Zeus, king of Olympus and god of thunder and the skies, was known by almost all of the gods as their Father. In many cases, this was literal, and not just for gods, either! The total count of his children usually comes out at about one hundred, most of whom were not with his wife, Hera.
The following list is just a selection of the offspring of Zeus, whether divine or semi-divine. In many cases, sources vary on parentage – but when there’s doubt, it’s usually safe to assume that Zeus and his voracious sexual appetite were involved! Each of Zeus’s children had their own powerful legacy, and each served their own important purpose.
Contents
- The Children of Zeus
- 1. Children of Hera and Zeus
- 2. Athena
- 3. Apollo and Artemis
- 4. Hermes
- 5. Dionysus
- 6. Perseus
- 7. Heracles
- 8. Persephone
- 9. Children of Leda and Zeus
- 10. Arcas
- 12. The Boeotian Muses
- 13. The Nine Muses
- 14. Tantalus
- 15. Amphion and Zethus
- 16. Children of Io and Zeus
- 17. Lacedaemon
- 18. Orion
- 19. Children of Pandora II and Zeus
- 20. Son of Pyrrha
The Children of Zeus
1. Children of Hera and Zeus
With his wife and queen, Zeus was the father of around ten children, though the number varies depending on the myth. Their daughters were Angelia (an Underworld deity), Arge (a nymph), Eilethieya (a childbirth goddess), Eleftheria (goddess of liberty), Enyo (a minor war goddess), Eris (goddess of discord), Hebe (a goddess of youth, and sometimes the Curetes, dancers and worshippers of the Titan Rhea. Their only son was usually the Olympian god of war, Ares. Zeus is also sometimes the father of the Olympian Hephaestus, god of the forge.
2. Athena
Athena was Zeus’s favorite child, and no wonder – she was born directly from Zeus’s forehead! Athena, goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, was conceived by Zeus and his Titan wife Metis. When a prophecy declared that Zeus would fall to his son, he swallowed Metis whole. However, Athena continued to gestate, and she was born of Zeus, fully-grown and armored for battle.
3. Apollo and Artemis
These twins were born of the Titans’ daughter Leto, who was targeted by Hera in retribution for the affair. Apollo was the god of music, the sun, poetry, and healing, while Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, the wilderness, and the moon. Despite Hera’s animosity toward their mother, both would become Olympians.
4. Hermes
This wily and much favored messenger of the gods was the product of Zeus and a Pleiad nymph, Maia. He was one of the few of Zeus’s children to gain acceptance from Hera, as just after he was born, he tricked her into letting him suckle at her breast. As well as a messenger, Hermes was an Olympian, and was god of travelers, thieves, tricksters, and more.
5. Dionysus
The god of wine, chaos, and revelry had the distinction of being the only half-human amongst the Olympians. He was the thirteenth to take a seat on Olympus, accepting Hestia’s place after she conceded it to him. Dionysus’s mother, Semele, was killed when a jealous Hera tricked Zeus into showing her his true form. Zeus saved the fetus by sewing it into his thigh, and Dionysus was born shortly afterward. Later, Dionysus would retrieve his mother from the Underworld.
6. Perseus
This great hero was the son of Zeus and the mortal princess of Argos, Danaë. He was conceived after his grandfather locked his mother away in a bronze chamber to keep her virginal, but Zeus, who desired her, came upon her in a shower of golden rain. As an adult, Perseus enlisted help from much of his divine family, especially his half-sister Athena, on his adventures. Most famously, he slayed the Gorgon, Medusa.
7. Heracles
Heracles, or Hercules, was Zeus’s son by the mortal Alcmene. He was born Alcaeus, and was despised by Hera and often targeted in his infancy and youth by the jealous goddess’s attempts to kill him. His name was changed to honor her and keep her content, but it didn’t work! As an adult, Heracles took on many trials, including his infamous Twelve Labors. He became the greatest of Greek heroes.
8. Persephone
Originally a goddess of spring and flowers and later the Queen of the Underworld and wife of Zeus’s brother, Hades, Persephone was usually the daughter of Zeus and his sister Demeter. Demeter, an Olympian, was the goddess of the seasons and the harvest. Persephone’s abduction from Olympus to the Underworld was sanctioned by Zeus, and there she ruled equally at Hades’s side.
9. Children of Leda and Zeus
Leda was a human woman whom Zeus seduced while he was in the form of a swan. That same night she lay with her husband, and afterward produced two eggs. From these hatched four children, two of whom carried Zeus’s blood. His son was Polydeuces or Pollux, who made up one half of the Dioscuri and the Gemini constellation with his brother, Castor. The other was the beautiful Helen of Troy, whose loveliness caused the Trojan War.
