Zeus is a wonderful man a forgiving god a caring father and of course a loyal deeply loyal husband
now some of you may argue that none of those statements are true and I'd argue if they were
Greek mythology would be a far more boring place and this video wouldn't exist today we are taking
a look at Zeus's known and lesser known lovers and affairs at least the more interesting ones
I'm assuming that most of us know who Zeus is by now for those who might still be unfamiliar
he was the king of gods in Greek mythology a wonderful man a caring father and of course a what
what do you mean this video is no longer sponsored by Zeus
well why am I saying all of these nice things if he's no longer paying us
oh right yeah my bad as I've just been reliably informed by the goblins behind the scenes today's
video is in fact sponsored by one dream for those who have been watching for some time you will know
that the people behind the great courses plus have teamed up to create one dream in order to provide
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for me one dream occasionally provides some video inspiration but most of the time I'll just watch
anything that seems strange or interesting enough recently i came across Norse mythology
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despite being married to Hera the goddess of marriage Zeus still part hook in the occasional
affair or two hundred thousand with such an extensive list it seems we should start at the
very beginning according to Hesiod Zeus had seven wives and the first of these was not actually Hera
it was metis metis was the one who supplied a young Zeus with the special potion that caused
Cronus to throw up and release all of Zeus's siblings who had been swallowed and how did
Zeus repay metis for this favour well he swallowed her whole Gaia and Uranus had prophesied the son
of Zeus and metis would one day dethrone Zeus and so having seen the same plan fail for his father
Cronus he decided to do the exact same thing Zeus and metis did however have one child whom
I'm sure you're familiar with Athena was born from zeus's forehead as a regular birth wasn't possible
given Zeus had eaten her mother his second wife was Themis the titan goddess of law and justice
from this union came the hurai and the morai also known as the seasons and the fates wife number
three was uranomi another Oceanid who bore the charities three goddesses also known as the graces
the fourth wife was Demeter who bore zeus a daughter we know as Persephone the fifth wife
was nemesin the titan goddess of memory from this union came the nine muses wife number six was lito
who had to flee to the island of delos to give birth to artemis and Apollo the last of
the seven wives according to hesiod was hera the queen of the gods with the wives out of the way
we can move on to the many affairs and mistresses now i am gonna warn you these stories are weird
very weird let's begin with the story of dana the mother of perseus dana was the daughter of king
acrysius the ruler of argos the king was extremely frustrated by his lack of a male heir and so
he decided to seek out the oracle of delphi to inquire whether he would have a change in fortune
the answer was a resounding no but she did tell him that his daughter dana would have a son
she also told him this son would one day kill him returning home king acrysius took his daughter
and lopped her up in a subterranean bronze chamber he decided his daughter would remain childless if
he buried her alive in a tomb under his palace this chamber was sealed shut there were no
doors or windows the only source of light and air coming from a tiny skylight luckily for dana zeus
had taken a liking to her and a pesky impenetrable underground bunker wasn't going to get in his way
zeus took the form of golden rain and showered dana through the skylight impregnating her so it's
fair to say that Perseus was born from a golden shower just not the type you may be thinking of
the king now just couldn't murder his daughter and grandchild and so he had them placed in a
barrel and cast out at sea the prophecy still came true albeit much later when Perseus accidentally
struck him in the head with a javelin when zeus tried to seduce hera he transformed himself
into a bird and this weird process of taking the form of animals other people and various
miscellaneous forms when interacting with his potential lovers was common practice when he
came across europa picking flowers in a field he appeared as a bull that smelled of fresh flowers
naturally europa's attention was drawn and when she hopped on his back zeus jumped into the sea
and swam to the island of Crete zeus then revealed himself and made europa the first queen of crete
two of their sons radimanthus and Minos became kings of crete the story of nemesis is one of
the more notoriously strange stories nemesis was the goddess of divine retribution and thus not
someone you'd wish to anger unless you were zeus nemesis rejected zeus's advances and took several
different forms in an attempt to escape him one form she took was a goose and this prompted zeus
to chase her down disguised as a swan this time he was successful in his chase and nemesis would lay
an egg that was then given to leader the queen of sparta from this egg would hatch helen of troy
some stories like to switch the position of nemesis and leader here zeus still in the form
of a swan ran into leaders arms pretending he was being pursued by an eagle which was actually just
aphrodite in disguise some other transformations of note include a phoenix when appearing to
