The blue whale (Baleonoptera Musculus) is one of the most fascinating and powerful creatures ever. Reaching weights of 176.9876890322 tonnes and being 103.790865677 feet in length, the blue whale is probably the largest animal ever, bigger than even dinosaurs. But recently, a group of paleontologists and paleoanatomists have found a dinosaur who rivaled the blue whale in size. Named Brthkayasaurus or Bruhathkayasaurus (Misspelled Sanskrit brht, meaning heavy/heaviest and misspelled Greek soros, ‘lizard like reptile’. Pronounced Brihath-kaya-sorus), s/he weighed 174.6890763345643300 tonnes. The giant fish Leedsichthys also could have been that size. But, all these animals are considered to be smaller than the blue whale. The blue whale could swim at 26.8544 mph. His/her tail is the most powerful weapon. They have been known to kill orcas (killer whales). For more information visit Wikipedia.

The African Elephant is the largest living land mammal. Weighing up to 8 tonnes and 13 feet tall, each tusk itself measures 7 feet long! The largest elephant was weighing 11 tonnes and stood 14.5 feet tall with each tusk measuring 10.4 feet long! They are capable of killing a 530 pound lion in one swipe of it’s trunk and can kill even a Predator X with one stab of his tusk on to the Predator X’s throat. The elephant is capable of killing Mammoths, Indrocotherium, etc. with his tusk’s. The African Elephant, though, is not immune to venom and can be killed by a black mamba but an elephant himself can also kill a black mamba.
For more information visit Wikipedia.

This list is a list of the most powerful animals which are non human so please do not comment me to include humans. This posts comments should be, preferably about adding things to this post. Thank You;
Now let us meet the deadliest;

1.) Hainosaurus=The largest and the most powerful of all Mosasaurs, Hainosaurus was a close relative of Tylosaurus featured in Top 10 Deadliest Predators to Prey Ever. More information can be found on this video. Go to this site and search Sea Monsters 7- Mosasaurs. They moved in groups to protect their young and had venom, bacteria, tar etc. to make matters worse. Females were larger and more aggressive than the males. They preyed on Dolichorincops , Elasmosaurus , sharks, turtles, fish, jellyfish, squid and even other Hainosaurus and other Mosasaurs.

1:) Giganotodon Prajii/Tejasii - Imagine a combination of Megaladon and Gastonia, along with the sound beams of a Sperm Whale and the 600 volt electricity of an electric eel on the hunt. A super predator on the hunt. The second largest shark which can be 11 meters long and weigh 45 tons and some rare specimens can be 59 tons and 18 meters long. Having a bite force of 19.6 metric tonnes per square inch, the most powerful carnivore has the most powerful bite force ever known. There have been only to very incomplete specimens found. It lived in the Cretaceous Sea, 65 million years ago. It fed on squid, fish, other sharks and small short necked Plesiosaurs. Some of them also fed on large long necked Plesiosaurs, Hesperornis, Halisaurus and Ornithomimids which came to drink.

2:) Tylosaurus - The largest known Giant Mosasaur ever was the second deadliest killer on earth. No non human animal other than other Tylosaurus can defeat this creature. Main enemy: Its own kind. It fed on other Tylosaurus, other Mosasaurs and any prey it could find. It was pure carnivore and attacked anything which attacked its family. It lived in huge groups from 12 to 150 members. When they bit, they injected venomous bacteria and tar into their prey killing it very fast. Even the giant turtle Archelon and venomous jellyfish were on the menu. It could weigh 34.1346 tonnes and be 49.48796 feet in length. Even Hainosaurus could not defeat this creature.

3:) Megaladon - The largest shark ever, this 75 tonne, 70 foot long behemoth, having a bite force of 18.2 metric tonnes per square inch, this super predator which lived in the early Pliocene ate the largest of sperm whales! This is truly a t rex’s worst nightmare which came true in it’s future.

4:) Predator X - A 45 tonne killer, who is 15 meters long has a bite force 4 times that of a T. Rex!
It is claimed by researchers to be the most fearsome animal to swim the oceans. A program called predator x aired on History Channel. Go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search predator x history channel.

