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Zeus was, in Greek mythology, the leader of the gods. A paternal figure, he was also the actual father of many younger deities and demigods, including Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Castor and Pollux, Dionysus, Hebe, Heracles, Minos, Hermes, Persephone, (PROSE: Deadly Reunion [+]Loading...["Deadly Reunion (novel)"]) and Ares. (PROSE: The Lost Ones [+]Loading...["The Lost Ones (short story)"]) He had powers associated with lightning. (TV: The Time Monster [+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"], COMIC: The Life Bringer! [+]Loading...["The Life Bringer! (comic story)"]) Some cultures knew him by the name Jupiter. (PROSE: The Best of Days [+]Loading...["The Best of Days (short story)"])
- You may wish to consult
Zeus (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
Multiple accounts agreed that Zeus was a real being with whom the Doctor had dealings, but differed as to the details. In one account, Zeus and the other gods lived in Greek Space, a dimension composed of metaphor. (PROSE: Wandering Stars [+]Loading...["Wandering Stars (short story)"]) In another, their dimension was the Land of Fiction. (AUDIO: The Wrath of Medusa [+]Loading...["The Wrath of Medusa (audio story)"]) By another account, they were Olympians, lived on a planet called Olympus, and influenced events on Earth from afar. (COMIC: The Life Bringer! [+]Loading...["The Life Bringer! (comic story)"]) By another, they were the Gods of Myth, entities who dwelt in the Land of the Gods and were reshaped by human beliefs. (PROSE: Salvation [+]Loading...["Salvation (novel)"]) By another, they were Immortals, a powerful race who commuted between Earth and other dimensions but were unsure of their own origins. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion [+]Loading...["Deadly Reunion (novel)"])
Biography
Rise to power
By one account, Zeus and his brothers were born sometime after 3030 BC. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion [+]Loading...["Deadly Reunion (novel)"]) In early myths, Zeus was seen as more of a vegetation god, and the Greeks often worshipped him as a youngster; the elements of thunder and lighting developed in later stories. (PROSE: The End Times [+]Loading...["The End Times (short story)"]) Zeus rose to power by performing some unknown act against Kronos, which "made time run wild and free". (PROSE: Wandering Stars [+]Loading...["Wandering Stars (short story)"]) In one account, Zeus castrated his father. (PROSE: Possum Kingdom [+]Loading...["Possum Kingdom (short story)"]) In any case, this was the beginning of Zeus's reign as the king of the gods. (PROSE: Wandering Stars [+]Loading...["Wandering Stars (short story)"]) His queen was Hera. (PROSE: Introduction and links [+]Loading...["Introduction and links (short story)"])
Punishment of Prometheus
On the planet Olympus, Zeus had his fellow god Asclepius experiment with the fiery sparks known as the life spores, to develop specimens of various creatures. Before Asclepius could perfect his creations, Prometheus stole some spores and scattered them throughout the universe to create life, angering Zeus. (COMIC: The Life Bringer! [+]Loading...["The Life Bringer! (comic story)"])
According to myth, Zeus had Hephaestus create Pandora, a living clay golem, gave her a box containing all miseries and ills, and sent her as a gift to Prometheus. As Zeus had planned, Prometheus's mortal friend Epimetheus fell in love with Pandora; since Epimetheus would die without her, Prometheus let him marry her in his stead. Being mortal, Epimetheus lacked the power to prevent Pandora from opening the box, releasing plagues and devastation on the world. (PROSE: The Mary-Sue Extrusion [+]Loading...["The Mary-Sue Extrusion (novel)"])
Zeus banished Prometheus to an unknown planet, to be chained to a mountain forever. The men whom Prometheus had created died out. (COMIC: The Life Bringer! [+]Loading...["The Life Bringer! (comic story)"]) One myth held that Zeus sent a great flood to wipe evil and corruption from the Earth, and that the only mortal survivors were Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. (PROSE: Introduction and links [+]Loading...["Introduction and links (short story)"])
Centuries later, the Fourth Doctor and K9 found Prometheus and freed him. Prometheus took control of the TARDIS and brought them to Olympus; Zeus sent Aphrodite to bring the trio to the palace. Prometheus attempted to reason with Zeus, defending mortal men for their art, philosophy, and capacity to love, but Zeus declared that they had "poisoned the universe" by hating, stealing, killing and warring. Zeus insisted that life must be perfected before it could be restored, so that the cosmos would be populated by flawless creatures. He sent Prometheus to the confinement rooms, and the Doctor and K9 to Asclepius's laboratory to be studied.
