Ganymede, a beautiful Trojan young man, was aducted by Zeus to serve as his personal
Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda.
In many of these stories, Zeus seduces unwitting maidens by changing form in order to trick them. Hera, jealous and bitter, ends up striking out against the mistresses time and time again. As a result of his infidelity, Zeus had lots of children.
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! He would transform into various animals to fulfill his desires; therefore, his 'children' are quite interesting.
Various authors speak of Zeus raping Callisto, one of the companions of Artemis, doing so in the form of Artemis herself according to Ovid (or, as mentioned by Apollodorus, in the form of Apollo), and Pherecydes relates that Zeus sleeps with Alcmene, the wife of Amphitryon, in the form of her own husband.
Zeus was well known for his amorousness—a source of perpetual discord with his wife, Hera—and he had many love affairs with both mortal and immortal women.
Gods aside, Zeus also had sexual affairs with 20 mortals, including one male, Ganymede, a prince ofTroy.
Zeus finally became enamored of the goddess who was to become his permanent wife — Hera.
While the vast majority of Zeus's lovers were female, one of Zeus's lovers was the mortal Ganymede. Ganymede is noted as the only one of Zeus's lovers to whom he granted immortality.
Accordingly, the Greek god Zeus's affairs were with willing participants – regardless of his trickery and disguise to seduce them. The male-dominated art world interpreted Zeus's promiscuity as part of fulfilling his duty to populate the newly formed world. They never allowed it to detract from his dignity.
In Greek myth, Leto was a Titan goddess whose beauty captivated Zeus, and she became his first and favorite lover. Zeus cheated on Hera more than a hundred times. However, she still forgave him in the end.
After courting Hera to no avail, Zeus resorted to trickery by changing into a disheveled cuckoo. Hera took pity on the bird, holding it to her breast to keep it warm. Zeus then reverted to his normal form, and took advantage of Hera's surprise by raping her. Hera then married Zeus as a way to hide her shame.
The God Zeus fell in love with Europa and wanted to take her away from her family to live with him. One day while Europa was wandering amongst her father's herds of cattle she saw a white bull. She was not aware that Zeus had turned himself into the bull in order to trick 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.
Leto is mostly famous because of her relationship with Zeus, which resulted in giving birth to two divine children, who would later be considered amongst the twelve Olympian gods, Artemis and Apollo. Everything started when Hera found out that Leto was pregnant by her husband, Zeus.
Zeus slept around because he thought it was fun. Zeus wanted to have as much offspring as possible.
Since he was considered the God of Justice, he can be viewed as an anti-villain in a sense his actions, while cruel, were designed to enforce order rather than create chaos.) He ate his pregnant wife Metis alive out of fear that their child would overthrow him.
At the same time, there is a wide range of relationships between the gods and the humans without marriage, the so-called lust-type of love. These are the couples of the goddess Aphrodite and her young lover Adonis and relationships between Zeus and mortal women Alkmene, Semele, and Leda.
According to a Homeric Hymn, there are three goddesses whom Aphrodite “can't persuade or decieve”, i.e. who don't feel sexual desire and are perpetually virgins. They are Athena, Artemis and Hestia. So, we are sure that Zeus did never have affairs with any of those three.
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.
Did Zeus ever cheat on Hera? A while later, he rapes her, she agrees to marry him and they create a family on Mount Olympus, the Deities' new home. Unfortunately, Zeus constantly cheats on Hera and he has done it over a hundred times, but in the end Hera always forgives him.
His first and favorite lover was Metis, a Titan goddess and mother of Athena.
A while later, he rapes her, she agrees to marry him and they create a family on Mount Olympus, the Deities' new home. Unfortunately, Zeus constantly cheats on Hera and he has done it over a hundred times, but in the end Hera always forgives him.
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.
Zeus fell in love with her and, to protect her from the wrath of Hera, changed her into a white heifer. Hera persuaded Zeus to give her the heifer and sent Argus Panoptes (“the All-Seeing”) to watch her. Zeus thereupon sent the god Hermes, who lulled Argus to sleep and killed him.