Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s episode,
we’re going to explore whether Zeus, lord of the black cloud, wielder of the smoking bolt,
he who sits highest in Olympus, ruler of the cosmos, the raging storm incarnate is, in fact,
more powerful than all of the other Olympians combined,
as he so proclaims to the other gods in the Iliad, trumpeting the terror of his own tempest.
Let’s get into it.
In the Iliad, Zeus harangues the other gods, ordering them
not to interfere in the Trojan war so that the war can be brought to a close more quickly.
He demands their obedience, a demand delivered emphatically by Zeus expressing the extent
of his true strength, which he claims is more than that of all the other Olympians combined.
Here’s the passage:
“Hear me, all you gods and all goddesses too, as I proclaim what the heart inside me urges. Let no
lovely goddess - and no god either - try to fight against my strict decree. . .then he will know how
far my power tops all other gods’. Come, try me, immortals, so all of you can learn. Hang a great
golden cable down from the heavens, lay hold of it, all you gods, all goddesses too: you can
never drag me down from sky to earth, not Zeus, highest, mightiest king of kings, not even if you
worked yourselves to death. But whenever I’d set my mind to drag you up, in deadly earnest, you and
the sea, all together, then loop that golden cable round a horn of Olympus, bind it fast and leave
the whole world dangling in mid-air - that is how far I tower over the gods, I tower over men”
It’s impossible to gauge for certain the depth of Zeus’ conviction in these words.
He could very well have been exaggerating or, alternatively,
inflating inadvertently through overestimation. Was he speaking bombastically, just a blustering
king trying to keep his subjects in line, or was there some substance to this threat?
Zeus is an incredibly powerful god, generally presented as being the most powerful god
in Greek mythology. There are other gods you could make a case for, sure, especially Nyx,
the personification of night, and there are gods who would have been more powerful than Zeus,
like the son Metis could have born and the son Themis could
have born - both sired by Zeus - but those two children never came to be;
and while Greek mythology boasts a robust roster of powerful gods, the point remains that Zeus is
generally presented as being the most powerful. But just what is the extent of that power?
To explore this question, we’re going to look at two events: how he was portrayed
in Hesiod’s Theogony, where he becomes destruction personified and unleashes a war-ending onslaught,
against the Titans, and at the implications of an event that’s
alluded to in the Iliad in which he’s captured by other gods, almost having his reign ended.
Here’s the passage that describes
Zeus unveiling his true power towards the close of the war against the titans:
“Now Zeus held in his strength no longer. Straightway his lungs were filled with fury,
and he began to display his full might. From heaven and from Olympus together he came,
with continuous lightning flashes, and the bolts flew thick and fast from his stalwart hand
amid thunder and lightning, trailing supernatural flames. . .the whole land was seething,
and the stream of Oceanus, and the undraining sea. The hot blast enveloped the Titans;
[and] the indescribable flames reached the divine sky”
In this mood at that moment, blazing bolt in hand,
Hesiod’s account really does feel like corroborating evidence
that supports Zeus’ claim of being stronger than all of the other Olympians combined.
But acting as a counterweight to this is the time Zeus was almost usurped by a trio
of insurrectionists, Hera, Poseidon, and Athena. They bound him in chains.
How they accomplished such a feat is not revealed. Perhaps they overpowered him,
or maybe it was surprise or deception. Whatever the means, Zeus, for a time, was at their mercy,
and had it not been for Themis, Achilles’ mother, fetching Briareus, one of the Hecatonchires,
the mere presence of whom cowed the three gods into abandoning their coup,
there might have been new management running Olympus, possibly three high-seats instead of one.
If Zeus’ strength did exceed that of the other 11 Olympians put together,
it seems doubtful that three of them would have been able to chain him or,
for that matter, that the chains could have withstood Zeus trying to break them. Again,
though, we don’t know how they managed to incapacitate him.
Anyway, whether Zeus’ claims about his own strength are valid is something that,
sadly, can’t be ascertained. There seems to be myths or, at least,
versions of myths that confirm and clash, propping up both sides.
What do YOU guys think?
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