When Prometheus escaped with the Doctor and K9, stealing another hornful of life spores, Zeus showed his wrath by appearing in a gigantic form in the clouds. He attacked them with lightning, but they reached the TARDIS and dematerialised. (COMIC: The Life Bringer! [+]Loading...["The Life Bringer! (comic story)"])
Hunting the Medusa
Sometime prior to 500 BC, Zeus and several members of his race set out from their own world in a spaceship to hunt an alien criminal, the Medusa. They captured her successfully, but during the voyage home, she telepathically dominated the ship's Scryclops crew, causing them to attack and wound Zeus and the others. The ship crash-landed in ancient Greece, where Zeus and the others had to await rescue from their own people. (COMIC: Gaze of the Medusa [+]Loading...["Gaze of the Medusa (comic story)"])
Incubated by the belief engine
In the fifth century BC, a small golden egg fell from the sky near Athens. It was found by a young girl, Calidora, and commanded her to bury it in a holy place. For decades, the egg absorbed the dreams and prayers of Calidora and others, generating an immaterial Zeus and other gods. In 410 BC, a statue of Athena was smelted despite Calidora's warnings; Zeus appeared above Athens, striking people with lightning, and Calidora committed suicide.
The Eleventh Doctor and Socrates found the now-gigantic egg, which the Doctor called a belief engine; using the power of belief, they entered it, and found themselves in an extradimensional Olympus. Zeus chastised Athena, Hermes, Aphrodite and Hephaestus for allowing their worship to decline. He assembled a metal body for Ares, sending him to attack Athens. Socrates challenged Zeus with philosophical riddles, making him doubt his own existence and divinity, ultimately causing Zeus to disintegrate, taking Olympus with him. (COMIC: The Chains of Olympus [+]Loading...["The Chains of Olympus (comic story)"])
Fraternising with mortals
By one account, Zeus and his Immortal pantheon lived alongside humanity for millennia, and could freely travel between Earth and "transdimensional locations" such as Olympus and the Underworld. The Immortals disagreed among themselves about their own race's origins; some believed that they were aliens, others that they were mutant cousins of humanity. Although Zeus and his family were worshipped as gods, other Immortals would be persecuted as witches.
Although Zeus was the king of his pantheon, he remained an essentially regional god of Greece. He and the other Immortals knew of a far more powerful entity, the Absolute, who "held the world in being" and was worshipped across the planet; Zeus never aspired to usurp him. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion [+]Loading...["Deadly Reunion (novel)"])
In one myth, Zeus took the form of a beautiful white horse to seduce Europa. He kidnapped her and took her to Crete, where she bore him three sons. In another myth, he took the form of an eagle and abducted Ganymede, a youth from Troy, bringing him to Olympus to be his wine-pourer and lover. (PROSE: Introduction and links [+]Loading...["Introduction and links (short story)"])
Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan. (TV: The Myth Makers [+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"]) They had a daughter, Helen. (PROSE: The Squire's Crystal [+]Loading...["The Squire's Crystal (novel)"]) Castor and Pollux were said to be sons of Zeus, (PROSE: Deadly Reunion [+]Loading...["Deadly Reunion (novel)"]) but also described as favoured mortals of his. When they died in battle with their cousins, the Leucippidae, Zeus placed Castor and Pollux in the heavens as the constellation Gemini. (PROSE: Introduction and links [+]Loading...["Introduction and links (short story)"])
Zeus impregnated Carme, who then gave birth to Britomartis. (PROSE: To the Slaughter [+]Loading...["To the Slaughter (novel)"])
When Iris Wildthyme and Panda visited Greek Space, the goddess Eos told them that, these days, "poor Zeus" had to disguise himself as animals to get any excitement out of interacting with humans. Iris speculated that this was also partly to put people at ease, as a "friendly bull" would seem less intimidating than the father of the gods. Later, Zeus appeared in the form of a polecat and jump-started the Celestial Omnibus with a bolt of divine lightning. (PROSE: Wandering Stars [+]Loading...["Wandering Stars (short story)"])
Later manifestations
