ZEUS, the supreme deity of the Greek Olympus, the god of heaven and of earth, to whom the Jupiter of the Romans nearly corresponds both in power and attributes, was probably originally an elemental divinity, who was worshipped as the god of rain, snow, lightning, &c. Apart from other considerations the etymology of his name, both in Greek and Latin, would seem to lead to this conclusion.
According to Homer, Zeus was the son of kronor and Rhea. [Knoxos.] In order to save her son from being destroyed by his father, Rhea concealed him soon after his birth in a cave in Crete, where he passed the first years of his life. As Zeus grew up, Kroues called to his aid the Titans, in order to secure his dominions against his son; but they were eventually conquered, and Kronos himself dethroned by the youthful Zeus. In the Homeric poems Zeus is represented as the supreme ruler of the gods and of men ; and though subject himself to the decrees of Fate, his commands cannot be dis obeyed; his wisdom is infinite, and his power irresistible. His wife was Hera, and their children Hephaestus, Ares, and Hebe. The wor ship of Zeus was co-extensive with the Grecian race. His temples were numerous, the chief being at his and at Athens—the former con tained Phidias's sublime chryselephantine statue of the god, the latter being, when perfect, the noblest temple perhaps of the ancient world.
Cicero informs us (` De Nat. Dear.,' iii. 21) that there were three Roman deities of the name of Jupiter : one the son of .Ether; the second, the son of Heaven ; and the third, the son of Saturn. The last was worshipped at Rome under various names, and many temples were erected to his honour, of which the most celebrated was the one on the Capitoline Hill, where he was worshipped under the name of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
As the supreme god, Zeus taxed the highest powers of the artists of ancient Greece. The Greeks themselves believed that Phidias, in the Heated chryselephantine statue of Zeus which he executed for the temple of Elis, had attained the loftiest conception of the divinity. Zeus himself, Pausanias tells us (b. v. e. 10), gave a visible expression of his approval of the sculptor's art ; and Quinctilian declares that the work equalled in majesty the god himself, and added somewhat to the religion of those who saw it. The statue has long been lost, but
several attempts have been made to restore it from contemporary descriptions—the best known being that of M. Quatrernere de Quincy, iu his 'Jupiter Olympine.' This work of Phidias seems to have been accepted by the Greeks as an authoritative model for the form and features of the deity. Phidias probably followed in the general conception some more ancient type, but his was thenceforward the normal form which all succeeding artists, according to their ability, sought to reproduce. Muller thus characterises the external features of Zeus, as found in works of the best and later periods of Greek art :— "The hair rose up from the centre of the forehead, like that of a lion, and then fell down on both sides like a mane ; the brow clear and bright above, but greatly arching forward beneath; eyes deeply sunk, but wide open and rounded ; delicate mild lineaments round the upper lip and cheeks ; the full rich beard descending in large wavy tresses; a noble, ample, and open chest, as well as a powerful, but not unduly enlarged muscular development of the whole body." (` Ancient Art,' § 349.) From this general character, which belongs to the best statues of Zeus, deviations occur, where he is represented in a youthful form, or as an excited and vengeful deity.
Zeus was usually represented seated on an ivory throne, with a sceptre in his left hand and in his right a thunderbolt. The Olympian Zeus of Phidias bore in his right hand a Victory, made like the statue itself, of gold and ivory. In early art the representations of Zeus chiefly have reference to his divine character, and his more sublime attributes. Later, and especially as art became the minister of luxury, and too often of voluptuousness, the intrigues of the god with the lesser goddesses, and with mortars, afforded a more acceptable class of subjects, and Jupiter and lo, Jupiter and Ganymede, Leda and the like, were figured in every variety of form and material ; and at the revival of the study and imitation of classical art, it need hardly be added that this series of circumstances in the mythic history of Jupiter was seized upon with avidity by the painters and sculptors of Italy.