This week's lecture looked at Zeus as a case study of ancient Greek
religion. Zeus, being chief god in the Greek pantheon, was a good choice for this.
There are two sides to how we can view Zeus, as either a Sovereign or a Tyrant.
The picture on the left is from http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/S1.5.html it depicts Zeus/Jupiter
standing with a royal staff and bowl, with an eagle at his feet. All three
other features on this statue of Zeus symbolise his right to rule. In the
lecture we discussed the ideas of Zeus as a supreme being, the lecturer pointed
out that he is possibly the most likely of the Greek gods that you could call
God (with a capital G), even though Zeus is different to the
monotheistic God in many ways.
We were given some issues for consideration in the
lecture today. These were:
- Zeus as supreme being
- Zeus as god with specialised function in the pantheon
- How the Greeks represented him in art if his "true" form (see Anthropomorphism post) was the thunderbolt.
Zeus may seem to come across as the supreme being
in Greek religion. He certainly has no trouble crushing any potential uprisings
against him and repeatedly shows his power in a variety of myths. However there
are at least two goddesses that Zeus does not want to insult; Hecate and Nyx.
It's told in the Theogony (404
ff) that Zeus
gives Hecate a share of the Sky, Sea and Underworld. He does this as he held her
in high regard and the Titans that came before him (she was a third generation
Titan). Nyx on the other hand is one of the primordial gods; she was one of the
first beings to emerge from the Chasm at the start of the universe. In
the Iliad, Hypnos explains the following tale: 'but Zeus awakened in anger and beat the gods up and
down his house, looking beyond all others for me, and would have sunk me out of
sight in the sea from the bright sky had not Nyx (Night) who has power over
gods and men rescued me. I reached her in my flight, and Zeus let be, though he
was angry, in awe of doing anything to swift Nyx' displeasure. (Iliad 14. 231 ff).
This story shows that although Zeus is seen as the
supreme being in many ways, there are still other deities he doesn't want to
mess with. So he's powerful, but not all powerful. We can see this trait of
power passed down to all of his offspring in some shape or form, as I'm looking
at Apollo overall there is a quote in the Homeric Hymn III to Delian Apollo, that goes:
'the other gods tremble at him
when he enters the house of Zeus,
they spring up when he comes near them'.
Here we see that Apollo is seen by the other
Olympians as a powerful being, the next section of the hymn states that only
Leto and (through inference) Zeus remain seated and the other gods only
sit back down when Leto takes her son's bow from him.
Zeus' specialised function within the pantheon was as the god of justice, order, the sky and the weather. Burkert says that 'Only for Greeks and Romans is the Sky Father the highest god, and he is so primarily as a rain and storm god: Zeus is much more a weather god than the etymology would suggest. (Greek Religion, 1987:126)' Burkert gives this description of Zeus whilst discussing the Indo-European roots of Zeus' name. He states that Zeus is the weather with examples of phrasing, such as ''Zeus is raining' instead of 'it is raining'' (Greek Religion, 1987:126). Another example would be how Zeus sends the thunderbolt and is the thunderbolt. We can link this point to the one about Zeus' power by looking at the Demeter and Persephone story. When Demeter was scouring the earth looking for her daughter, all the crops withered and died as she wasn't looking after her realm. Zeus couldn't do a thing about the death of the crops, but he could only order Demeter back and she had to obey..
In ancient Greek sculpture, Zeus was usually portrayed as enthroned with
an eagle next to him or standing holding his royal sceptre or in a fighting
pose holding his master bolt. My calling it master bolt is influenced by the Percy Jackson books. In his first Percy Jackson book, Riordan gives it the
following description:
''Zeus's master bolt,' Chiron said, getting worked up now. 'The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheared the top of Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers.'' (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, 2005:135). Burkert also makes a similar point by saying 'The thunderbolt... Is the weapon of Zeus which he alone commands; it is irresistible, even gods tremble before it, and enemies of the gods are utterly destroyed when it strikes; in the face of such a manifestation of divine energy, man stands powerless, terrified and yet marvelling'. (Greek Religion, 1987:126). While Riordan may be slightly exaggerating with its’ level of power compared to a hydrogen bomb, Burkert seems to have captured why Zeus is often displayed with it in art, mortals are marvelled by something of such high power.
Primary Sources:
The Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Delian Apollo, page 26
Homer, Iliad 14. 231 ff
Secondary Sources:
Burkert, W., Greek Religion, 1987, page 126.
Riordan, R., Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, 2005,
Page 135
Image:
Jupiter - http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/S1.5.html
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