5:) Liopleurodon - Being 10 to 18 meters long and weighing 19 to 35 tonnes this huge and ferocious killer is a true nightmare.

Reuse/Refuse and Recycle – Plastics everywhere – they go into the ocean and kill animals, they burn a bigger whole in the ozone layer – can we please reuse plastic bags? Can we please take cloth bags to Big Bazaar and Nilgiris?
Garbage disposal – Can we please start an initiative to segregate waste to bio-degradable and non biodegradable.
Flowers belong to the plants – do we have to pluck them to beautify the homes?
Can we walk short distances, cycle more – its healthier and better for the world – we’d kick the carbon.
Please switch off lights and fans when not using
Can we decide to plant more trees?

The top cause of Global warming is killing animals. They cause more carbon emissions on Earth than a hundred carbon producing trucks. So can we stop killing animals?
Together, can we pledge today, to make those small changes so jains is one of the greenest apartments around – and this small change from the 120 of us would make the earth greener and cooler.

Together shall we make the change? Because global warming is not cool.

Thank you

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In this generation, we have owed to protect Earth. Yet, we have not fulfilled this oath. God loves all of his creations and does not like them to be destroyed. Even people who respect God have killed many of His creations. We have plucked flowers, cut trees and stepped on grass. We have hunted animals and fished fish. We abuse Mother Nature.

We must all remember we can not live without any force of Nature. We have poisoned the ocean and use a lot of carbon. We are the main causers of Global Warming. We have to stop doing the abuse we have done to Mother Nature. We have eaten many animals and killed them for fur, leather, flesh, cosmetics and oil. We have even hunted them for sport. We stamp grass for no reason. We must all remember we are a part of Mother Nature. What has Nature done to us? It is your choice. If you love Nature stop abusing Mother Nature.

Samanyu is a boy who beats me everyday. I do not do anything to him but he considers me as stupid, an idiot and a fool. I don’t like him but I don’t show it to him and he thinks I like him and bullies me. He also kills animals and plucks flowers and leaves. But he is not always like that and sometimes is friendly. But, one has to be careful when near him.

