Topic > Zeus: Rise to Power and Rule of the Gods

The Greek god Zeus is essentially the product of several generations of mistrust and lust for power. When Cronus castrates his father Uranus and throws his genitals into the sea, he is essentially crowned the new king of the universe. Getting into such a prestigious position pushes him to become power-hungry, so he doesn't want to give up his launch. So much so that when his mother Gaia tells him that her youngest son would overthrow him, he begins to consume all of her children. Disturbed by her husband's vile actions, Rhea, with Gaia's help, hides Zeus on earth and gives Cronus a stone in his place. This is where Zeus' rise to power truly begins. Together with Gaia's help, he frees the Olympians imprisoned by Cronus. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay“He freed from their baneful slavery the brothers of his father, the children of heaven whom their father in his madness had imprisoned; and they thanked his goodness by giving him thunder, lightning and the smoking lightning, which the mighty earth (Gaia) had kept hidden until then. With these to rely on is the lord of mortals and immortals. (Hesiod's Theogony pg. 18) After freeing the Olympians from their slavery, it is evident that Zeus' strategy to overthrow his father is to conquer his father's enemies, presenting himself as their savior and aligning their Mutual goals of watching Kronos fall. This strategy can also be actively observed when Zeus releases the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires and asks them to join his army. However, he does not demand their allegiance, rather he focuses on aligning their common goals to take down Kronos, and is thus able to convince them to fight for him. A ten-year war ensues, and after much chaos and destruction, Zeus and the Olympians defeat Kronos and the Titans and imprison them in Tartarus, where Hecatoncheires guards them; another example of Zeus' cunning strategy. Serving under Zeus' regime is not seen as an obligation, but as an honorable, privileged, and prestigious position. This is the main reason why Zeus is able to maintain his position of power. Zeus' reign ends when he fights and defeats Typhoeus and throws him into Tartarus as far away from the Olympian gods as possible. While wise and a proven strategist, Zeus is not invulnerable to the other threats around him. Rather than becoming apathetic in his new position as king of the gods, he keeps a keen and watchful eye for anything that might hinder his kingdom's progress or end his reign. When he takes his first Metis wife, it is prophesied that his son would also drop him. Obviously Zeus wants to prevent his own dethronement but. Zeus, however, is smarter than his father Cronus, so instead of attempting to eat his children, Zeus decides to neutralize the source of the threat, so he eats his wife Metis. This is closely linked to Zeus' obvious distrust of women. Historically, throughout Zeus' life, the women he met were all devious and disloyal to their husbands. Gaia betrayed Uranus by giving Cronus the scythe. Rhea and Gaia both betrayed Kronos when they fed him a rock instead of Zeus. “But when she was about to give birth to Zeus, father of gods and men, then she prayed to her dear parents, the Earth and the starry Sky, to devise a plan so that she could give birth to her son in secret and make Kronos pay the his father's compensation. furies and those of the children he had swallowed” (Theogony of Hesiod page 17). Women at this point have historically helped their sons to overthrow their husbands as in the case of Gaia and Rhea but when Athena.