The Relationship Between The Many Affairs And Children Of Zeus

The Many Affairs and Children of Zeus Cronus was the titan of time and the ages, and Rhea was the titan of fertility, motherhood, and generation. From their union, came six children: Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus. Cronus had overthrown his father Ouranos, and took control of the heavens, so he was constantly worried that one of his children would one day turn around and do the same to him. So as a precautionary measure, he swallowed all his children… or so he thought. Rhea had saved their youngest child, Zeus, who was an infant, by giving Cronus a rock in swaddle clothes to swallow. Rhea immediately took the baby to Mount Dikte, on the island of Crete, to be raise by the nymphs, and in some versions, he was raised by the
It was obvious to see that their marriage would be filled with a lot of arguing and unhappiness due to the promiscuity of Zeus. From their union came four children, Hebe, the cupbearer to the gods, Ares, the god of war, Ilithyia, a goddess of childbearing, and Hephaestus, the craftsman of the gods. Zeus never cared much for these children, and acted as if they never existed. Due to his unhappiness within the family, Zeus would look elsewhere for relations. A nymph from the mountain of Cithaeron by the name of Echo, would help Zeus slip away to pursue other nymphs behind Hera’s back, by distracting Hera with gossip, and stories, giving Zeus plenty of time to do what he wanted to do outside of their
For instance, Danae, a princess of Argos, was imprisoned by her father, so Zeus appeared to her as beautiful golden rain in order to enter the chamber in which she was being held. Zeus proceeded to make love to her, impregnating her with Perseus. Perseus was the “slayer of the Gorgon Medusa and the rescuer of Andromeda (daughter of the Ethiopian king Cepheus), from a sea monster.” (“Perseus.” Encyclopædia Britannica.) On a different occasion, Zeus appeared to Leda, the daughter of King Thestius of Pleuron, in form of a swan, to seduce and lay with her. Leda then gave birth to an egg from which came Clytemnestra, and Helen (who would later fall in love with Paris, causing the Trojan War), and Castor and Polydeuces. Although, Leda had been seduced by the swan, that same night she went and made love to her husband, causing questions of the paternity of the 4 children to arise. Zeus had also appeared in animal form to Europa who was the daughter of King Agenor of Sidon. He appeared to her as a white bull and took her to the land of Crete, and from this relation came Minos, ruler of Crete; Rhadamanthus, ruler of the Cyclades Islands; and Sarpedon, ruler of Lycia. Zeus had fallen in love with Io whose beauty immediately caught Zeus’s eye, and from their union came Epaphos. Not only did Zeus come forth to women disguised as an animal, but he would also present himself to them as humans,