She swore to make a sacrifice to Zeus if Theseus were successful in capturing the bull.

Pelias swore before Zeus that he would give up the throne at Jason's return while expecting that Jason's attempt to steal the Golden Fleece would be a fatal enterprise.

On Hera's instigation she used her influence over Zeus so that he swore an oath that on that day a mortal descended from him would be born who would be a great ruler.

She swore to make a sacrifice to Zeus if Theseus was successful in capturing the bull.

She swore to make a sacrifice to Zeus if Theseus was successful in capturing the bull.

However, the Argonautica and Valerius Flaccus relate that Sinope was abducted to the site by Zeus, who, in his passion, swore to fulfil her dearest wish.

In Homer's Iliad, when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all the gods that on that day a child, descended from Zeus himself, would be born who would rule all those around him.

Hera, after requesting Zeus to swear an oath to that effect, descended from Olympus to Argos and made the wife of Sthenelus ( a son of Perseus ) give birth to Eurystheus after only seven months, while at the same time preventing Alcmene from delivering Heracles.

In Greek mythology, Achilles ' mother bathed him in the river Styx to give him immortality, and Hercules — as the son of Zeus — inherited near-godlike powers.

However, Hera was not completely fooled and demanded that Zeus give her the heifer as a present.

Heracles happened to arrive ( along with Telamon and Oicles ) and agreed to kill the monster if Laomedon would give him the horses received from Zeus as compensation for Zeus ' kidnapping Ganymede.

The earth-altar may correspond to a Linear B mention of an " open-fire altar "; Linear B ( 14th-13th centuries BCE ) inscriptions also give the first mentions of offerings to Zeus and of the sacred precinct ( temenos ) near the altar, such as has been excavated at Lykaion

After humans received the stolen gift of fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus decides to give men a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given.

He asked his mother, Thetis, to intercede with Zeus, who agreed to give the Trojans success in the absence of Achilles, the best warrior of the Achaeans.

Similarly, in later myths, Zeus would swallow Metis when she was pregnant with Athena, because of a prophecy that said she would later give birth to a son who would be more glorious than his father.

From the 5th century BC, the copies of the statue of Zeus found were small copies on coins of Elis, which give us but a general notion of the pose, and the character of the head.

' Whereas Christians ( who have learned that their eternal life consists in knowing the only true God, who is over all, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent ; and who have learned also that all the gods of the heathen are greedy demons, which flit around sacrifices and blood, and other sacrificial accompaniments, in order to deceive those who have not taken refuge with the God who is over all, but that the divine and holy angels of God are of a different nature and will from all the demons on earth, and that they are known to those exceedingly few persons who have carefully and intelligently investigated these matters ) will not endure a comparison to be made between them and Apollo or Zeus, or any being worshipped with odour and blood and sacrifices ; some of them, so acting from their extreme simplicity, not being able to give a reason for their conduct, but sincerely observing the precepts which they have received ; others, again, for reasons not to be lightly regarded, nay, even of a profound description, and ( as a Greek would say ) drawn from the inner nature of things ; and amongst the latter of these God is a frequent subject of conversation, and those who are honoured by God, through His only-begotten Word, with participation in His divinity, and therefore also in His name.

In the King Tros version, Heracles ( along with Telamon and Oicles ) agreed to kill the monster if Tros would give him the horses he received from Zeus as compensation for Zeus ' kidnapping Ganymede, Tros ' son.

Seeing her exposed, Heracles promised to save her on condition that Laomedon would give him the wonderful horses he had received from Zeus as compensation for Zeus ' kidnapping of Ganymedes.

Zeus could do nothing to stop her, but he did give Tiresias the gift of foresight and a lifespan of seven lives.

Thyestes agreed to give the kingdom back when the sun moved backwards in the sky, a feat that Zeus accomplished.

Thyestes agreed to give the kingdom back when the sun moved backwards in the sky, a feat that Zeus accomplished.

A less Olympian-minded culture might have suggested that the horn was not actually Zeus ' to give, and that it belonged already to the ancient and fertile Minoan-Mycenean nymphs of Crete.

And he sang how first of all Ophion and Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus, held the sway of snowy Olympus, and how through strength of arm one yielded his prerogative to Cronos and the other to Rhea, and how they fell into the waves of Oceanus ; but the other two meanwhile ruled over the blessed Titan-gods, while Zeus, still a child and with the thoughts of a child, dwelt in the Dictaean cave ; and the earthborn Cyclopes had not yet armed him with the bolt, with thunder and lightning ; for these things give renown to Zeus.

There are various other versions of his transgression: The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women and pseudo-Apollodoran Bibliotheke state that his offense was that he was a rival of Zeus for Semele, his mother's sister, whereas in Euripides ' Bacchae he has boasted that he is a better hunter than Artemis:

:: for wine was given to men by the son of Semele and Zeus

Different tellings also diverge in the hunter's transgression, which is sometimes merely seeing the virgin goddess naked, sometimes boasting he is a better hunter than she, or even merely being a rival of Zeus for the affections of Semele.

When Hera learned that Semele, daughter of Cadmus King of Thebes, was pregnant by Zeus, she disguised herself as Semele's nurse and persuaded the princess to insist that Zeus show himself to her in his true form.

Another variation is when Hera persuades Semele to force Zeus to show himself in his real form.

Zeus rescued the heart and gave it to Semele to impregnate her ; or, the heart was saved, variously, by Athena, Rhea, or Demeter.

Zeus used the heart to recreate Dionysus and implant him in the womb of Semele — hence Dionysus became known as " the twice-born ".

Certain versions imply that Zeus gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her.

Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus to show his true form, which killed her.

Of course, though Zeus no longer marries, he still has affairs with many other women, such as Semele, mother of Dionysus, Danae, mother of Perseus, Leda, mother of Castor and Polydeuces and Helen, and Alkmene, the mother of Heracles, who married Hebe.

In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, thus semi-divine or heroic: and as son of Zeus and Persephone or Demeter, thus both fully divine, part-chthonic and possibly identical with Iacchus of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Semele (;, Semelē ), in Greek mythology, daughter of the Boeotian hero Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mortal mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.

In one version of the myth, Semele was a priestess of Zeus, and on one occasion was observed by Zeus as she slaughtered a bull at his altar and afterwards swam in the river Asopus to cleanse herself of the blood.

Flying over the scene in the guise of an eagle, Zeus fell in love with Semele and afterwards repeatedly visited her secretly.

Zeus ' wife, Hera, a goddess jealous of usurpers, discovered his affair with Semele when she later became pregnant.

Appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that her lover was actually Zeus.

Curious, Semele asked Zeus to grant her a boon.

But in another account, Zeus swallows the heart himself, in order to beget his seed on Semele.

Hera then induces Semele to ask Zeus to come to her as a god, she dies, and Zeus seals the unborn baby up in his thigh.

Nonnus does not present the conception as virginal ; rather, the editor's notes say that Zeus swallowed Zagreus ' heart, and visited the mortal woman Semele, whom he seduced and made pregnant.