15
votes
Accepted
Why is rape featured so prominently in Greek mythology?
Preface: This subject is complicated by changing social standards. Forced marriage has been routinely practiced around the world into the contemporary era, depending on the society. (This is a major ...
- 14.2k
14
votes
Accepted
How did Cronos lose if he was god of time?
OK, so there are a couple of misconceptions here. First, as Codosaur has already pointed out, Cronus and Chronos aren't necessarily the same being -- they just have similar names.
On the other hand, ...
- 1,623
11
votes
Accepted
Was the rule of Zeus ever challenged?
In the Iliad, Hera rebels against Zeus, and gets the other gods to bind him to his throne after she drugs him:
"You [Thetis] said you only among the immortals beat aside shameful
destruction ...
- 5,920
11
votes
Was the rule of Zeus ever challenged?
Typhon, a serpentine giant, attempted to overthrow Zeus. The earliest account of their battle can be found in the Theogony, and according to Hesiod Typhon "would have come to reign over mortals ...
- 17.1k
11
votes
Accepted
Metis' unborn son
The story occurs in only two ancient writings: first in Hesiod's Theogony, where just a few tantalising details are offered towards your Question, and then only about 800 years after that, in ...
- 9,855
10
votes
Is Zeus ever referred to as Earthshaker?
In later (hellenistic) times Zeus tended to monopolize all powers and earthquakes came to be his deed. There is a classic book by AB Cook Zeus: a study in ancient religion, part3 has some 30 pages on "...
- 836
10
votes
Accepted
Who was Zeus' first child conceived with a mortal?
Argos (and his brother Pelasgos)
According to Apollodorus, Hyginus, and Diodorus Siculus, the first mortal consort of Zeus was a princess named Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus. (This Niobe is not to be ...
- 9,855
8
votes
Accepted
Who did Zeus punish by having poison/acid dripped on them?
I do not think there's a tale were Zeus punishes someone with poison, as in Greek mythology punishment by poison is more often associated with women. See, for example, the story of Medea, or how Hera ...
- 1,410
8
votes
Accepted
Did Galileo or Marius know that Callisto was tidally locked?
There is no way Galileo or Simon Marius would have been able to observe the tidal locking of any of Jupiter's moons, as they just appeared as faint stars through their telescopes. In fact both Galileo ...
- 2,033
7
votes
Is Zeus ever referred to as Earthshaker?
In the same chapter "Zeus and the Earthquakes" of Zeus: a study in ancient religion, Vol. III, by Arthur Bernard Cook, quoted by @sand1 in his answer, the author says:
In point of fact, the ...
- 2,317
7
votes
Who did Zeus punish by having poison/acid dripped on them?
The only reference concerning Zeus being associated with poison is this:
But when Zeus was full-grown, he took Metis, daughter of Ocean, to help him, and she gave Cronus a drug to swallow, which ...
- 211
7
votes
Accepted
If Athena was born from Zeus' brain, does this mean Athena is a manifestation of Zeus' intelligence?
The Metis story is interesting because according to the prophecy Metis would have two children - Athena and then a son who would ovethrow Zeus. This would have represented a triumph for the Titans, ...
- 5,920
7
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If Athena was born from Zeus' brain, does this mean Athena is a manifestation of Zeus' intelligence?
Yes and no. It depends on how you look at it.
Athena is Zeus' favorite. She is a "daddy's girl" for sure, siding with the father over the mother in the trial of Orestes. He gives her the aegis to ...
- 14.2k
6
votes
Why was the Worship of Zeus and his kin banned?
Pagan religion was outlawed forcibly by Imperial Decree of his majesty Emperor Theodosius II.
The decree commanded the immediate closure of temples, oracles, schools etc that were even remotely ...
- 195
6
votes
Accepted
Is Zeus subject to the decrees of the Moirai?
Yes, surprisingly,
The Moirai were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without obstruction; ...
- 6,720
6
votes
Accepted
What is the earliest source to claim that Zeus and Ganymede were lovers?