By Dr. Abdul Kalam
> I remember my dad teaching me the power of language at a
> very young
> age. Not only did my dad understand that specific words
> affect our
> mental pictures, but he understood words are a powerful
> programming
> factor in lifelong success.
>
> One particularly interesting event occurred when I was
> eight. As a
> kid, I was always climbing trees, poles, and literally
> hanging around
> upside down from the rafters of our lake house. So, it came
> to no
> surprise for my dad to find me at the top of a 30-foot tree
> swinging
> back and forth. My little eight-year-old brain didn’t
> realize the tree
> could break or I could get hurt. I just thought it was fun
> to be up so
> high.
>
> My older cousin was also in the same tree. He was hanging
> on the first
> big limb, about ten feet below me. My Aunt also noticed us
> at the
> exact time my dad did. About that time a huge gust of wind
> came over
> the tree. I could hear the leaves start to rattle and the
> tree begin
> to sway. I remember my dad’s voice over the wind yell, ”
> Hold on
> tightly.” So I did. The next thing I know, I heard my
> cousin screaming
> at the top of his lungs, laying flat on the ground. He had
> fallen out
> of the tree.
>
> I scampered down the tree to safety. My dad later told me
> why he fell
> and I did not. Apparently, when my aunt felt the gust of
> wind, she
> yelled out, “Sonny, don’t fall!” And my cousin did fall.
>
> My dad then explained to me that the mind has a very
> difficult time
> processing a negative image. In fact, people who rely on
> internal
> pictures cannot see a negative at all. In order for my
> cousin to
> process the command of not falling, his nine-year-old brain
> had to
> first imagine falling, then try to tell the brain not to do
> what it
> just imagined. Whereas, my eight-year-old brain instantly
> had an
> internal image of me hanging on tightly.
>
> This concept is especially useful when you are attempting
> to break a
> habit or set a goal. You can’t visualize not doing
> something. The only
> way to properly visualize not doing something is to
> actually find a
> word for what you want to do and visualize that. For
> example, when I
> was thirteen years old, I played for my junior high school
> football
> team. I tried so hard to be good, but I just couldn’t get
> it together
> at that age. I remember hearing the words run through my
> head as I was
> running out for a pass, “Don’t drop it!” Naturally, I
> dropped the
> ball.
>
> My coaches were not skilled enough to teach us proper
> “self-talk.”
> They just thought some kids could catch and others
> couldn’t. I’ll
> never make it pro, but I’m now a pretty good Sunday
> afternoon football
> player, because all my internal dialogue is positive and
> encourages me
> to win. I wish my dad had coached me playing football
> instead of just
> climbing trees. I might have had a longer football career.
>
> Here is a very easy demonstration to teach your kids and
> your friends
> the power of a toxic vocabulary. Ask them to hold a pen or
> pencil.
> Hand it to them. Now, follow my instructions carefully. Say
> to them,
> “Okay, try to drop the pencil.” Observe what they do.
>
> Most people release their hands and watch the pencil hit
> the floor.
> You respond, “You weren’t paying attention. I said TRY to
> drop the
> pencil. Now please do it again.” Most people then pick up
> the pencil
> and pretend to be in excruciating pain while their hand
> tries but
> fails to drop the pencil.
>
> The point is made.
>
> If you tell your brain you will “give it a try,” you are
> actually
> telling your brain to fail. I have a “no try” rule in my
> house and
> with everyone I interact with. Either people will do it or
> they won’t.
> Either they will be at the party or they won’t. I’m brutal
> when people
> attempt to lie to me by using the word try. Do they think I
> don’t know
> they are really telegraphing to the world they have no
> intention of
> doing it but they want me to give them brownie points for
> pretended
> effort? You will never hear the words “I’ll try” come out
> of my mouth
> unless I’m teaching this concept in a seminar.
>
> If you “try” and do something, your unconscious mind has
> permission
> not to succeed. If I truly can’t make a decision I will
> tell the
> truth. “Sorry John. I’m not sure if I will be at your party
> or not.
> I’ve got an outstanding commitment. If that falls through,
> I will be
> here. Otherwise, I will not. Thanks for the invite.”
> People respect honesty. So remove the word “try” from your
> vocabulary.
>
> My dad also told me that psychologists claim it takes
> seventeen
> positive statements to offset one negative statement. I
> have no idea
> if it is true, but the logic holds true. It might take up
> to seventeen
> compliments to offset the emotional damage of one harsh
> criticism.
>
> These are concepts that are especially useful when raising
> children.
>
> Ask yourself how many compliments you give yourself daily
> versus how
> many criticisms. Heck, I know you are talking to yourself
> all day
> long. We all have internal voices that give us direction.
> So, are you giving yourself the 17:1 ratio or are you
> shortchanging
> yourself with toxic self-talk like, ” I’m fat. Nobody will
> like me.
> I’ll try this diet. I’m not good enough. I’m so stupid. I’m
> broke,
> etc. etc.”

In Greek mythology, Zeus (pronounced /?zju?s/) () is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical “cloud-gatherer” also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.^[2]

In Greek, the god’s name is ???? Zeús /zdeús/ (Modern Greek /’zefs/) in the nominative case and ???? Diós in the genitive case. His Roman counterpart was Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart Tinia. In Hindu mythology his counterpart was Indra with ever common weapon as thunderbolt, which he could hold like a staff.

Cult of Zeus

Panhellenic cults of Zeus

The major center where all Greeks converged to pay honor to their chief god was Olympia. Their quadrennial festival featured the famous Games. There was also an altar to Zeus made not of stone, but of ash, from the accumulated remains of many centuries’ worth of animals sacrificed there. Outside of the major inter-polis sanctuaries, there were no modes of worshipping Zeus precisely shared across the Greek world. Most of the titles listed below, for instance, could be found at any number of Greek temples from Asia Minor to Sicily. Certain modes of ritual were held in common as well: sacrificing a white animal over a raised altar, for instance.

