All 50 Uses of
Zeus
in
The Iliad
- The blending of Greek and West Asiatic traditions can be seen in so central a figure as Zeus: dwelling on the peak of Mount Olympus and wielding the thunderbolt, Zeus has an Indo-European pedigree as a sky- and weather-god; this is indicated by the etymology of his name, which comes from a root (deiw-) meaning "shining," "bright."†
Book Intr.
- The blending of Greek and West Asiatic traditions can be seen in so central a figure as Zeus: dwelling on the peak of Mount Olympus and wielding the thunderbolt, Zeus has an Indo-European pedigree as a sky- and weather-god; this is indicated by the etymology of his name, which comes from a root (deiw-) meaning "shining," "bright."†
Book Intr.
- 5 We can also infer that Zeus figured in Indo-European religion as a father-god, for the compound expression "Zeus the father" is found not only in archaic Greek but in Sanskrit ("Dyaus pitar") and Latin ("Ju-piter," i. e., "Zeus pater").†
Book Intr.
- 5 We can also infer that Zeus figured in Indo-European religion as a father-god, for the compound expression "Zeus the father" is found not only in archaic Greek but in Sanskrit ("Dyaus pitar") and Latin ("Ju-piter," i. e., "Zeus pater").†
Book Intr.
- e., "Zeus pater").†
Book Intr.
- But when Homer fleshes out this picture by showing Zeus presiding over a council of gods or by recounting how he rose to kingship by violently overthrowing his father, the nearest parallels are to be found among such figures as the Babylonian Marduk and the Hurrian-Hittite Kumarbi.†
Book Intr.
- A son of Zeus and a king of Lykia to the south, Sarpedon has come to help Hektor, "though I have no least stake in Troy, no booty to lose."†
Book Intr.
- Homer makes his death extraordinarily wrenching: Zeus is forced to deliberate whether he will save his own son from death; when he decides not to resist the Fates, he rains blood from heaven for the prince who gives, in Book XII, the most articulate expression of the hero's code of honor.†
Book Intr.
- There, Zeus contemplates making peace between the Greeks and Trojans, but Hera and Athena mutter against it.†
Book Intr.
- When Hera speaks out against the plan, Zeus affects to be perplexed: "Strange one, how can Priam and Priam's sons have hurt you so that you are possessed to see the trim stronghold of Ilion plundered?†
Book Intr.
- Perhaps it was for similar reasons that Homer ignored another fantastic tale of origins, the conception of Helen on Leda by Zeus in the form of a swan.†
Book Intr.
- Yet Virgil cannot refrain from wondering, like Zeus in Iliad IV, "Can anger / Black as this prey on the minds of heaven?"†
Book Intr.
- 84), by Zeus (18.†
Book Intr.
- At the same time he seems to have known one popular myth that explained that Zeus conceived a passion for Thetis but had her wed Peleus because she was fated to bear a son stronger than his father.†
Book Intr.
- Her consenting to this union thus saved the king of the gods from being dethroned (always a possibility in the Greek pantheon, where Zeus had overthrown his own father, who had overthrown his father as well).†
Book Intr.
- This tale from very early in the Troy-story lies outside Homer's purview, but he appears to have remodeled it in the first book when Akhilleus is begging his mother to intervene with Zeus on his behalf: the hero reminds Thetis that she has a claim on Zeus, rehearsing a story of how she had once saved him from a revolt among the gods by enlisting the support of Briareus, "more powerful than the sea-god, his father.†
Book Intr.
- This tale from very early in the Troy-story lies outside Homer's purview, but he appears to have remodeled it in the first book when Akhilleus is begging his mother to intervene with Zeus on his behalf: the hero reminds Thetis that she has a claim on Zeus, rehearsing a story of how she had once saved him from a revolt among the gods by enlisting the support of Briareus, "more powerful than the sea-god, his father.†
Book Intr.
- We do not hear of this story in other accounts of the career of Zeus, and it seems likely that Homer has improvised it to give weight to a plea that will set the action of The Iliad in motion.†
Book Intr.
- Different as it is, the new story draws on implications of the old; it adds cosmological depth to "the will of Zeus" that drives the action of the poem, and it is told in a (moment between mother and son that highlights Akhilleus' tragic destiny: he will indeed excel his father, for no warrior at Troy was greater; but he will assuredly die, and not all his greatness and half-divine descent can fend off the destiny laid on him before his birth.†
Book Intr.
- Paris and Menelaos: what Paris is reviled for is that he was a guest in Menelaos' house when he took Helen; he broke the bonds of hospitality, the sacred obligation of fair dealing between guest and host that was supervised by no less an Olympian than Zeus.†
Book Intr.
- / Honored I think I am by Zeus' justice.†
Book Intr.
- Akhilleus does not yet understand what it means to go outside all social forms and seek to stand in "Zeus' justice.†
Book Intr.
- Homer starts the story very quickly—Zeus agrees to help Akhilleus in the first book and he puts his plan into action at the beginning of the second—but then divine and human interference postpone the inevitable working out of his sovereign will.†
Book Intr.
