ZEUNERITE, a hydrous copper-uranium arsenate, Cu (U01), Minute yel lowish-green crystals with barite in ores of the Tintic district, Utah. A possible source of uranium.
ZEUS, :As (Greek Zile), in Greek mythol op, the chief of the gods. He was the son of Cronus and Rhza. According to the myth Cronus was in the habit of swallowing his children immediately after their birth. When Zeus was about to be born Rhza consulted Uranus and Gara as to bow he might be saved, and they sent her to Crete (the Trojan Ida and other places are mentioned in other accounts) to be delivered. She concealed Zcus in a cave in Mount Ida, and gave Cronus a stone wrapped up in a cloth to swallow. The infant Zeus was tended by the nymphs Ida and Adrastea. He was supplied with milk by the goat Amalthea. and the bets gathered honey for him. When he had reached manhood, by the aid of Gza or Metis he persuaded his father to restore to the light the children he had swallowed. Zen now united with his brothers to dethrone his father. This led to a war with the Titans, a struggle not terminated until Zeus delivered the Cyclopes, sons of Uranus and Gea, who had been bound by Cronus, and who in return pro vided him with thunder and lightning, and also liberated the hundred-handed beings Briareus, Cottus and Gyes, who likewise lent him their aid. Having vanquished the Titans, the other children of Uranus and Gr.a, he shut them up in Tartarus. Tartarus and Gaa now begot an other monster, Typhoeus, who engaged in a fearful struggle with Zeus, but was finally van quished by a thunderbolt. Zeus now obtained the dominion of the world, which he divided by lot with his brothers Poseidon (Neptune), who obtained the sea, and Hades (Pluto), who re ceived the lower world. Zeus retained for him self the heavens and the upper regions, while the earth was held as common property. An other dreadful war was now waged against the Olympian gods by the giants sprung from the blood of 'Uranus. In this struggle the gods were assisted by Athene, Apollo, Heracles and other children of Zeus, and the giants were completely vanquished. Zeus had three sisters and three brothers, Hestia (Vesta), Demeter (Ceres) and Hera (Juno). He first married Metis, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys; but as Fate had prophesied that she should bear a son who should rule the world, Zeus swallowed her when she was with child, and Athene sub sequently sprang from his head. As his second
wife he took, for a time, Themis, daughter of Uranus and Gaa, but his final and best-beloved consort was his sister Hera, by whom he had Hebe, Ares and Hephmstus. Zeus was re garded at the height of the organization of the Roman pantheon, as the founder of law, order and authority, the avenger of wrongs, the punisher of crime, the rewarder of good ac tions, the source of prophetic power, the au thor of all good things and the omnipotent, all-wise and benevolent ruler of the universe. He was especially looked upon as the con troller of all the phenomena of the heavens, and was constantly spoken of as the "Cloud gatherers or the Notwithstand ing his general character of wisdom and benev olence, his conduct was anything but im maculate. The incongruity struck some of the ancients themselves, and led to protest against such stories being believed. There appear to have been various local gods of the same name, with various attributes and legendary histories, who were finally merged in the national Hel lenic Zeus. Traces of the original traditions, however, remained in the local rites of particu lar places. An Arcadian and a Cretan Zeus are particularly distinguished. The former had a temple at Mount Lycaus, so sacred that if any one entered it he died within 12 months, while intentional trespassers were stoned to death. In Crete there were many places sacred to Zeus, who had passed his early life there, particularly Mount Ida and the district around it. Zeus, according to tradition, also landed on the island at Gortyn in the shape of a bull, when he carried off Europa, and was worship ped there by the surname of Hecatomba-us. The national god was worshipped by sacrifices of hulls, cows and goats. Two of the principal lccalities where his worship was carried on in Greece were Athens and Olympia. At the lat ter place the Olympic games, the most splendid festival in Greece, were held in his honor. (Sec OLYMPIC GAMES). Here there was a magnificent temple and a gold and ivory statue of the god, the work of Phidias, and reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. In representations of Zeus his attributes are the eagle, the sceptre and the thunderbolt. See ROMAN RELIGION. Consult PreIler-Robert, Mythologic' (1887).