10. Arcas
Arcas was the son of Calisto, a companion of Artemis. Zeus desired her, and so tricked her into copulation by appearing to her as Artemis. When she became pregnant, Hera responded angrily by turning her into a bear. As a bear, she gave birth to Arcas, who became the King of Arcadia. Arcas taught his people how to weave and bake bread.
12. The Boeotian Muses
The three original muses were Aoede, the muse of vocalizing and song, Melete, muse of thought and practice, and Mneme, the muse of memory. Their mother was Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, who also mothered the later Nine Muses.
13. The Nine Muses
These nine goddesses were creatures of inspiration, each dedicated to a single task. Their mother as Mnemosyne and their father Zeus. Their names were Calliope (epic poetry and eloquence), Clio (history and the lyre), Euterpe (lyric poetry), Erato (erotic poetry and mimicry), Melpomene (chorus and tragedy), Polyhymnia (sacred song, poetry, and dance, and pantomime), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy and whimsical poetry), and Urania (astronomy).
14. Tantalus
Son of Zeus and the nymph Pluoto, Tantalus has the dubious honor of being most remembered for his punishment after death. In life, Tantalus was welcomed to the table of the gods, and from there he stole nectar, ambrosia, and secrets. If this wasn’t enough, he also made a brutal sacrifice from his own son, Pelops. Pelops was brought back to life, and Tantalus was sentenced to Tartarus, the darkest pit of the Underworld. There, he was forced to stand in a clear pool of water and filled with an unquenching thirst. Every time he bent to take a drink, however, the water would move away.
15. Amphion and Zethus
These twin sons of Antiope became the founders of Thebes. After she was raped by Zeus, she fled in shame, but was captured and forced to leave them to die, then made a slave. When Antiope finally escaped, she relocated her now-adult sons and they killed her captors in retribution, claiming Thebes as their own. Both later committed suicide due to the deaths of their own children.
16. Children of Io and Zeus
Io was another of Zeus’s lovers treated badly by Hera. Zeus transformed Io into a cow to protect her from Hera’s multiple assassination attempts. From Zeus and Io’s union came Epaphus, who was conceived by a touch of Zeus’s hand and was the father of Libya, and his older sister Ceroessa, who later became a consort of her uncle, Poseidon, and a heroine in the foundation of Byzantium.
17. Lacedaemon
The son of the nymph Taygete, a companion of Artemis, and Zeus, Lacedaemon gave his name to the city-state now known as Sparta, which was actually a settlement within the city. Lacedaemon married Sparta, and they had several children of their own, including Orpheus’s wife Eurydice.
18. Orion
Though Orion in Homer and Hesiod was the son of Poseidon, other myths have him as a combined son of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hermes with no mother. In these versions of the story, King Hyreius cooked a bull for the three gods, who then offered to repay him. He claimed he wanted a son, and so the three gods urinated into the hide of the bull and buried it in the earth. Ten months later, Hyreius dug up the hide and found Orion. Orion became a giant hunter, who eventually was placed in the sky as a constellation.
19. Children of Pandora II and Zeus
The second Pandora was named after her grandmother, the original Pandora who released sin into the world. Pandora II became a lover of Zeus, and the two had several children. Graecus, Pandorus, and Latinus were their sons who founded tribes and were associated with heroes. Their daughter was named Melera.
20. Son of Pyrrha
Pyrrha and her husband Deucalion were the heroes of the Greek version of the flood myth. They sailed on an ark and afterwards repopulated the earth by throwing stones. Pyrrha was also a lover of Zeus. She had three daughters – Pandora II, Protogenia, and Thyia – and three sons, Hellen, Amphictyon, and Orestheus. Hellen was the son of Zeus and the progenitor of all of the Greek (or Hellenistic) people. He was sometimes alternately named as or entirely replaced by Helmetheus, who was also Zeus and Pyrrha’s son and shared a similar role.
FAQs
Who are the children of Zeus? ›
His most famous divine daughters include Aphrodite, goddess of love, Athena, goddess of war, and Persephone, the goddess of spring. Zeus's celebrated sons are also many, and include Apollo, god of the sun, light, music and poetry, Ares, god of war, and Hermes, messenger to the gods.
Who is Zeus most famous child? ›Who are Zeus's children? Zeus fathered many children. Among the most well-known are Athena, the goddess of war; Perseus, the hero known for slaying Medusa; and Persephone, Demeter's daughter and wife to Hades.