- Akhilleus' plea to Zeus in Book I, that he "roll the Akhaians back to the water's edge, / back on their ships with slaughter," Is not fulfilled until Book XVI; and by the time Agamemnon makes his formal apology and restitution in XIX, Patroklos' death will have generated a new story that will run its course over five more books before the anger of Akhilleus is fully told.†
Book Intr.
- In Book II, Zeus sends a deceptive dream to lure Agamemnon into a mass attack.†
Book Intr.
- So, too, Zeus in effect consents once again to the fall of Troy, even as he teases Hera for being so intent on its destruction.†
Book Intr.
- Finally, the result of these deliberations is, as it were, to have the Trojans repeat their primary error: the perfidious, bow-bearing foreigner Pandaros figures as an alter-Paris; in breaking the Zeus-guarded institution of the truce, he reenacts Paris' violation of Zeus' hospitality.†
Book Intr.
- Finally, the result of these deliberations is, as it were, to have the Trojans repeat their primary error: the perfidious, bow-bearing foreigner Pandaros figures as an alter-Paris; in breaking the Zeus-guarded institution of the truce, he reenacts Paris' violation of Zeus' hospitality.†
Book Intr.
- Books III-VII will cover one long day of fighting, and Zeus will only banish the interfering deities and send the Trojans success in Book VIII.†
Book Intr.
- 18 It begins with Zeus stirring up Strife at dawn and it ends with the "reluctant sun" going down after the Greeks have deposited the body of Patroklos on a cot back in Akhilleus' camp.†
Book Intr.
- But Hektor will not lay hands on a ship for four books: Zeus, confident that his plan is well under way, turns his attention to Thrace, and the pro-Greek gods rush back into action.†
Book Intr.
- Homer is equally confident that his plan is under way, and has the panache to insert an idyllic comedy of love, the story of Hera's 'seduction of Zeus in Book XIV.†
Book Intr.
- In duly accepting the ransom, Akhilleus now returns, not to the army and to the social order, but to the harsh justice of mortails under Zeus.†
Book Intr.
- Even as he prepares to accept the ransom, he warns Priam to be patient, fearing that his rage may boil up again and he may do violence to a Zeus-protected suppliant.†
Book Intr.
- Sometimes he will render the widely used epithet dios on the literal side, as "godlike Akhilleus" (dios is connected with the same root as "Zeus").†
Book Intr.
- BOOK ONE Quarrel, Oath, and Promise Anger be now your song, immortal one, Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous, that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss and crowded brave souls into the undergloom, leaving so many dead men—carrion for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.†
Book 1
- The son of Zeus by Leto.†
Book 1
- The gods who hold Olympos, may they grant you plunder of Priam's town and a fair wind home, but let me have my daughter back for ransom as you revere Apollo, son of Zeus!†
Book 1
- All being mustered, all in place and quiet, Akhilleus, fast in battle as a lion, rose and said: "Agamemnon, now, I take it, the siege is broken, we are going to sail, and even so may not leave death behind: if war spares anyone disease will take him … We might, though, ask some priest or some diviner, even some fellow good at dreams—for dreams come down from Zeus as well— why all this anger of the god Apollo?†
Book 1
- Now for their benefit he said: "Akhilleus, dear to Zeus, it is on me you call to tell you why the Archer God is angry.†
Book 1
- Just let the girl go, in the god's name, now; we'll make it up to you, twice over, three times over, on that day Zeus gives us. leave to plunder Troy behind her rings of stone.†
Book 1
- Others will honor me, and Zeus who views the wide world most of all.†
Book 1
- Off to Olympos, gaining the air, she went to join the rest, the powers of heaven in the home of Zeus.†
Book 1
- But here is what I say: my oath upon it by this great staff: look: leaf or shoot it cannot sprout again, once lopped away from the log it left behind in the timbered hills; it cannot flower, peeled of bark and leaves; instead, Akhaian officers in council take it in hand by turns, when they observe by the will of Zeus due order in debate: let this be what I swear by then: I swear a day will come when every Akhaian soldier will groan to have Akhilleus back.†
Book 1
- No one vies in honor with him who holds authority from Zeus.†
Book 1
- Shamefast, pale with fear of him, they stood without a word; but he knew what they felt and called out: "Peace to you, criers and couriers of Zeus and men!†
Book 1
- Often he spread his hands in prayer to his mother: "As my life came from you, though it is brief, honor at least from Zeus who storms in heaven I call my due.†
Book 1
- If you can, stand by me: go to Olympos, pray to Zeus, if ever by word or deed you served him— and so you did, I often heard you tell it in Fathers house: that time when you alone of all the gods shielded the son of Kronos from peril and disgrace—when other gods, Pallas Athena, Hera, and Poseidon, wished him in irons, wished to keep him bound, you had the will to free him of that bondage, and called up to Olympos in all haste Aigaion, whom the gods call Briareus, the giant with a…†
Book 1
- For fear of him the blissful gods forbore to manacle Zeus.†
Book 1
- But what you wish I will propose To Zeus, lord of the lightning, going up myself into the snow-glare of Olympos with hope for his consent.†
Book 1
Definition:
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(Zeus) Greek mythology: the most supreme of the gods