Ganymede's story is told in the Iliad, in the 8th century BC (as the comment refers to):
...and godlike Ganymedes that was born the fairest of mortal men; wherefore the gods caught him up on high to ...
- 9,231
6
votes
Accepted
Why did Zeus take half the goodness out of a man?
It's not a common accepted believe, just something that Eumaeus, the swineherd of Odysseus, says to his master while Odysseus is still in disguise.
Slaves, when their masters lose their power, are ...
- 2,317
6
votes
Did Zeus give Pandora the box?
Whatever version of the myth you've heard is missing critical parts.
Prometheus (meaning "fore-thought"), a Titan, was given the job of creating humanity. But humans were left in the dark and cold ...
6
votes
Why is rape featured so prominently in Greek mythology?
While I agree with much of what has been written already, I think there is one obvious aspect that has not been directly expressed. There's a lot of rape in Greek myth because rape happened a lot. The ...
- 176
6
votes
Accepted
Zeus' Lightning Bolt
Zeus didn't have a single individual weapon, like Þor's Mjǫllnir, which would come back to him after each strike—instead, most depictions have him hurling a new lightning bolt each time, which is ...
- 1,388
6
votes
How did Cronos lose if he was god of time?
Chronos and Cronus have often been confused in Greek Mythology. The first is the personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. The second is the Titan deity who was defeated ...
- 5,378
5
votes
Accepted
Is there a tale of Zeus having sex with a deer?
This is the story of the nymph Taygete, one of the Pleiades. When Zeus pursued her, Artemis transformed her to a hind (or a cow) with golden horns. However, Zeus wasn't fooled by the disguise and ...
- 1,410
5
votes
What is the earliest source to claim that Zeus and Ganymede were lovers?
Ovid mentions Jupiter's love for Ganymede him in Metamorphoses X, saying
The king of the gods once burned with love for Phrygian Ganymede, and to win him Jupiter chose to be something other than he ...
- 497
5
votes
What does Tiresias's answer to the gods mean?
This is from Appolodorus 3.6.7. It does not refer to specific parts or phases of intercourse. You should read the numbers as percentages, as the translation indicates:
Hence, when Hera and Zeus ...
- 5,378
5
votes
Accepted
What do we know of the rebellion against Zeus by Poseidon, Hera and Athena?
The quoted passage informs us that Thetis did not directly intervene against Poseidon, Hera and Athena, who, indeed, yes, should have been more powerful than she. A scholion on Apollonius Rhodius' ...
- 9,855
5
votes
Who was Zeus' first child conceived with a mortal?
I'm going to propose:
Minos, King of Crete
The reason is that he is a contemporary of Theseus' father, King Aegeus, and Theseus was in the first generation of heroes, which includes Herakles, who ...
- 14.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Did Hermes ever somehow helped Prometheus, or not? Is he God of thieves, or what?
To answer your first question yes, Hermes was (among other things) a god of thievery.
An excerpt from the Hermes Theoi page
HERMES was the Olympian god of herds and flocks, travellers and ...
- 4,067
5
votes
Is there any surviving manuscript older than the 1st century CE that mentions the story of Danae being impregnated by Zeus's golden shower?
The myth of Danae and the shower of gold appears on several vases dating back to the 5th century BC. See for example this krater:
and this calyx:
To dispel any doubt regarding which myth is ...
- 2,033
4
votes
What power does Hera have over Zeus?
She's a daughter of Cronus in her own right, and so has some power on his footing. However, I wouldn't say Zeus is a hen-pecked husband. In the Iliad (560-569), Zeus states unequivocally that he is ...
cmw♦
- 7,383
4
votes
Accepted
Persian Zeus in Xenophon's Cyropaedia
Found the answer in the book Xenophon's Cyropaedia: Style, Genre, and Literary Technique, by Professor Deborah Levine Gera:
The gods Cyrus sacrifices to are all Greek ones, although Xenophon may
...
- 2,317
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