How Did Zeus Influence Roman Culture

Jupiter, also known as Zeus, was a very large influence on Roman culture if not the biggest. Some may argue that He was only a small piece of religion that the Roman’s followed. However, Jupiter was the basis for a religion that created everyday morals, explanations, and guidelines for those absorbed in the ever-so-expansive Roman culture.

Jupiter resembles an Indo-European god named Dyeus. Dyeus means “sky”, “clear”, and

“day.” These are used to resemble Jupiter as the king of gods, the god of heavens and sky, the god of justice (“light” here is used to represent Jupiter’s apparent fair, judging personality), and his overall ruling of the universe. During this time in history, many people were writing about Zeus (Jupiter). In Homer’s Odyssey,

Zeus is depicted as the King of gods and men, and he is constantly solving issues between the gods and goddesses. Also, as a testimony to his universal power, he is put in charge of men’s fates quite often in the text. In book 1, verses 74-79, Zeus states, “For his sake Poseidon, shaker of the earth, although he does not kill him Odysseus, yet drives him back from the land of his fathers. But come, let all of us who are here work out his homecoming and see to it that he returns. Poseidon shall put away his anger; for all alone and against the will of the other immortal gods united he can accomplish nothing.” This statement shows Zeus’s position and ability to oversee what the fate of Poseidon would be.
Zeus first came into existence when the story of Cronus and Rhea was told. Cronus, also known as Kronos, was a titan father to many children. These children however, he devoured as soon as they were born. That’s right, he ate them. He was afraid that they would eventually become too powerful and attempt to overrule him. Because of this, his titan wife was often very upset. She often attempted to save her children, but eventually she found the right way to save her child. When Zeus was born, Rhea hid Zeus and decided to dress a large rock as a baby. This gave Rhea enough time to hide Zeus somewhere safe and away from his father. Zeus was raised and endured the majority of his adolescence on the Greek Island of Crete. Here, there were many nymphs who helped raise him. They fed him goats milk and honey daily as he grew stronger and wiser. To protect Zeus as a baby, special daemons called “Curetes” would clang their shields together to create a noise louder than the baby’s crying. This crying would attract the baby’s father, thus ending up in complete destruction of the king of gods. All of these factors helped develop Zeus not only physically, but mentally. As they protected his physical being, they molded his personality and his characteristics. These morals are those of which would eventually inspire a more generally positive society in Roman culture.
After a while, Zeus grew up to be a very strong individual.

Eventually, he became so strong that he decided to stand up to his father, Cronus. He had matured to the point that he could claim the Kingdom of the World, and this prompted him to start a war between the gods and his father and his titans. His first mission was very clear to him and was perhaps the most important mission to him; he needed to rescue his siblings. All of his siblings were stored in their father’s stomach due to his sketchy suspicions. So now that Zeus knew where his siblings were, the only objective now is to get them out without getting caught and devoured as well. The plan was to slip some sort of vomit-inducing herb into his father’s food and rescue the disgorged adolescents. This plan worked. Out came Zeus’s siblings and they all ran away to somewhere safe. They then planned to overthrow Cronus. This eventually would take place in Tartarus, the depths of the underworld. Tartarus to the people of this time represents our current representation of hell. To the people of Roman culture this was a huge feat. It showed his willingness to go to even the deepest depths of hell to do what was best for earth. Then, after he overthrew his father, he was able to successfully defeat giants and a monster named Typhon. All of earth rejoiced as Zeus and his siblings officially ruled the Kingdom of Earth. Seeing this may have sparked hope in the people. If they could get their hands on literature that portrayed

the story of a baby that had relatively no chance at the beginning of his life turning it’s luck around by ruling the world a few years later, the majority of readers would become inspired. This is exactly what the Romans needed at this time. Rome has just been founded in 753 B.C., so a story like this could have set the basis for people to believe they had the chance to do anything they desired. When coming into any sort of successful new civilization, there must be some sort of basis for the people to judge their actions and thoughts off of. For instance, America was created in the search for religious freedom. Colonists came to America to celebrate the thing they based their lives off of, Religion. The fact that Zeus was portrayed as the omnipotent character in Roman culture made him typically the most well-known.
There are many side stories about the life of Zeus that also may have impacted the way Romans thought of their religion/all-powerful ruler.

A lot of what he does through these myths and stories points to how things came to be. For instance, it is said that at one time in his life, he fell in love with a daughter of the river god Asopus. Her name was Aegina and she had 19 other sisters, but she was the most beautiful. Because of this, Zeus kidnapped her and took her to the island of Oenone. Then, she conceived and gave birth to a son named Aeacus. Aeacus grew up to become the king of the island and gave the island the name “Aegina” after his beautiful mother. Zeus realized that because the island was so beautiful, he would need to be able to protect it. He took the ants of the island and named them the protectors of the island. They were made into warriors and had black armor along with six hands. They would protect the island for generations to come and eventually be known as the fiercest fighters of Ancient Greece. This myth explains how the beauty of the island came to be and how the ants received their characteristics. Once again, a small action done by such an important character can be so explanatory and so impactful for centuries to

come.
What else is more representing of a person than their love life? Zeus had a very complicated and rather busy one. His first marriage was complicated. He married Metis who was the goddess of deviousness and wisdom. She cheated on him with Athena and became pregnant. A famous prophecy at that time suggested that Zeus’s first descendant would overrule him and take over his kingdom. Because of this, Zeus swallowed Metis whole so that neither she or her son could go against him. After this train wreck of a marriage, Zeus decided to marry Themis. She was a titaness and she conceived from him immediately. The product would be named Moirae and Horae. After this family “ended” he went on to hook up with Oceanid Eyrynome. In this hook-up, he produced 3 graces who were the goddess of joy, goddess of beauty, and goddess of charm. He hooked up with several other characters which bore him great characters like the goddess of the underworld, the twin gods, and the goddesses of arts. His last known marriage was with Hera. Hera was known as the goddess of marriage, however she was also his sister. That’s right, Hera was a part of his own bloodline. They had four children, each key parts to Roman culture. The marriage was already doomed in the beginning due to the incest if you ask me, but in this time, it was acceptable. The thing that ruined the marriage was that Zeus slept around a lot. He had several affairs and could not correct his inappropriate behavior. Because of that, his wife Hera was constantly seeking revenge. This prompted a lot of the art in Rome. Several paintings and sculptures depicted sexual acts and scenes from mythology and various texts.
Zeus affected the lives of many Romans. In many ways, his actions or something related to him explains the origin of everyday things. This provided an understanding to the earth and all of its parts to many romans. This time in history was a very pivotal time. It was the beginning of long lasting civilizations and without Zeus, things would be different. If the romans had no motivation, art influences, and no understanding of morals, then Roman culture may have turned out to take a different path. This could’ve influenced all of the generations to come, thus influencing many aspects of life today.