zeus

in greek mythology, the lord and god of mount olympus and the gods living there and consequently of all mortals. the youngest son of cronus and rhea. zeus took his father cronus's place by overthrowing him.

according to this legend, cronus, who was told that he would be brought down from his throne by one of his children, panics (since he himself came to that position by overthrowing his father uranus, he knows full well how things work) and swallows his children one by one (hestia, demeter, hera, hades, and poseidon), but his wife rhea (also his sister) and his mother gaia deceive cronus by placing a stone inside the clothes of the still-infant zeus, and zeus is saved. afterward rhea takes her baby to crete, and there in a cave zeus is looked after by the sacred goat amaltheia. after zeus grows up he goes to his father and gets him to bring his siblings back out (according to one story, zeus has his father drink a potion given to him by metis, who helps him, and gets him to vomit up his siblings). later zeus starts a rebellion against his father and the titans under his leadership, and defeating them, sends them into exile.

after zeus takes control, he and his siblings divide up the universe; zeus takes the skies, poseidon the seas, and hades the underworld (the world of the dead). but zeus is forced to defend his newly established divine kingdom against gaia's other children (the giants, typhon, and the twins named the aloadae). after defeating them too and banishing them alongside his father, it's finally time for ruling and womanizing.

according to legend, zeus's first love is the goddess metis. but his grandmother gaia tells zeus that metis will bear him a daughter and that this girl's son will overthrow zeus. hearing this, zeus swallows metis, and thus, since he himself will also be the mother of the child to be born, he thinks the prophecy won't come to pass. but his wife and at the same time sister hera, hearing this, gets very angry at this relationship of his and at his being about to have a child without a woman's help, and she somehow impregnates herself on her own. and this child, named hephaestus, when the time comes, splits open zeus's forehead, and out from inside comes athena, armed from head to toe.

zeus has a whole bunch of other children besides this. his children from his wife: ares, hephaestus, hebe, and eileithyia; his children from the other goddesses he got up to business with: apollo, artemis, and aphrodite, the three horae (goddesses of the seasons) and the three moirae (the fates or destinies), the nine muses; and also his children from the humans he, unable to restrain himself, raped or deceived: the twins castor and polydeuces, clytemnestra and helen of troy, perseus, heracles, minos, rhadamanthys, sarpedon, and dionysus.

known by those who don't know mythology as the father of hercules...