Who Is Zeus?
King of the gods, wielder of the thunderbolt
Zeus is the king of the gods in Greek mythology, the supreme god of the sky and thunder. The youngest child of Cronus and Rhea, he becomes the center of the Olympian gods. In Roman mythology he corresponds to Jupiter.
In this manga, Zeus first appears as a baby who was meant to be swallowed by his father, Cronus. He survives because his mother, Rhea, swaps him for a stone, and he grows up on Crete, hidden by his grandmother Gaia (Earth). In time he wins back the brothers and sisters his father swallowed and frees the uncles whom Ouranos had bound, receiving from them thunder, the thunderbolt, and lightning. With the children of Styx and the Hundred-Handers on his side, Zeus unleashes all the power he had been holding back in the Titanomachy and locks the Titans away in Tartarus.
In Hesiod's Theogony, Zeus is portrayed not only as mighty, but also as a king who keeps his promises to those who join his side.
Episodes featuring this character5
NEWEpisode 4
All the Monsters Were One FamilyMedusa and Echidna
Hesiod, a shepherd boy looking for true songs, is taken to Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, who never tells a lie. Starting with Nereus's fifty sea-daughters, Hesiod follows one family line down to Medusa, Echidna, Cerberus, the Hydra and the Chimera. Even monsters had mothers, and brothers and sisters. And from the life of one mortal daughter, the winged horse Pegasus bursts into the sky.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 6
The King of Gods Was Saved by a StoneThe Birth of Zeus and the Stone of Kronos
On a misty mountain, the Muses sing a hungry shepherd the tale of "the night a mother told her only lie." To save her youngest, Zeus, from Cronus, the boy-king who swallows his children, Rhea hands him a stone wrapped in swaddling cloth. Raised in a cave deep within the earth, Zeus overthrows his father with his grandmother Gaia's cunning and his own strength. He frees his five siblings from the light, reunites with his mother, and receives thunder from the uncles he unchains.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 7
Victory Belongs to Those Who Show UpStyx and Nike
Zeus calls every god to his side, but no one wants to be the first to raise a hand. Then Nike, the youngest, asks one simple question. It pushes her mother Styx to act, and Styx brings her four children to Olympus ahead of everyone else. The young king has been standing alone until now, and he answers her by keeping every promise he makes.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 8
They Were Forgotten. They Never Forgot.Zeus and the Hundred-Handers (Hecatoncheires)
On a misty mountain, the shepherd Hesiod hears a song from the goddesses of song. Ten years into the war against Cronus, the father who swallowed his own children, the fighting still hasn't ended. Then Zeus hears the voice of Gaia, Mother Earth. He goes down to the depths of the earth and, with his own hands, brings three forgotten hundred-armed brothers back into the light. Cottus swears that now it's their turn to protect him, and Zeus raises his thunderbolt for the first time. But across the divide, in the darkness, a golden eye opens.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 9
The Day Zeus Stopped Holding BackTitanomachy
Cronus feared his children would take his throne. Zeus, the youngest, was the only one who escaped him, and he has fought his father for ten years. This is the war's last day. Zeus finally stops holding back and hurls lightning hot enough to set the world on fire. The three Hundred-Handers bury the sky under three hundred boulders. Together they drive the old gods down into Tartarus, which lies as far below the earth as heaven lies above it.
19 pages