cassiopeia eagle when he abducted ganymede a sata a vulture an ant and a serpent when zeus appeared
to heracles mother alcamini he did so disguised as her very own husband although this didn't
necessarily cause her too many issues with hera it did however doom heracles to a lifetime of hatred
the titan goddess asteria flew across the heavens disguised as a quail to try and
escape zeus in the end she dove into the sea and transformed into the island of delos fans of hades
and persephone will be disappointed to know that zeus seduced persephone on two separate occasions
the first time before her marriage to hades in the form of a serpent where persephone gave
birth to a god known as zagreus the second time was during her reign as queen of the underworld
however this time he appeared as his brother hades i did tell you these stories would be weird
zeus's next lover victim was io a priestess of hera nonetheless zeus lusted for io immediately
upon seeing her however hera at this point kept a close eye on zeus to avoid being caught zeus
transformed the io into a cow hera couldn't prove that this cow was one of zeus's lovers
but she was well aware of her husband's trickery she demanded that zeus gave her this cow as a gift
to which zeus had no real option but to agree hera then had the giant argus penipetus guard the cow
argus had over a hundred eyes making it almost impossible for zeus to sneak past and transform
io back into a woman the ever-reliable hermes was sent to deal with the giant tricking him
into a deep slumber and killing him zeus then transformed io back into a woman and set her free
in some versions of the story she remained a cow which still wasn't enough of a punishment for hera
she also had a gadfly follow aya around and continually sting her io would eventually
come across a chained up prometheus who told her that one day she would return to her human form
we've had some of the more weird stories but many of these encounters ended in tragedy the
story of callisto definitely falls into the tragic category the daughter of king like owen
and a follower of artemis remaining a virgin was fairly important to callisto as she wished
to remain in the cult of artemis that didn't last long as zeus came across callisto in the forest
his advances at first were rejected and so his plan was to return but in the form of
artemis surely callisto would be unable to reject the advances of her patron goddess
this time he was successful and shortly after callisto fell pregnant with his child the next
time callisto came across artemis she was invited to bathe with her and her followers in a river
reluctantly callisto undressed revealing her belly artemus furious that her vow had been broken
transformed callisto into a bear so she could never be with her son
the next time they saw each other her son did not recognize callisto and so they killed each
other not wanting to anger hera anymore zeus did not intervene when callisto begged and
pleaded to transform her back into a woman after her death zeus placed both callisto and her son
in the sky as constellations ursa major and minor in alternate versions most greek poets claim that
callisto was just slain by artemis at a later time either way there is no happy ending for callisto
remaining on the topic of tragedy there are a few more lovers we can take a look at
lamia was a queen in libya many would travel thousands of miles just to admire her beauty
zeus had given lamia two children when hera learned of the affair she took those children away
some stories say that hera killed those children and others that she tricked lamia into killing her
own children this drove lamia insane hera then transformed her into a monster and cursed her with
insomnia her eyes could never close lamia became a monster who snatched away children and devoured
them a story that parents would tell children to ensure they stayed inside zeus eventually found
lamia and gave her the ability to remove her eyes allowing her to finally rest
semeli was a priestess of zeus he observed sacrificing a bull at his altar as these
stories go he fell in love and before not too long she was carrying his child hera once again
observing this affair came up with a new way to punish this lover she took the form of an
elderly woman appearing to semly and befriending her semilly excited to finally tell someone told
the elderly woman that the father of her child was indeed zeus hera pretended to not believe her
how could she possibly know zeus was the father of her child if she had never seen his true form
the doubts planted by hera began to bother emily until she asked zeus for one favour
she had zeus swear an oath on the river styx to grant her whatever she requested
emily then told zeus she wanted to see him in all his glory zeus begged and pleaded for
her to reconsider but he was unsuccessful in changing her mind and so he did as he promised
revealing his divinity no mortal was able to look upon the true form of a god and semilly
was no exception she burst into flames and died zeus was able to rescue the child by
sewing him into his own thigh a child that would be born later and one that we know as dionysus
now the stories we've heard today are by no means every lover and affair that took place
they are the ones that were named and have a story there are countless nymphs and mortal women who
only appear by name and even more who are nameless hopefully you've enjoyed today's episode of
the real housewives of olympus as always i've been your host mythology and fiction explained
no no no
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