Colossal seated Marnas from Gaza portrayed in the style of Zeus. Marnas^[3] was the chief divinity of Gaza. Roman period Istanbul Archaeology Museum)

History

Zeus, poetically referred to by the vocative Zeu pater (”O, father Zeus”), is a continuation of *Di??us, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph₂t?r (”Sky Father”).^[4] The god is known under this name in Sanskrit (cf. Dyaus/Dyaus Pita), Latin (cf. Jupiter, from Iuppiter, deriving from the PIE vocative *dyeu-ph₂t?r^[5]), deriving from the basic form *dyeu- (”to shine”, and in its many derivatives, “sky, heaven, god”).^[4] And in Germanic and Norse mythology (cf. *T?waz > OHG Ziu, ON Týr), together with Latin deus, d?vus and Dis(a variation of d?ves^[6]), from the related noun *deiwos.^[6] To the Greeks and Romans, the god of the sky was also the supreme god, whereas this function was filled out by Odin among the Germanic tribes. Accordingly, they did not identify Zeus/Jupiter with either Tyr or Odin, but with Thor (Þórr). Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology.^[7]

Role and epithets

Zeus played a dominant role, presiding over the Greek Olympian pantheon. He fathered many of the heroes and was featured in many of their local cults. Though the Homeric “cloud collector” was the god of the sky and thunder like his Near-Eastern counterparts, he was also the supreme cultural artifact; in some senses, he was the embodiment of Greek religious beliefs and the archetypal Greek deity.

Aside from local epithets that simply designated the deity to doing something random at some particular place, the epithets or titles applied to Zeus emphasized different aspects of his wide-ranging authority:

• Zeus Olympios emphasized Zeus’s kingship over both the gods in addition to his specific presence at the Panhellenic festival at Olympia.
• A related title was Zeus Panhellenios (’Zeus of all the Hellenes’), to whom Aeacus‘ famous temple on Aegina was dedicated.
• As Zeus Xenios, Zeus was the patron of hospitality and guests, ready to avenge any wrong done to a stranger.
• As Zeus Horkios, he was the keeper of oaths. Exposed liars were made to dedicate a statue to Zeus, often at the sanctuary of Olympia.
• As Zeus Agoraeus, Zeus watched over business at the agora and punished dishonest traders.
• As Zeus Aegiduchos or Aegiochos he was the bearer of the Aegis with which he strikes terror into the impious and his enemies.^[8][9][10] Others derive this epithet from ??? (”goat”) and ??? and take it as an allusion to the legend of Zeus’ suckling at the breast of Amalthea.^[11][12]
• As Zeus Meilichios, “Easy-to-be-entreated”, he subsumed an archaic chthonic daimon propitiated in Athens, Meilichios.
• As Zeus Tallaios, or “Solar Zeus”, he was worshiped in Crete.

Roman marble colossal head of Zeus, 2nd century AD (British Museum)^[13]

Some local Zeus-cults

In addition to the Panhellenic titles and conceptions listed above, local cults maintained their own idiosyncratic ideas about the king of gods and men. With the epithet Zeus Aetnaeus he was worshiped on Mount Aetna, where there was a statue of him, and a local festival called the Aetnaea in his honor.^[14] Other examples are listed below.

• As Zeus Aeneius or Aenesius, he was worshiped in the island of Cephalenia, where he had a temple on Mount Aenos.^[15]
• As Zeus Agamemnon he was worshipped at Sparta.

Cretan Zeus

With one exception, Greeks were unanimous in recognizing the birthplace of Zeus as Crete. Minoan culture contributed many essentials of ancient Greek religion: “by a hundred channels the old civilization emptied itself into the new”, Will Durant observed,^[16] and Cretan Zeus retained his youthful Minoan features. The local child of the Great Mother, “a small and inferior deity who took the roles of son and consort”,^[17] whose Minoan name the Greeks Hellenized as Velchanos, was in time assumed as an epithet by Zeus, as transpired at many other sites, and he came to be venerated in Crete as Zeus Velchanos, the “boy-Zeus”, often simply the Kouros.

