Rape, Lying, Torture; Is Zeus Evil?

Zeus, king of Olympus and legend of Greek mythology is also famously wicked. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born but still sometimes considered the eldest since the other required disgorging from Cronus’ stomach to really be born. He constantly lies, cheats and doles out harsh over-the-top punishments to those who act against his will-regardless of their merit.  

Perhaps the most famous of Zeus’ sins is his constant infidelity to his wife, the queen of Olympus Hera. Disturbingly, Hera is also his sister, but incest is apparently excused when it comes to the immortals, in fact, morality itself doesn’t seem to apply to them, especially Zeus. He has gone to extreme lengths to cheat on his wife, killing many people in the process of covering it up. Zeus has on multiple occasions turned into an eagle to ravish human beings on earth, even against their will. More popular than images of eagles ravishing men or women, is the image of Zeus, the swan, seducing a woman named Leda. He fell into Leda’s arms while trying to ‘escape’ a falcon and ended up somehow raping her. Unable to control Zeus, Hera invariably turned her rage against his many mistresses. Mythographers believe that the stories of Zeus’ infidelities are inspired by tales of patriarchal institutions overpowering ancient matriarchal institutions around the Mediterranean. While patriarchy insisted on one all-powerful father figure like Zeus, the matriarchal systems were comfortable with many autonomous and local goddesses, who later became the nymphs and mortal princesses ravished by Zeus in Greek lore. The story also indicates the rise of marriage as an institution in ancient Greek society, and the demand of women to tame the polygamous desires of men, a concept that Zeus embodies perfectly.  
Any king that ever lived has needed to discipline his subjects at some point during his rule, and Zeus is not an exception, especially considering he is the leader of the most rebellious and mischievous people in the universe, immortals. However, no matter the wrongdoing, Zeus is ridiculously brutal in his punishments, even towards people he is closely related to. Take his latest wife for example, Hera, who was punished by Zeus for inciting the Olympians to rebel against Zeus and for trying to thwart the success of Zeus’ illegitimate son, Hercules (both of which failed). In response to one of these events, Zeus bound his wife in an unbreakable golden chain and hung her up in the sky within the sight of all the gods, but also out of their reach. Zeus made the punishment even worse by attaching anvils to Hera’s feet, stretching her more efficiently than if she was on a medieval rack. Anyone who attempted to rescue Hera from her punishment was thrown by Zeus far and hard enough to leave them breathless when they hit the ground. Zeus eventually let Hera go free, but their lovers’ quarrels continued and created the Greek myths we know and love today. What is worth remarking from this myth is how most of Hera’s sins stem from her extreme jealousy created by Zeus’ constant infidelity that he himself never suffers any consequences from.  

Even more cruelly, Zeus punished Prometheus, the Titan god of fire, for giving humanity: (surprise surprise) fire. After learning about Prometheus’ “betrayal,” a grave and concerned Athenea watched the King of the Gods for a week pace up and down in front of his throne considering how best humans should pay for daring to appropriate fire, for presuming to ape the Olympians. Zeus’ anger was swift and terrible, he decided to chain Prometheus to a rock on the side of a mountain, and in addition, every night, an eagle would come and peck on his abdomen and munch on his liver. His liver would then regenerate during the day so that the eagle could have at it, again and again, every night, causing Prometheus excruciating pain for what Zeus planned to be eternity. The real reason Prometheus was punished this harshly was Zeus’ fear of humanity overcoming gods and goddesses the same way he had vanquished the Titans long before the existence of human beings. Now, Zeus needed to find a way of punishing humanity, and after thinking long and hard, a magnificent scheme was put into operation, a scheme we know as Pandora, her box and an insatiable curiosity.  

Zeus was naturally the most respected and awed god by both gods and mortals. Since he was considered the god of justice, he can be viewed as an anti-villain and in a sense his actions, while cruel, were designed to enforce order and retain peace in his kingdom. Renowned for being both a scoundrel and a noble warrior king, making him one of the best examples of an anti-hero, someone who truly lived up to the words of Stephen Fry’s brilliantly written Mythos: “No one loves and quarrels, desires and deceives as boldly and brilliantly as Greek gods and goddesses”.