Zeus in Classical Mythology - Research Paper Example

Zeus Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. Overview 3 III. Rise to Power 6 IV. Power Dynamics 8 V. Integration 9 Works Cited 11 I. Introduction This paper is a discussion on Zeus in classical mythology, focusing on the various aspects of his deity and his personality, his rise to power, the grip that he had on it, the many mistakes that he had in the exercise of that power, and in the efforts and actions that he undertook in order to preserve and wield that power in various contexts. Zeus is the head of the gods who lived on Mount Olympus in classical mythology. The Olympians, as they were called, were the key gods in mythology (Loewen 11; Dowden 3-5). II. Overview Zeus reigned supreme over the gods of Olympus and is in Greek mythology the most powerful. His ways are inscrutable and his mind too is opaque, but given that the literature says that all things happen only because Zeus allow them to happen. Conversely that nothing comes to pass without him. This is true for instance as a view of Zeus as reflected in Aeschylus plays, in particular in the ‘Agamemnon’. He is all seeing, and he is the one who is at the back of everything that transpires not only among men but among gods too. He is the supreme ruler in Greek mythology (Dowden 3). The inscrutable aspect of Zeus is affirmed in the literature, from Homer to Aeschylus to the various philosophers who tried to decipher his nature and failed Instead he is portrayed as having very human qualities and traits, including those traits that are in the realm of the baser aspects of human nature, such as lust, and the propensity for rage, and for revenge for different kinds of slights. On the other hand, his power is supreme over all things on heaven and on earth, and the ways of the universe themselves are a testament to his brand of justice and the immensity of his power. On the other hand, that power is seen as being wielded by a god who is at times filled with whimsy, or so as it is interpreted by human beings (Dowden 4). The mythological stories from ancient Greece tell us that Zeus was born in Crete, to Rhea and to Kronos,who tried to swallow him whole, but who was prevented from doing so by his own wife. This Rhea did by swapping the young Zeus with a stone. The Curetes, dancing wildly to mask the cries of the young Zeus, prevent the father from hearing the baby Zeus. They become Zeus’ guardians, together with Amaltheia, a goat, Kronos is bound, but the Titans try to launch a counter-revolt known as the Titanomachy, to shore up Kronos’ hold on power, and the Titans were essentially held and confined to Tartarus. Other revolts were likewise quelled, including those by the giants, and those like Typhon the monster, whose challenges to the power and rule of Zeus was likewise quelled. The battle with Typhon was one where the outcome was not immediately clear, and Zeus flirted with defeat, before emerging victorious and unchallenged in the end. In this way, in various battles, Zeus was able to establish a firm grip on power. The thinking here is that the mythology establishes Zeus as having earned his power in various struggles, from the very first, and from the womb onwards. Zeus also represents a generational change of power in the realm of the gods, having superseded the older power order that the Titans represented when his forces eventually overpowered the Titans and Kronos in particular. Moreover, from that time on, with the giants and with Typhon and the others, Zeus’ power would be challenged in various ways by those who are essentially his contemporaries and competitors in establishing a kind of universal order, and one gets the sense from mythology of a god who essentially evolved and confirmed his power and his fate as ruler of all Olympus and of the universe by these challenges and tests (Dowden 5). It is said that a large portion of the mythology surrounding Zeus involves his many relationships with women, both gods and mortals, headed by his marriage to Hera, and by his various couplings with many women mortals, with whom Zeus bred many children. It is his children from these other relationships that form the bulk of his progeny. In his true form meanwhile he is depicted as a bolt of lightning, and in a way also essentially without form. It is in this way that he is able to take on any form that he deems appropriate to relate to men and to other gods. It is in this sense too that Zeus is different from the other gods, in that other gods have defined forms into which are tied certain powers and characteristics, but Zeus’ basic form is essentially devoid of any form. He appears to various figures in Greek mythology as various animal forms, from bulls to swans, and also as various other things, such as rain He also appears to other men in the form of a fellow mortal man (Dowden 5). The birth has parallels in humanity, in that Zeus had parents, and had to go through very human-like struggles with a parent, Kronos, who had very human frailties and jealousies, and human propensities to try to cling to power and to eliminate those who stand in the way of that. In a way too Zeus own career has very human dimensions, from his carnal relationships with humans to his very human emotions and sometimes thoughts and inclinations. His struggles with those who tried to challenge his power in battle are also very human-like. Zeus, therefore, from this overview, is portrayed in Greek mythology as a god who reigns invincible and all-powerful, but also very human (Dowden 3-5). III. Rise to Power The story of Zeus’ rise to power is one where his grandparents and ancestors essentially tried to quell any developments that would have led to later progeny taking on the power and the role of the supreme god, essentially supplanting them in the process. The rise to power is one that is characterized by the main gods and goddesses in essence playing politics. His grandfather, Uranus, tried