order and justice in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His equivalent in Roman religious mythology was Jupiter, a name with similar origins and meaning.

Zeus, who guided mortals to be wise,
has established his fixed law—
wisdom comes through suffering. ~ Aeschylus

Quotes

• Zeus: Agistheus, you are a king, and it's to your sense of king-ship I appeal, for you enjoy wielding the scepter.
  Aegistheus: Continue.
  Zeus: You may hate me, but we are akin; I made you in my image. A king is a god on earth, glorious and terrifying as a god.
  Aegistheus: You, terrifying?
  Zeus: Look at me. [A long silence.] I told you you were made in my image. Each keeps order; you in Argos, I in heaven and on earth — and you and I harbor the same dark secret in our hearts.
  Aegistheus: I have no secret.
  Zeus: You and I harbor the same dark secret in our hearts.
  Aegistheus: I have no secret.
  Zeus: You have. The same as mine. The bane of gods and kings. The bitterness of knowing men are free. Yes, Aegistheus they are free. But your subjects do not know it, and you do.
  • In Jean-Paul Sartre's Les mouches (The Flies), Act II, tableau II, scene 5, as translated by Stuart Gilbert (1946)
  • Variant translations:
  • The painful secret of Gods and kings; it is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it and they don't.
    • As quoted in Sartre : A Philosophic Study (1966), by Anthony Manser, p. 227
  • The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it, but they do not.
    • As quoted in The Intellectual Resistance in Europe (1981) by James D. Wilkinson, p. 41
  • The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free, Aegistheus. You know it and they do not.

Quotes about Zeus

Nothing can be surprising any more or impossible or miraculous, now that Zeus, father of the Olympians has made night out of noonday... after this, men can believe anything, expect anything. ~ Archilochus

Ancient

• Zeus, who guided mortals to be wise,
  has established his fixed law—
  wisdom comes through suffering.
  Trouble, with its memories of pain,
  drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,
  so men against their will
  learn to practice moderation.
  Favours come to us from gods
  seated on their solemn thrones—
  such grace is harsh and violent.
  • Aeschylus, in The Oresteia, as translated by Ian Johnston (2007)

• ὦ Ζεῦ͵ πάτερ Ζεῦ͵ σὸν μὲν οὐρανοῦ κράτος͵ σὺ δ΄ ἔργ΄ ἐπ΄ ἀνθρώπων ὁρᾶις λεωργὰ καὶ θεμιστά͵ σοὶ δὲ θηρίων ὕβρις τε καὶ δίκη μέλει.
  • Oh Zeus, father Zeus, Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven, and you watch men's deeds, the crafty and the right, and You are who cares for beasts' transgression and justice.
    • Archilochus, Fragment 177

• Nothing can be surprising any more or impossible or miraculous, now that Zeus, father of the Olympians has made night out of noonday, hiding the bright sunlight, and . . . fear has come upon mankind. After this, men can believe anything, expect anything. Don't any of you be surprised in future if land beasts change places with dolphins and go to live in their salty pastures, and get to like the sounding waves of the sea more than the land, while the dolphins prefer the mountains.
  • Archilochus, as quoted in Eclipse (1999) by James Turrell
  • Variant translation: Zeus, the father of the Olympic Gods, turned mid-day into night, hiding the light of the dazzling Sun; and sore fear came upon men.

Modern

• Zeus, n. The chief of Grecian gods, adored by the Romans as Jupiter and by the modern Americans as God, Gold, Mob and Dog. Some explorers who have touched upon the shores of America, and one who professes to have penetrated a considerable distance to the interior, have thought that these four names stand for as many distinct deities, but in his monumental work on Surviving Faiths, Frumpp insists that the natives are monotheists, each having no other god than himself, whom he worships under many sacred names.
  • Ambrose Bierce , in The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

• Well, what if I'm wrong, I mean — anybody could be wrong. We could all be wrong about the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the pink unicorn and the flying teapot. You happen to have been brought up, I would presume, in a Christian faith. You know what it's like to not believe in a particular faith because you're not a Muslim. You're not a Hindu. Why aren't you a Hindu? Because you happen to have been brought up in America, not in India. If you had been brought up in India, you'd be a Hindu. If you had been brought up in Denmark in the time of the Vikings, you'd be believing in Wotan and Thor. If you were brought up in classical Greece, you'd be believing in Zeus. If you were brought up in central Africa, you'd be believing in the great Juju up the mountain. There's no particular reason to pick on the Judeo-Christian god, in which by the sheerest accident you happen to have been brought up and ask me the question, "What if I'm wrong?" What if you're wrong about the great Juju at the bottom of the sea?
  • Richard Dawkins, Answering audience questions after a reading of The God Delusion[1], Randolph-Macon Woman's College, (23 October 2006)
  • Posed question: "This is probably going to be the most simplest one for you to answer, but: What if you're wrong?"

See also

• Anu
• Deity
• Hadad
• Indra
• Jupiter (mythology)
• Mythology
• Odin
• Paganism
• Thor