Zeus was spirited away to Mt. Dikte on the island of Crete where he was raised by the primeval goddess Gaia (Earth), or in some versions by the Nymphs. Amongst these was the Nymph Amaltheia (in some versions of the myth she was a goat) who suckled the young god.
But Rhea, his wife, saved the infant Zeus by substituting a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes for Cronus to swallow and hiding Zeus in a cave on Crete.
Zeus Grows Up in the Cretan Mountains
Zeus grew up in the cave where he was tucked away in the Cretan mountains. The nymph Melissa and the goat Amalthea played an imperative role in his childhood: Amalthea suckled the infant and from her horn came all manner of good things.
Rhea, Uranus and Gaia devised a plan to save the last of them, Zeus. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in a cavern on the island of Crete, and gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed; Rhea hid her infant son Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida.
But Parmeniscus say that a certain Melisseus was king in Crete, and to his daughters Jove [Zeus] was brought to nurse. Since they did not have milk, they furnished him a she-goat, Amalthea by name, who is said to have reared him.
According to Apollodorus, Rhea gave the infant Zeus to the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus, to nurse, and they fed Zeus on the milk of the goat Amalthea.
According to some stories, Zeus then turned Io into a heifer in order to hide her from his wife; others maintain that Hera herself transformed Io.
Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera. He was disliked by both parents. He is the god of war. He is considered murderous and bloodstained but, also a coward.
Apollo: Zeus' Best-Known Son
When he grew up, Apollo became the Greek god of sun, light, music and poetry, as well as archery, agriculture, healing, prophecy, order and beauty.
Zeus never cared much for his two legitimate sons, Ares and Hephaestus. And his two legitimate daughters were almost nonentities. One time Hephaestus interfered in a quarrel between Zeus and Hera, siding with his mother. In a rage Zeus hurled his ugly son down from Olympus to the isle of Lemnos, crippling him forever.
Zeus has four siblings which include Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Hestia. Zeus also had six children which include Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, Athena, Ares, and Aphrodite. Together we will explore and learn about Greek Mythology, Zeus and his family through this beautiful gallery. This is a statue of the God, Zeus.
In Plato's Symposium, Aristophanes tells the story of how Zeus – fearing that the powerful and physically perfect humans would rise against him – split human beings in half, creating the distinct male and female counterparts.
Her unloyalty lied in the fact that she wanted to rule over Zeus and devised a plan to do so. In order to overthrow Zeus, Hera decided that she would drug Zeus and make him fall asleep. Once asleep, the gods tied Zeus to his throne.
Zeus'favourite son is Heracles, & his favourite daughter is Athena. One thing that these 2 have in common is, neither one of them are Hera's children.
Hermes realized what needed to be done and directed Hephaestus to take a wedge and split open Zeus's skull. Out of the skull sprang Athena, full grown and in a full set of armour.
The Dictaean Cave is famous in Greek mythology as the place where Amalthea, nurtured the infant Zeus with her goat's milk.
Helen of Troy
Known as the most beautiful woman in Greece and the primary cause of the Trojan War, Helen was the daughter of Zeus, either by Leda or by Nemesis, and the sister of the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces.
Athena: Goddess of War (And the Most Famous Daughter of Zeus) Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and war, is arguably Zeus's most famous daughter. She was born in extraordinary circumstances. Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife Metis, after being told that her child would try to overthrow him.
Poseidon's favorite demigod son, Percy Jackson, was noted to be nearly the spitting image of his father, with the same black hair, sea-green eyes, and brooding look.
In most myths, Athena is the eldest child of Zeus. Athena's mother, Metis, was a powerful Titaness whom Zeus either seduced or raped, depending on the version of the story.
It's definitely Ares. Zeus didn't like Hephaestus that much either, but he liked Ares the least.
According to mythology Hercules, Theseus, and Perseus would be his eldest sons and Kratos and Deimos would be his youngest (we aren't shown any of his other demi god children in the series that I can remember).
Lycaon, in Greek mythology, a legendary king of Arcadia. Traditionally, he was an impious and cruel king who tried to trick Zeus, the king of the gods, into eating human flesh.
After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into a snake and raped her. Rhea became pregnant and gave birth to Persephone. Zeus in the form of a snake would mate with his daughter Persephone, which resulted in the birth of Dionysus.
Amalthaea, in Greek (originally Cretan) mythology, the foster mother of Zeus, king of the gods. She is sometimes represented as the goat that suckled the infant god in a cave in Crete, sometimes as a nymph who fed him the milk of a goat.