Who are Zeus demigod children? ›Zeus has many children, Demigod and Godly. Some of his children are Apollo. Athena, Persephone, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Henry, Hercules, Perceus and Hebe. Hebe and Hephaestus are the only children Zeus and Hera had, the rest are illegitimate.
Who were Zeus children in order? ›Who are Zeus's children in order? It all starts with Zeus. Zeus has four siblings which include Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Hestia. Zeus also had six children which include Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, Athena, Ares, and Aphrodite.
Who is Zeus first child? ›In most myths, Athena is the eldest child of Zeus. Athena's mother, Metis, was a powerful Titaness whom Zeus either seduced or raped, depending on the version of the story.
Who is Zeus youngest child? ›KAIROS (Caerus) The god of opportunity was the youngest divine son of Zeus.
How many kids Zeus had? ›He had two. First was a nymph, Metis, who was going to have a son prophesied to overthrow Zeus, so he drank her; that's how Athena was born. His other wife was Hera. However, he had too many affairs to count and was basically the worst husband ever.
Who is Zeus Favourite son? ›Apollo was Zeus's favorite son, and next to Zeus, the most important Greek god.
Who did Zeus get pregnant? ›Nonnus classifies Zeus's affair with Semele as one in a set of twelve, the other eleven women on whom he begot children being Io, Europa, Plouto, Danaë, Aigina, Antiope, Leda, Dia, Alcmene, Laodameia, the mother of Sarpedon, and Olympias.
Who is Zeus's son in Thor? ›The Prince of Power has arrived! In the final post-credit scene of Thor: Love and Thunder, a humiliated Zeus (Russell Crowe) plots his revenge against Thor and the other superheroes who take the worship due to gods. He sends them a god in the form of a hero with his son, Hercules, played by Ted Lasso's Brett Goldstein.
Who is Zeus Halfblood child? ›
He's the son of Kronos and Rhea, and the brother of Hades, Poseidon, Chiron, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. He is also the father of the Greek Gods Ares, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Hermes and Persephone, and Demigods Jason and Thalia Grace.
Who is Zeus twin sister? ›...
| Artemis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Island of Delos, Greece |
| Parents | Zeus and Leto |
Mnemosyne spent nine nights with Zeus, and on each of these nights, he fathered a child. The nine children were born in the same birth and were known as the nine muses, the goddesses of artistic inspiration. The nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus were: Calliope, muse of epic poetry.
Who had 3 children with Zeus? ›Zeus is the Greek god of the skies, and Hera is the Greek goddess of marriage and birth. Hera is also known as Queen of the Gods because of her matriarchal role in Greek mythology. Together, Zeus and Hera had three children: Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus.
Who was Zeus strongest child? ›Heracles – Son of Zeus and Alcmene
He possessed superhuman strength and courage. Because he was a reminder of Zeus's unfaithfulness, Hera made it her mission to make his life miserable. At one point, she drove him to madness and he killed his own children. To atone for his sins, he went through his famous “Labors”.
In The New 52 reboot, Wonder Woman's origin is revised, with her now being the biological daughter of Zeus. Zeus and Hippolyta engaged in combat, and their fight ended with the couple having sex, and thus Diana was conceived.
Who is the only daughter of Zeus? ›Athena. Athena is the daughter of Zeus. She sprang full grown in armour from his forehead, thus has no mother.
Who did Zeus cheat with? ›Zeus fell in love with Io and seduced her. To try to keep Hera from noticing he covered the world with a thick blanket of clouds. This backfired, arousing Hera's suspicions. She came down from Mount Olympus and begain dispersing the clouds.
Who defeated Zeus son? ›The Titans, also known as the elder gods, ruled the earth before the Olympians overthew them. The ruler of the Titans was Cronus who was de-throned by his son Zeus. Most of the Titans fought with Cronus against Zeus and were punished by being banished to Tartarus.
Who was Zeus first lover? ›Zeus and Metis
His first and favorite lover was Metis, a Titan goddess and mother of Athena.
Did Zeus sleep with Aphrodite? ›
II.
Aphrodite later and of her own volition had an affair with Zeus, but his jealous wife Hera laid her hands upon the belly of the goddess and cursed their offspring with malformity. Their child was the ugly god Priapos.
Zeus was attracted to a young man named Ganymede, so, naturally, Zeus turned himself into an eagle and abducted Ganymede to Olympus. There, Ganymede became cupbearer to the gods and Zeus's lover, much to the angst of Hera, Zeus's wife.