The Patriarch, the leader of the alien Gods of Myth from the Land of the Gods, claimed to have been the entity known to the Greeks as Zeus. He also claimed to have later manifested in Rome, becoming Jupiter, and in Scandinavia, becoming Odin. However, the Gods of Myth changed according to humanity's beliefs, as did their memories, so the Patriarch was uncertain how many times they had actually visited Earth, or whether he had truly been those gods. (PROSE: Salvation [+]Loading...["Salvation (novel)"])
Retirement
Sometime before the 20th century, Zeus retreated from Earth to the alternative dimension of Olympus, passing his power to control the seasons and weather to Persephone. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion [+]Loading...["Deadly Reunion (novel)"])
In 1965, the Patriarch and four fellow Gods of Myth left the Land of the Gods in an egg-shaped spaceship and returned to Earth. In New York City, they revealed themselves as the Latter-Day Pantheon, announcing that they had heard humanity's prayers and returned to rule Earth. They amassed hundreds of followers, and on Rainbow Bridge created a Gateway to their otherworldly Land. When the gods announced plans to intervene in the Vietnam War, the First Doctor arranged for a plane to strike the bridge with an unarmed bomb; since the spectators believed the bomb was real, the Patriarch and the other gods, already weakened by the crowd's ebbing faith, were defeated. (PROSE: Salvation [+]Loading...["Salvation (novel)"])
In the 1970s, Hades attempted to take over the world, and Demeter tried to contact Zeus to stop him. Eventually, Zeus returned and banished Hades to the Underworld forever. Demeter and her family decided to leave with Zeus when he went back to the alternative dimension. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion [+]Loading...["Deadly Reunion (novel)"])
The gods in the Land of Fiction changed over time as the result of artistic portrayals by humans on Earth. Zeus became seemingly British, partly because of a film in which he was played by Laurence Olivier. One day, the clouds of Olympus parted, allowing Zeus to perceive other realms within the Land, including Lilliput, Sherwood and Wonderland. (AUDIO: The Wrath of Medusa [+]Loading...["The Wrath of Medusa (audio story)"])
After the final destruction of the universe, when all of humanity was resurrected in the City of the Saved, much of mythology underwent a "divine reshuffle". The resurrected Romans came to believe that the Olympians had relocated to Mount Antaeus in Gaia Park, and that Jupiter had divorced the "shrewish" Juno to marry Roma, the retired mother goddess of Rome. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"])
References
The console of the Doctor's TARDIS had a panel called the Zeus panel. (PROSE: The Drosten's Curse [+]Loading...["The Drosten's Curse (novel)"]) One tool used in TARDIS maintenance was called a Zeus plug. (TV: The Hand of Fear [+]Loading...["The Hand of Fear (TV story)"])
The First Doctor was mistaken for Zeus by several Greeks during the Trojan War circa 1200 BC. (TV: The Myth Makers [+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"]) When Katarina rode in the Second Doctor's TARDIS, she called for Zeus to protect her and friends from the turbulence. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods [+]Loading...["Daughter of the Gods (audio story)"])
Hippias called a lightning bolt "a sphere of fire hurled by the hand of Zeus." (TV: The Time Monster [+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"])
Bigon once swore by Zeus. (TV: Four to Doomsday [+]Loading...["Four to Doomsday (TV story)"])
Both Axatil and his captain frequently swore by Zeus. (PROSE: The Lost Ones [+]Loading...["The Lost Ones (short story)"])
A statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Like the other six Wonders, it was stolen by Pholonius Ginn, who intended on selling it to the highest bidder on G-Bay. It was later returned by Trongus Squum, at the Tenth Doctor's request. (COMIC: Minus Seven Wonders [+]Loading...["Minus Seven Wonders (comic story)"])
In 223 BC, Evelyn Smythe and the Sixth Doctor visited the library of Alexandria, where she saw an artist amending the painted ceiling so that a figure of Zeus now held a square containing a circle. (PROSE: The Eighth Wonder of the World [+]Loading...["The Eighth Wonder of the World (short story)"])
The alternative Earth known as Roma I had a giant statue, the Jupiter Libertatis, which depicted the father of the gods with one hand raised, holding a lightning bolt. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia [+]Loading...["Warlords of Utopia (novel)"])
Appearance
In 1965, the Patriarch appeared as a towering figure with flowing golden hair and beard. He wore sandals, a fine gilt-edged robe, and had a regal bearing. (PROSE: Salvation [+]Loading...["Salvation (novel)"])