Zeus and Foreign Gods
Zeus was identified with 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. The Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes erected a statue of Zeus Olympios in the Judean Temple in Jerusalem (2 Maccabees 6:2). Hellenizing Jews referred to this statue as Baal Shamen (in English, Lord of Heaven).
Some modern comparative mythologists align him with the Hindu Indra.
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Famous quotes containing the words zeus and, zeus, foreign and/or gods:
“The squabbles of philandering Zeus and shrewish Hera are the Greeks’ comment on married life.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The squabbles of philandering Zeus and shrewish Hera are the Greeks’ comment on married life.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“Homer was wrong in saying, “Would that strife might pass away from among gods and men!” He did not see that he was praying for the destruction of the universe.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)