Zeus was a former King of the Kingdom of Land, whose reputation and power led many to refer to him as a God.
Fictional History[]
Early History[]
The man known through history as Zeus was born as a member of the Kingdom of Land, a faction of the ancient group known as the Four Legendary Kingdoms. Because of his membership in the Four Kingdoms, Zeus was taught about the true history of mankind, as well as learning of the five trials set by super-ancient beings to test humanity.
After he was made the King of Land of his time, Zeus wielded the Sword of the Immortal Weapons in many battles, and gained a reputation of great power and wisdom, leading many to begin worshiping him as a deity.
During his time as King of Land, Zeus watched the third Great Games of the Hydra, with his own sponsored Champions participating. One of his champions, Hercules, won the Games, and as a result Zeus won the right to receive the Mysteries, knowledge regarding the final two trials set by the Super-Ancient Beings which was granted to the one who stood inside the recess of the Underworld's obelisk during its activation to divert the Hydra Galaxy.
After receiving the Mysteries, Zeus was given insight to the requirements to complete the Trial of the Cities and the Trial of the Mountains, and undertook these Trials soon after the Great Games so as to prevent the Omega Event of his lifetime. Fulfilling these Trials allowed Zeus entry into the Supreme Labyrinth, which Zeus navigated to reach the Throne of Death and send out the quantum pulse that kept the Omega Event from occurring.
After this ordeal, Zeus had an Oracle of Siwa write notes on a papyrus in the Word of Thoth about the requirements to pass the Trials of the Cities and Mountains.
Though he eventually died, Zeus's actions during his reign, as well as his interpretation as a living God, led to him becoming a well-known figure in many Greek myths.
Seven Ancient Wonders[]
Prior to 466 BC, the sculptor Pheidias was commissioned to build a gigantic statue of Zeus. By 456 BC the temple made to house the statue was completed, and 20 years later the statue of Zeus himself was finished.
In the years after he ascended to become King of Macedon, Alexander the Great advanced on Egypt in 332 BC, where he was (for reasons unknown) pronounced the son of the deity Zeus by the Oracle of the Siwa Oasis.
After Alexander oversaw the disassembly of the Golden Capstone, he arranged for each of the Capstone's component Pieces to be hidden by priests of the Cult of Amun Ra within the constructs that would become known as the seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The already-existent Statue of Zeus was chosen as one of the hiding places, and soon one of the Capstone's Pieces was hidden in the pedestal of the Nike portion of the statue. However, roughly a thousand years after its completion, Zeus's statue met its unfortunate end, the circumstances of which are largely unknown. The statue of Nike the Winged Victory that had once rested upon the Zeus's right hand would up being displayed in the Louvre's Denon wing, though no one would realise its true significance.
The search for Zeus's lost statue was part of the mission to recover the Pieces of the Golden Capstone in 2006, though only the Winged Victory portion of it containing the Piece was actually found.
The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]
During the course of the fourth Great Games of the Hydra, Jack West Jr and Lily learned the truth about Zeus's legend as a King of Land and how his sponsored Champion Hercules won him the right to receive the Mysteries.
The Three Secret Cities[]
As Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe provided Jack and the team with what information he knew regarding the Trial of the Cities, he told them how Zeus was the last King of Kings to receive the Mysteries, and showed them a photo of his papyrus.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
During the team's research into the Trial of the Mountains, they looked back at the Zeus papyrus for guidance.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
As they were making their way through the Endless Tunnel of the Supreme Labyrinth, Easton told Jack and Lily that Zeus's group had been accompanied by nine minotaurs during his unchallenged traversing of the Labyrinth.
Legacies[]
- Statue at Olympia: A gigantic statue created in the image of Zeus, which was made in the temple at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece. The Statue was one of the seven ancient wonders, and also housed one of the pieces of the Golden Capstone.
- Sword of the Rock: One of the Immortal Weapons needed to empowered at Thule, which Zeus wielded during his reign.
- Papyrus: A papyrus upon which Zeus had a Siwan Oracle write down his notes in the Word of Thoth the Mysteries that he had learned once his Champion won the Great Games. The papyrus includes information related to the Trial of the Cities and the Trial of the Mountains.
Trivia[]
- In the novel Seven Ancient Wonders, the Oracle of Siwa claimed that Alexander was the son of Zeus, and the later novel The Four Legendary Kingdoms would note that Zeus was a former King of Land, who was in fact just a powerful man. Bearing in mind that the Statue of Zeus was constructed between 466 to 435 BC, roughly 100 years before Alexander was born, this makes it unlikely that Zeus was Alexander's father.
- This means that the Oracle of Siwa meant that he was a descendant of Zeus's bloodline.
- The alternative is that this was simply a historical oversight on Reilly's part.
- In classical mythology, Zeus was the king of the Greek gods and had control over the weather; his weapon of choice was a thunderbolt, which he used to smite his enemies-and law. He was married to his sister Hera, but was also notorious for his sexual escapades, resulting in the births of several illegitimate children, including Hermes (messenger of the gods and the god of boundaries), Athena (goddess of wisdom), Apollo (god of music, truth and healing, and who also drove the sun through the sky), Artemis (goddess of animals and hunting) and Hercules.