Guide to the Gods 1.0
Za... to Zz...
Zababa
Mesopotamian town-god of Kis.
Zac
See Bacab.
Zagreus
Chief god in Greek Orphism. Said in Orphism to be the son of Zeus and Persephone. Zagreus seems to have originated as a pre-Hellenic god of animals and hunting.
Zalmoxis
(Salmoxis)
Supreme god of the Thracian Getae and Dacians. Known only from the writings of Herodotus. Zalmoxis was said to have taken human form and lived among humans for a time. He then disappeared into the underworld for three years before returning in the fourth year.
Zaltys
Lithuanian grass-snake deity.
Zam
Avestan word for 'earth'.
Zamna
See Itzamna.
Zao Jun
Chinese Taoist kitchen-god.
Zarpanitum
See Sarpanitu.
Zelos
"Zeal". Son of Hyperion and Styx. He was a companion of Zeus.
Zemepatis
(Zemempatis)
Lithuanian chthonic deity.
Zemes mate
Lettish earth- and mother-goddess.
Zemyna
(Zemynele)
Lithuanian earth-goddess.
Zenenet
Egyptian goddess of Hermonthis.
Zephyros
(Zephyrus, Zephyr)
Greek god of the west wind. Son of Astraios and Eos. Believed to live in a cave in Thrace. Known to the Romans as Favonius.
Zervan
See Zurvan.
Zeus
Supreme Greek god and head of the Greek pantheon. In addition, Zeus functioned as a sky god or weather god, and as a god of justice and freedom. Son of the Titans Kronos and Rhea. Consort of Hera. His cult probably dates back to the Mycenean and Minoan civilizations. According to Homer, he lived on Mt. Olympus in Thessaly, where he gathered the other gods under his dominion.
After his birth, Rhea saved the infant Zeus from being swallowed by Kronos along with his siblings by substituting a stone dressed in swaddling cloths. She then hid the child in a cave on the island of Crete, where the Kouretes performed a dance in which they clashed their weapons about him in order to drown out his cries. His nurse while in Crete was Amalthea, either a nymph or a goat. Upon reaching maturity, Zeus overthrew the Titans and forced Kronos to disgorge his siblings. Zeus then cast Kronos into Tartaros and established himself as head of a new pantheon in which he and his siblings had the most prominent roles. He divided dominion over the world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades.
Zeus's sexual prowess was legendary, and he either seduced or forced himself upon numerous goddesses, nymphs, and mortal women, fathering countless children in the process. He assumed many different forms in pursuit of his numerous affairs. He appeared to Leda in the form of a swan, to Danae as a shower of gold, and to Europa as a white bull. Ares, Eleithyia and Hephaistos were the most prominent of his children by his official consort Hera, whom he originally seduced in the form of a cuckoo (although some sources say that it was Hera who seduced Zeus). He fathered Apollo and Artemis by Leto, Persephone by Demeter, Hermes by Maia, Dionysos by Semele, the Horai and Moirai by Themis, the Muses by Mnemosyne, and Herakles by Alkmene. Athena was also said to have been born from his forehead after he had swallowed Metis. Zeus may also have had a homosexual relationship with Ganymede, whom he made the cupbearer of the gods.
The cult of Zeus was of universal significance in the Greek world, although his cult was often secondary in individual locations to the local tutelary deity, such as Athena in Athens. Greek households typically had statues of Zeus in their forecourts, and he was often associated with mountaintop shrines. He had temples in every Greek city, two of the more notable being in Athens and at Olympia. His most important festival was at Olympia. The oracle at Dodona in Epirus was dedicated to Zeus. He was depicted as a bearded and physically imposing man of middle age. His most common attributes were the thunderbolt and the eagle.
Zhang Guo-lao
1 of the 8 Chinese Immortals.
Zhong-Kui
Chinese god of literature and examinations.
Zhong-li Quan
Chinese: 1 of the 8 Immortals.
Zhu Dian
(Zhu Tian)
Chinese Buddhist gods.
Zibelthiurdos
Thracian storm god.
Zin
A Songhay water spirit.
Zintuhi
Anatolian goddess.
Zipakna and Kabrakan
Mayan earthquake-gods.
Zocho
One of the Japanese guardians of the four cardinal directions. Zocho was associated with the south.
Zorya
Slavonic goddesses who guard the universe.
Zotz
Mayan bat god.
Zu
(Anzu)
Babylonian storm god. He was depicted in the form of a bird.
Zurvan
(Zervan, Zrvan)
Persian god of infinite space and time. In Zoroastrianism he was the personification of time and fate. In Zervanism he was the father of Ahura Mazda, the god of light, and Ahriman, the god of darkness.
Zvezda Dennitsa and Zvezda Vechernyaya
Slavonic goddesses of the Morning Star and the Evening Star.
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