to quell this succession by forbidding his wife Earth or Gaea from bearing children. Gaea then orchestrates a plot that catapults Cronus into power. In power, as has been discussed above, Cronus tries to avert any eventuality that would result in his progeny usurping his power, by attempting to eat his offspring. Rhea then orchestrates a trickery by placing a piece of stone in place of their child Zeus. Zeus is brought to Crete in secret to escape Cronus designs to eat him, while Cronus is left with the stone. When mature, Zeus goes back to down the Titans in battle. Gaea’s other son Typhoeus is likewise defeated in battle, and in so doing Zeus was able to dispel with a potentially equally powerful competitor to the throne of the supreme godhood. In this version of the succession from Uranus to Cronus to Zeus one sees the heavy hand of the women, Gaea and Rhea, behind the scenes, orchestrating the efforts of the main players so that at the end their progeny would become god supreme and ruler over all men and gods and the artifacts of the universe. Zeus from that point onwards, however, dispels with this maternal force shaping succession by swallowing his own partner Metis the goddess, who was pregnant then with their child Athena. Athena then emerges not from her mother but from the head of Zeus, and from that point on the threat of progeny usurping godhood from Zeus was eliminated. The act of eating Metis also made sure that the threats of Metis and her maternal instincts to propel the careers of her children and to have Zeus replaced disappear completely. Athena, meanwhile would become loyal to Zeus, having been birthed from his father’s head (Shapiro 131-133). IV. Power Dynamics Apart from consolidating his rise to power by usurping the maternal power role and making sure that his rule is unchallenged in this regard, Zeus was also said to have cemented his power further by employing the strategy of both appeasement and subordination in regard to his dealings with other women in the old power order, those representing the goddesses from his father’s rule, the Titans. He consciously cultivates respect towards certain goddesses, such as Hecate, allying with them in order to preserve the power order where he sits on top, while likewise making sure that none from that side of the ordering of his relationships would pull a surprise and topple him, whether it be from revolts or from their offspring being viable alternatives to Zeus being the supreme god. The appeasement is followed by subordination. By giving some of the goddesses from the previous power order honors, he courted their loyalty, while at the same time making sure that he sat on top of the power order, with the goddesses that he appeased also agreeing implicitly to being his subordinates. One illustration of this power politicking dynamic at work is with regard to Zeus relationship with the goddess Hecate, whom Zeus put on a pedestal of honor among gods, by way of appeasing her and courting her allegiance, even as Zeus was also said to have secured that no one from Hecate’s lineage would come to challenge him at some point, because he secured Hecate’s virginity and tied that to her honorable place in his order. By securing Hecate’s womb, he made sure that his grip on power was secure and unchallenged from that end (Shapiro 131-133). The thinking is that there is a large part of Zeus’ actions and machinations to preserve his position of power that has to do with taking over the maternal role, deflecting the threat from the maternal womb from his own lineage and the lineage of the gods and goddesses that he deposed, and in eating Metis likewise totally eliminating the mother role in his own family. For Hecate and the others this translated into making sure that the goddesses were loyal to him, and would not bear children that would later try to topple him from power. For Metis, it is death by eating and the termination of the maternal line. Likewise, for Athena whom he bore as his own, it is about becoming a kind of mother too, a kind of usurping of the birthing function from the female and making it part of the nature of Zeus as god, to be both father and mother. Finally, with regard to many other goddesses, Zeus engages them in marriage and then fathers many children with them, but for those other children Zeus made sure that their loyalties were to him alone, and that they would not become threats to Zeus own power and position later o (Shapiro 131-133). V. Integration Zeus is a very humanized god, and his mistakes in the use of his power, if there are any, are attributed to the common follies that bug humanity, in his negative aspects of being prone to anger, to jealousy, to lust, to very human emotions, shortcomings, and follies. That said, from another perspective, because the universe is marvelous and just works, those mistakes are not really mistakes. His personality is very human nonetheless, as was the politics of family tied to his rise to power, and his machinations to maintain hold of that power, through his dealings with his own ancestors, the different gods and goddesses, with his own offspring, and his many women partners. The power dynamic is very complex indeed, marked by what can be seen, in one way, as men perhaps attributing to Zeus their own political calculations and their own views of how power is gained and maintained among men. Once entrenched, it seems Zeus was given the attributes of a god who would hold on to the throne of the universe indefinitely, achieving something that his father and grandfather was unable to achieve during their turn (Shapiro 131-133; Dowden 5). Works Cited Dowden, Ken. Zeus. 2006. Taylor and Francis. 18 April 2014. Google Books. Loewen, Nancy. Greek and Roman Mythology: Zeus. 1999. Minnesota: Capstone Press. 18 April 2014. Google Books. Shapiro, HA (ed). The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece. 2007. Cambridge University Press. Google Books. Read More