In Crete, Zeus was worshipped at a number of caves at Knossos, Ida and Palaikastro. In the Hellenistic period a small sanctuary dedicated to Zeus Velchanos was founded at the Aghia Triada site of a long-ruined Minoan palace. Broadly contemporary coins from Phaistos show the form under which he was worshiped: a youth sits among the branches of a tree, with a cockerel on his knees.^[18] On other Cretan coins Velchanos is represented as an eagle and in association with a goddess celebrating a mystic marriage.^[19] Inscriptions at Gortyn and Lyttos record a Velchania festival, showing that Velchanios was still widely venerated in Hellenistic Crete.^[20]

The stories of Minos and Epimenides suggest that these caves were once used for incubatory divination by kings and priests. The dramatic setting of Plato’s Laws is along the pilgrimage-route to one such site, emphasizing archaic Cretan knowledge. On Crete, Zeus was represented in art as a long-haired youth rather than a mature adult, and hymned as ho megas kouros “the great youth”. Ivory statuettes of the “Divine Boy” were unearthed near the Labyrinth at Knossos]] by Sir Arthur Evans.^[21] With the Kouretes, a band of ecstatic armed dancers, he presided over the rigorous military-athletic training and secret rites of the Cretan paideia.

The myth of the death of Cretan Zeus, localised in numerous mountain sites though only mentioned in a comparatively late source, Callimachus,^[22] together with the assertion of Antoninus Liberalis that a fire shone forth annually from the birth-cave the infant shared with a mythic swarm of bees, suggests that Velchanos had been an annual vegetative spirit.^[23] The Hellenistic writer Euhemerus apparently proposed a theory that Zeus had actually been a great king of Crete and that posthumously his glory had slowly turned him into a deity. The works of Euhemerus himself have not survived, but Christian patristic writers took up the suggestion with enthusiasm.

Zeus Lykaios in Arcadia

The epithet Lykaios (”wolf-Zeus”) is assumed by Zeus only in connection with the archaic festival of the Lykaia on the slopes of Mount Lykaion (”Wolf Mountain”), the tallest peak in rustic Arcadia; Zeus had only a formal connection^[24] with the rituals and myths of this primitive rite of passage with an ancient threat of cannibalism and the possibility of a werewolf transformation for the ephebes who were the participants.^[25] Near the ancient ash-heap where the sacrifices took place^[26] was a forbidden precinct in which, allegedly, no shadows were ever cast.^[27] According to Plato (Republic 565d-e), a particular clan would gather on the mountain to make a sacrifice every nine years to Zeus Lykaios, and a single morsel of human entrails would be intermingled with the animal’s. Whoever ate the human flesh was said to turn into a wolf, and could only regain human form if he did not eat again of human flesh until the next nine-year cycle had ended. There were games associated with the Lykaia, removed in the fourth century to the first urbanization of Arcadia, Megalopolis; there the major temple was dedicated to Zeus Lykaios.

Apollo, too had an archaic wolf-form, Apollo Lycaeus, worshipped in Athens at the Lykeion, or Lyceum, which was made memorable as the site where Aristotle walked and taught.

Subterranean Zeus

Although etymology indicates that Zeus was originally a sky god, many Greek cities honored a local Zeus who lived underground. Athenians and Sicilians honored Zeus Meilichios (”kindly” or “honeyed”) while other cities had Zeus Chthonios (”earthy”), Katachthonios (”under-the-earth”) and Plousios (”wealth-bringing”). These deities might be represented as snakes or in human form in visual art, or, for emphasis as both together in one image. They also received offerings of black animal victims sacrificed into sunken pits, as did chthonic deities like Persephone and Demeter, and also the heroes at their tombs. Olympian gods, by contrast, usually received white victims sacrificed upon raised altars.

In some cases, cities were not entirely sure whether the daimon to whom they sacrificed was a hero or an underground Zeus. Thus the shrine at Lebadaea in Boeotia might belong to the hero Trophonius or to Zeus Trephonius (”the nurturing”), depending on whether you believe Pausanias, or Strabo. The hero Amphiaraus was honored as Zeus Amphiaraus at Oropus outside of Thebes, and the Spartans even had a shrine to Zeus Agamemnon.

Oracles of Zeus

Although most oracle sites were usually dedicated to Apollo, the heroes, or various goddesses like Themis, a few oracular sites were dedicated to Zeus.