How many baby mamas does Zeus have? ›Nonnus classifies Zeus's affair with Semele as one in a set of twelve, the other eleven women on whom he begot children being Io, Europa, Plouto, Danaë, Aigina, Antiope, Leda, Dia, Alcmene, Laodameia, the mother of Sarpedon, and Olympias.
Who is Thor's daughter? ›Who Plays Love? Gorr's daughter is played by India Rose Hemsworth, the daughter of Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, and actress Elsa Pataky. Hemsworth has talked about how his children are in the movie, saying "...Taika had his children in there. Christian Bale had his.
Who is Zeus half brother? ›Chiron. In Greek mythology, Chiron was one of the Centaurs, the son of the Titan Cronus and Philyra, an Oceanid sea nymph. He was thus a half-brother to Zeus. Unlike other Centaurs, who were considered violent and savage creatures, he was famous for his wisdom and knowledge of medicine.
Is Odin's father Zeus? ›To answer the question right away, Zeus and Odin are not the same, nor have they ever been thought to be the same entity at any point throughout history. Zeus is the king of the gods in Greek mythology, whilst Odin is the king in Norse mythology.
Did Zeus and Persephone have a child? ›Zagreus, in Orphic myth, a divine child who was the son of Zeus (as a snake) and his daughter Persephone. Zeus intended to make Zagreus his heir and bestow on him unlimited power, but Hera out of jealousy urged the Titans to attack the child while she beguiled him with toys.
Who fed Zeus as a baby? ›"When Rhea, fearing Kronos (Cronus), hid Zeus in the Kretan (Cretan) cavern, a goat [Amaltheia] offered her udder and gave him nourishment.
Did Zeus and Rhea have a child? ›She had Persephone with Zeus.
Who were Zeus's 5 siblings? ›ABSTRACT. Zeus had two brothers, Poseidon and Hades, who exercised supreme power withintheir own realms, and three sisters, his wife and queen Hera, and Demeter and Hestia.
Who is the 12 goddess? ›
Hestia. Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth and home. She was a virgin goddess and never married.
Did Zeus date his sister? ›Who did Zeus marry? His sister Hera was the first and only to whom he was married, but that didn't stop him from fathering children with all and sundry, willing or not. Hera, the goddess of marriage and childbirth, constantly fought with Zeus throughout their marriage.
Are there 7 or 9 muses? ›Who are the 9 muses ? From the from the relationship of Mnemósine with Zeus the Muses were born: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polymnia, Terpsichore, Talia and Urania. They often accompanied Apollo, god of the arts. They inhabited Mount Helicon, but were often on Olympus to entertain the gods.
What are 9 muses known? ›The nine Greek Muses were Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomeni, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Urania, and Calliope.
Who are the 3 daughters of Zeus? ›The Three Graces were three daughters of Zeus who personified grace, beauty and charm. Hesiod, in the 'Theogony', names them as Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia.
Who is Zeus's daughter? ›Athena, the daughter of Zeus, was produced without a mother and emerged full-grown from his forehead. An alternative story was that Zeus swallowed Metis, the goddess of counsel, while she was pregnant with Athena so that Athena finally emerged from Zeus.
How many children Zeus had? ›Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Eileithyia, Hebe, and Hephaestus.
Who were the 9 daughters of Zeus? ›- Calliope, muse of epic poetry.
- Clio, muse of history.
- Euterpe, muse of music, song, and lyric poetry.
- Erato, muse of love poetry.
- Melpomene, muse of tragedy.
- Polyhymnia, muse of hymns.
- Terpsichore, muse of dance.
- Thalia, muse of comedy.
Apollo was Zeus's favorite son, and next to Zeus, the most important Greek god.
Is Zeus a boy or girl? ›Zeus is a boy's name of Greek origin. This name is a mainstay in Greek mythology, belonging to the god of the sky and thunder. It even translates to “sky” and “shine.” Zeus rules as king of the gods in Mount Olympus and acts as patriarch to all the deities throughout the pantheon.
Who is Hades first child? ›
...
| Hades | |
|---|---|
| Siblings | Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Zeus; Chiron (half) |
| Consort | Persephone |
| Children | Macaria, and in some cases Melinoë, Zagreus and the Erinyes |
Zeus slept with his own daughter, Persephone, because she was there.
Did Hades cheat on Persephone? ›Persephone's jealousy suggests she might have loved Hades
In Ovid's famous text Metamorphosis, Hades has an affair with a young Nymph named Minthe. Persephone, now in her later years, was so incensed with jealousy that she turned Minthe into a mint plant.