Zeus's children: who were the offspring of the god with a libido that couldn’t be contained

Zeus raped the mortal Spartan queen Leda in the form of a swan, a myth that became a source of inspiration for Renaissance art. And when he became besotted with a young prince of Troy, Ganymede, he abducted the boy as an eagle to serve as the cupbearer of the gods.

From his dozens of lovers came many children, possibly nearing 100, giving new meaning to his status in ancient Greek religion as the father of all. Here are some of Zeus’s most notable offspring, from the divine to the demi-god.

Ares

Ares was one of the few children that Zeus actually fathered with his queen, Hera, although that did not help his reputation. A war god, he was generally disliked by the Greeks for his associations with bloodlust, brutality and chaos, so was not widely worshipped.

While Ares went into battle accompanied by his sons Phobos and Deimos (fear and terror), his half-sister Athena was the war god to go to for military strategy and leadership. That said, the warrior city state of Sparta did make human sacrifices to him.

Apollo and Artemis

These divine twins, and master archers, were among the most beloved of the Greek pantheon, in contrast to Ares. This was especially true of Apollo, although Artemis’s temple at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Apollo held myriad roles, including his associations with the Sun and light, archery and music, healing and prophecy, and, as a bringer of law and reason, divine retribution. The Romans liked him so much that they didn’t even change his name or mythology when they adopted the Greek gods as their own.

Meanwhile, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness and wild animals, but equally revered for helping with childbirth and the care of children. This went back to the myth of how she helped her mother deliver Apollo in the first place.

Their mother was the Titan, Leto, who had been pursued by a jealous Hera when she heard of Zeus’s affair. A pregnant Leto eventually found refuge on the island of Delos.

Hermes

Hermes’ mother was Maia, one of the Pleiades (the seven sister nymphs who accompanied Artemis). With his winged sandals that allowed him to travel between the realms of the gods and mortals, he became the messenger of the gods and a guide for the souls of the dead to the underworld.

As well as travel and trade, he was associated with luck, wealth and mischief. Hermes had only just been born when he stole a sacred herd of cattle. But on a more heroic note, he rescued one of Zeus’s lovers from the many-eyed monster, Argos, who had been sent by a jealous Hera.

Heracles

Of all the victims of Hera’s jealousy, the legendary hero Heracles suffered a great deal. The extraordinarily strong demi-god was the child of a mortal princess named Alcmene, who Zeus seduced while disguised as her husband.

Hera did all she could to get revenge, initially sending two serpents to kill Heracles as a baby only for him to strangle them in his first feat of super-strength. When he was an adult, Hera induced Heracles into a fit of madness that led to him killing his wife and children.

Yet after his death, and his famous Twelve Labours, Heracles was welcomed at Mount Olympus and made a god.

Perseus

Long before Heracles, Perseus proved himself a great hero by slaying Medusa, a Gorgon whose gaze turned people to stone, and rescuing Andromeda. The daughter of a king, she had been fastened to a rock on the shore to be sacrificed to a sea serpent, but Perseus killed the beast and freed her.

His mother was Danae, a beautiful mortal princess trapped in her chamber by her father. He had been told that his grandson would kill him, so went to extreme lengths to keep his daughter a virgin. Zeus’s solution was to come to Danae in the form of golden rain.

Persephone

Persephone was the child of Zeus and the goddess of agriculture and harvest, Demeter. He had already proven with Hera that he had no qualms sleeping with his sister, after all. Persephone was best known for becoming the queen of the underworld as the (reluctant) wife of Hades.

In the myth, known as the Rape of Persephone, the lord of the underworld was instantly besotted when he saw her gathering flowers and abducted her. A distraught Demeter searched far and wide, letting the crops fail, before Persephone was found.

Zeus demanded she be released, but Hades tricked her into eating a few pomegranate seeds, meaning she had eaten food in the underworld and could not leave. A deal was struck so that Persephone spend a third of the year with Hades.

Athena

The goddess of wisdom, warfare and crafts had one of the more unconventional births, although Dionysus might have something to say about that. When Zeus heard that his first wife, a Titan named Metis, would give birth to a child who would overthrow him, he took a leaf out of his father’s book and swallowed Metis whole.

That could not stop the child, Athena, who burst from his forehead fully grown. Despite the rough start, she became a favourite of Zeus’s. To this day, in the city of Athens, which was named after her, stands the ruins of the mighty Parthenon, dedicated to Athena.

• Read more | The history of Athens: exploring the birthplace of democracy and philosophy

Dionysus

If you thought Athena’s birth was tricky, spare a thought for Dionysus. After his mother, the mortal Semele, was seduced by Zeus and impregnated, an enraged Hera came to her in disguise and contrived to have Semele look upon the true divine form of the king of the gods.

No mortal could look upon a god, so Semele was destroyed. Zeus saved the unborn Dionysus, however, by sewing the child into his own thigh and carrying him until the real birth. Dionysus became a party god of wine, festivity and ecstasy, making him enormously popular to the Greeks.

The Graces, Muses, Fates and Horae

As proof of how many lovers Zeus had, and the large family he built, some of his children can be grouped. The Graces were at least three fertility goddesses while the Muses were nine goddesses of inspiration in the arts, science and literature, who Zeus fathered with the Titan deity associated with memory, Mnemosyne.

The Fates and Horae were two sets of triplets, the former responsible for keeping track of everyone’s destiny and the latter being the personifications of the seasons. Both sets had the same mother, Themis, the Titan goddess of divine law and order.

Minos

When Zeus was struck by the beauty of a Phoenician princess, Europa, he transformed into a magnificent white bull and abducted her. He swam with Europa on his back to the island of Crete and seduced her. Their child was Minos, the legendary ruler of Crete. The Minoan civilisation that thrived there was named after him.

In the mythology, he was famous for his regular sacrifices of seven boy and seven girls to the bull-headed creature, the Minotaur, which he kept in a labyrinth. Perhaps lesser known was how after his death, from having boiling water poured over him as he bathed, Minos became a judge in the underworld.