The Oracle at Dodona

The cult of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus, where there is evidence of religious activity from the second millennium BC onward, centered on a sacred oak. When the Odyssey was composed (circa 750 BC), divination was done there by barefoot priests called Selloi, who lay on the ground and observed the rustling of the leaves and branches (Odyssey 14.326-7). By the time Herodotus wrote about Dodona, female priestesses called peleiades (”doves”) had replaced the male priests.

Zeus’ consort at Dodona was not Hera, but the goddess Dione — whose name is a feminine form of “Zeus”. Her status as a titaness suggests to some that she may have been a more powerful pre-Hellenic deity, and perhaps the original occupant of the oracle.

Roman cast terracotta of ram-horned Jupiter Ammon, 1st century AD (Museo Barracco, Rome

The Oracle at Siwa

The oracle of Ammon at the oasis of Siwa in the Western Desert of Egypt did not lie within the bounds of the Greek world before Alexander’s day, but it already loomed large in the Greek mind during the archaic era: Herodotus mentions consultations with Zeus Ammon in his account of the Persian War. Zeus Ammon was especially favored at Sparta, where a temple to him existed by the time of the Peloponnesian War^[28]

After Alexander made a trek into the desert to consult the oracle at Siwa, the figure arose of a Libyan Sibyl.

Zeus and foreign gods

Zeus was equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter and associated in the syncretic classical imagination (see interpretatio graeca) with various other deities, such as the Egyptian Ammon and the Etruscan Tinia. He (along with Dionysus) absorbed the role of the chief Phrygian god Sabazios in the syncretic deity known in Rome as Sabazius.

Zeus in myth

The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879 Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church

Birth

Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father— an oracle that Zeus was to hear and avert. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed.

Infancy

Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. According to varying versions of the story:

1. He was then raised by Gaia.
2. He was raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes— soldiers, or smaller gods— danced, shouted and clashed their spears against their shields so that Cronus would not hear the baby’s cry. (See cornucopia.)
3. He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the Earth, the heavens and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father.
4. He was raised by a nymph named Cynosura. In gratitude, Zeus placed her among the stars.
5. He was raised by Melissa, who nursed him with goat’s-milk and honey.
6. He was raised by a shepherd family under the promise that their sheep would be saved from wolves.

Laurel-wreathed head of Zeus on a gold stater, Lampsacus, c 360-340 BC (Cabinet des Médailles)

Zeus becomes king of the gods

After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge first the stone (which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, the Omphalos) then his siblings in reverse order of swallowing. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus’ stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, from their dungeon in Tartarus, killing their guard, Campe. As a token of their appreciation, the Cyclopes gave him thunder and the thunderbolt, or lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Together, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, along with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans, in the combat called the Titanomachy. The defeated Titans were then cast into a shadowy underworld region known as Tartarus. Atlas, one of the titans that fought against Zeus, was punished by having to hold up the sky.

After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lots: Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead (the underworld). The ancient Earth, Gaia, could not be claimed; she was left to all three, each according to their capabilities, which explains why Poseidon was the “earth-shaker” (the god of earthquakes) and Hades claimed the humans that died. (See also: Penthus)

Gaia resented the way Zeus had treated the Titans, because they were her children. Soon after taking the throne as king of the gods, Zeus had to fight some of Gaia’s other children, the monsters Typhon and Echidna. He vanquished Typhon and trapped him under a mountain, but left Echidna and her children alive.

Zeus and Hera

Zeus was brother and consort of Hera. By Hera, Zeus sired Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus, though some accounts say that Hera produced these offspring alone. Some also include Eileithyia and Eris as their daughters. The conquests of Zeus among nymphs and the mythic mortal progenitors of Hellenic dynasties are famous. Olympian mythography even credits him with unions with Leto, Demeter, Dione and Maia. Among mortals were Semele, Io, Europa and Leda. (For more details, see below).

Many myths render Hera as jealous of his amorous conquests and a consistent enemy of Zeus’ mistresses and their children by him. For a time, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from his affairs by incessantly talking: when Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others.

Hera is also represented as having despised Ganymede, a Trojan boy whom he brought into Olympus to be cup-bearer to the gods as well as his lover.

Source: Wikipedia, The free Encyclopedia (http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus/)