Zeus, the supreme god of Greece, is primarily the lord of lightning and thunder. He is changeable, like the sky that he rules, every minute he appears in a new guise. In the clear Greek sky, in the ethereal morning transparency, the gentle look of the father of light is felt. He sends rain and snow. Thunder and storm are a manifestation of the power of the sovereign, who builds black clubs of clouds, raises leaden sea waves with a hurricane, sweeps sand drifts and lights sparkling lights on the tops of mountains. Day and night at the bottom of active volcanoes, the Cyclops forge thunders for Zeus.
This is a truly powerful god. If a rope of gold were fastened to the top of the sky and all the deities were pulled by it, they would not have a single chance to throw Zeus from Olympus. But if Zeus himself then pulled the rope, then the sea, land and all the gods would be lifted up and tied to the Olympic mountain. So, at least, he boasted. Ares, who knew little so well as with regard to physical strength, was very indignant: “I do not mind that Zeus is much more powerful and stronger than each of us individually, but so that we are so little compared to him weighed, it does not fit in my head. " And he recalled one case when, very long ago, Poseidon, Hera and Athena attacked Zeus together and tied him so that he could move a muscle. And no one knows how everything would end if it were not for the goddess of the sea Thetis (in the future mother of Achilles). She ran urine to Tartarus and dragged the old-armed giant Briareus, who freed the master of heaven. Yes, indeed, everyone remembered it well. But Ares shied away that day. Clever Hermes stealthily approached the god of war and whispered in his ear: “Stop it. It is dangerous for us to listen to your words, and to you to speak them. ” He was not mistaken. Zeus was hot and easily flushed, and when he was angry, he mercilessly pushed the gods through the halls of his palace, so much so that its golden walls cracked.
The idea of the Greeks about Zeus changed with the development of Greek civilization. When they were still semi-barbarians, they appreciated in him above all his power and unpredictable destructive power. Over time, he was adorned with more and more ideal virtues of the mind and heart, until an ideal image of a higher deity arose, whose wise power subordinates all spheres of life. Under the name of Gorky, Zeus acts as the patron saint of laws from the height of his throne, on the steps of which the goddess of Justice sits, preserves the holiness of the oath given by people, raising their hands and eyes to heaven and calling his name.
As Ksenia, he protects the immutable law of hospitality, takes care of aliens who ask for help and shelter, he has ambassadors and messengers under his protection, his name protects even the most unfortunate beggar from contempt: it is enough for him to touch the edge of the hearth and from now on not a single hair will fall from his head. Zeus gives a person a sense of goodness, respect, and mercy. He makes sure that people are beneficent and kind to each other. Zeus stood guard over a single society and demanded that the gods and people adhere to the laws of morality. Kind and affectionate, Zeus surrounds with care all human labor. On the golden scales, he puts the fate of mortals and, in accordance with what these scales show, sends happiness or unhappiness, good or evil. Each settlement has its own Zeus, nicknamed Herkey (defender of the fence), which protects the law of property and the safety of the clan or community. And finally, Zeus as Hellenius was a national deity whose purpose was to unite disparate Greek tribes into a single whole and prevent them from drowning in the sea of neighboring barbarian tribes.