Zeus fell in love with Io and seduced her. To try to keep Hera from noticing he covered the world with a thick blanket of clouds. This backfired, arousing Hera's suspicions. She came down from Mount Olympus and begain dispersing the clouds.
Suffice it to say that Zeus was constantly involved in extramarital affairs. Throughout the various and sometimes contradictory myths composed by Greek authors, there are at least 20 divine figures with whom he consorted, and about twice as many mortals. Again, the exact number doesn't matter.
Aphrodite later and of her own volition had an affair with Zeus, but his jealous wife Hera laid her hands upon the belly of the goddess and cursed their offspring with malformity. Their child was the ugly god Priapos.
Zeus cheats on Hera because he's a reflection of the morals of the ancient Greeks. Unlike the Abrahamic god, Zeus was made in the image of man, not the other way around. Ancient Greek men viewed marriage as a necessity and a duty, not a partnership. Women existed to bear children, preferably male children.
Zeus finally became enamored of the goddess who was to become his permanent wife — Hera. After courting her unsuccessfully he changed himself into a disheveled cuckoo. When Hera took pity on the bird and held it to her breast, Zeus resumed his true form and ravished her.
Zeus' final wife was his sister, Hera. Knowing her sympathy for animals, he transformed himself into a distressed little cuckoo, which Hera took in her arms to warm it. At that moment, Zeus turned back into himself and slept with her.
Perhaps partly because of the strange circumstances of her birth, Athena is often cited as Zeus's favourite child. He also greatly admired her strength of character and fighting spirit. Some believe Athena was Zeus's first born child, which might, somewhat unfairly, suggest why he chose her as his favourite.
Zeus was known in his time as much more than the father of the gods. He was also a womanizer, and as such, he fathered many, many offspring!
Persephone's jealousy suggests she might have loved Hades
In Ovid's famous text Metamorphosis, Hades has an affair with a young Nymph named Minthe. Persephone, now in her later years, was so incensed with jealousy that she turned Minthe into a mint plant.
Zeus has cheated on Hera over a hundred times. However, she keeps forgiving him in the end.
They fight constantly over each other's decisions, and Hera resents Zeus due to his affairs and womanizing behavior. Sometime during her marriage, Hera would start an on and off affair with Hades that would end around the "80s." It is unknown if Zeus was ever aware of the affair.
Despite Zeus' numerous infidelities, Hera didn't once cheat on her husband. Hera was the goddess of marriage and took that responsibility very seriously, which was probably why she was so vengeful to the females whom Zeus pursued.
Zeus and his many lovers
He was definitely the most adulterous god, though, with his list of consorts and children being the most expansive in Greek mythology.
Hades loved her, and according to some versions of the myth, she loved him back. In the end, with that sort of love so often taken for granted in Greek mythology, maybe Hades wasn't such a villain after all. His methods were heinous, and no one would blame Persephone for hating her circumstances.
Story summary. Aphrodite makes Hades fall in love with Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the crops. He snatches her while she is picking flowers in a meadow with a nymph and takes her down to the Underworld.
Ganymede (or Ganymedes) was a young man from Troy. His beauty was unparalleled and for that reason, Zeus abducted and brought him to Olympus to serve as his cupbearer and lover. Ganymede's myth is an important step in the history of homosexuality.
At that moment, Zeus transformed back into his true form, and Hera couldn't help it. She fell in love with him. This time, when he asked her to be his wife, she obliged.
The philosopher Plato recounts that Rhea, Cronus and Phorcys were the eldest children of Oceanus and Tethys. According to the Orphic myths, Zeus wanted to marry his mother Rhea. After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into a snake and raped her.
Before his marriage to Hera, Zeus consorted with a number of the female Titanes (and his sister Demeter). These liaisons are ordered by Hesiod as follows: (1) Metis; (2) Themis; (3) Eurynome; (4) Demeter; (5) Mnemosyne; (6) Leto.
Impregnation by Zeus
Nonnus classifies Zeus's affair with Semele as one in a set of twelve, the other eleven women on whom he begot children being Io, Europa, Plouto, Danaë, Aigina, Antiope, Leda, Dia, Alcmene, Laodameia, the mother of Sarpedon, and Olympias.
Hera. The most famous of Zeus' wives, Hera was also the sister of the father of the gods, and the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth.
Zeus fell in love with Io and seduced her. To try to keep Hera from noticing he covered the world with a thick blanket of clouds. This backfired, arousing Hera's suspicions. She came down from Mount Olympus and begain dispersing the clouds.
Seven wives of Zeus
According to Hesiod, Zeus had seven wives. His first wife was the Oceanid Metis, whom he swallowed on the advice of Gaia and Uranus, so that no son of his by Metis would overthrow him, as had been foretold. Later, their daughter Athena would be born from the forehead of Zeus.