I am Zeus, son of Chronos, who resides on Mount Olympus in the highest heavens. I am known also as Jupiter, or “The Cloud Gatherer.” I was born the youngest son of Chronos and Rhea, and the brother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon.

From the day of my birth, I have proved to be the true leader of the gods. My Father Chronos was told by a prophet that “as he had killed his father for the throne, his own son would also dethrone him.” He then swallowed every child that Rhea gave birth to, but they weren’t digested. My mother, obviously, didn’t like this, and she decided to trick Chronos. As soon as I was born, she gave my father a stone, instead of showing him me. Thinking it was a child, he ate it. This is similar to what she did with my second oldest brother Poseidon, except then she gave my father a horse. I guess this either says something about my father’s eyesight or his brains, but anyway, I was saved. My mother secretly raised me behind my fathers back.

When I was old enough, she sent Chronos to go hunting. She told me to wait for him in the forest, and then attack him when he approached. As soon as I saw him, I ran at him, and kicked him in the stomach as hard as I could. He threw up all my brothers and sisters, and they chose me to be king of the gods. The three boys in the family, Poseidon, Hades, and I, drew lots to see who would rule what part of the universe. I won, and chose first. I chose to rule the sky and the heavens. Poseidon chose the waters, and my youngest brother, Hades, got stuck with the underworld. Because Olympus is in the sky, that put me in charge of everything up there, making me “head god”. I also lead the gods in the eleven year war between the gods and the titans. I released the monsters that the titans had locked up, the Cyclopians, the hundred-handed monsters, and the giants.

The hundred-handed monsters helped by hurling huge rocks at the titans. Hundred-handed monsters hurling hundreds of heavy rocks can really do some damage. The giants made my famous weapons, thunderbolts, for me. After we eventually won the war, I handed out several different punishments to the titans. I had some of them locked up in Tartarus, and guarded by my friends, the hundred-handed monsters. I made Atlas hold up the earth, because Uranus, the sky, had almost fallen on it during the war. I also was very generous to some of the titans, like Oceanus and the female titans because they had remained neutral. The only one that got away was my wretched father Chronos, who ran away during the end of the fighting.

Because I am the lead god, I can also get involved with the lives of mortals. I guess that you could say I played a pretty important role in Odysseus’ adventures. I helped out Odysseus, but also gave him some challenges, because I didn’t want Poseidon to be mad at me. Poseidon has this “thing” with Odysseus, because Odysseus blinded Poseidon’s son, the Cyclops, Polyphemus. But let’s start before Odysseus left Troy, before the war was over. There was never any doubt that the Greeks would win, but I gave both sides some ups and downs, so it didn’t seem like I favored one side more than the other. Most of my fellow Gods favored the Greeks, except Poseidon, and if I had let the Trojans win, then there could have been a rebellion. Even though I am the most powerful god, I still can’t compete with all the other twenty-something gods who live on the mountain. Several of my fellow gods actually tried to fight in the war, but were injured. I ordered my brothers and sisters to let the soldiers do the fighting. Poseidon tricked me into letting him fight, but after I found out, I sent Apollo to revive anyone who Poseidon had injured.

When Odysseus had started his voyage home, but was held up by Calypso, it was I, helped by my daughter Athena, who decided to let Odysseus leave Ogygia while Poseidon was away. We had sent him to Ethiopia to see some of his worshipers there. On the other hand, I allowed Odysseus’ men to be wiped out as a punishment for eating Helios’ cattle.

I sent Odysseus, and later, his son, Telemachos many omens over the course of their adventures. When Telemachos wondered if his father would ever return home, I sent an eagle with a goose in its claws symbolizing that Odysseus would return, and would kill the suitors as the eagle killed the goose. When Odysseus asked me whether or not he should kill the suitors, I sent thunder to tell him to deal with them however he wanted. I didn’t want to get involved, and I decided that I’d let him handle this one on his own. However, I did allow my siblings to become involved in the action, but it was usually clear that Odysseus would win. I then stopped Odysseus from killing the suitors’ families by sending a lightning-bolt to strike the ground at the feet of Athena.

Aside from my part in Odysseus’ journeys, I have some pretty interesting tales of my own. We can start with my family. I guess you can say I get around. Technically, my wife is Hera, but I believe that I should get my choice of other women too. Now before I go on, I really didn’t have a choice in marrying my sister. Because gods are only supposed to marry other gods, I really didn’t have that many choices, because there were only about 10 of us. Being the head god is a pretty hard job. I need to have some fun sometimes too. I have about 70 kids with about 20 different women. Some of my children were Gods, like Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Aphrodite, Dionysus, and Hermes. One of these births happened in a very strange way. Hera had gotten mad at me again, and she decided that she would make ME have a baby. Athena was then born, but not in the usual way. She sprang out of my head fully dressed in armor. This hurt quite badly, but Hephaestus mended my head pretty well. Some of my children were very special mortals though, like Hercules, who was the greatest of all human heroes, or my grandson, the king Menelaus.

One of my more famous habits is that I tend to alter the form of people who I really like, or just don’t like at all. I turned a man to stone for trying to steal the golden dog that watched over me in the cave that my mother hid me in. I turned a nymph into a turtle when she refused to attend my wedding, and, I once killed a man for pretending to imitate me, while riding around in a chariot making loud noises that he seemed to think resembled thunder. On the other hand, after he had died, I turned a righteous man into and eagle, which, if you haven’t figured out by now is my special bird. My special tree is the oak tree, because it is so big and powerful, like me.

My main temple is in Olympia. It is now just ruins, but at one time it stood over forty feet tall. It was made out of beautiful pillars that had very intricate designs and mysterious symbols on them. The best part of the temple though, was the statue of me. It was even considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, before it burned to the ground.

As you can see, I am a rather important god. It is difficult being in charge of everything that ever happens, but it has its benefits. If it wasn’t for me, Odysseus would probably still be stuck on that island with my grand-daughter Calypso.