雅思阅读材料：古希腊主神介绍(宙斯)

　　下面雅思为大家整理介绍古希腊神话中的十二主神介绍，古希腊神话相关的文章是非常好的阅读材料，烤鸭们可以对这十二主神和他们的故事有一个简单的了解，扩充自己的知识背景。

　　古希腊神话有新旧两部神谱，十二诸神是新神谱系的十二位神仙，雷神宙斯、天后赫拉、海皇波塞冬、火焰女神赫斯提亚、大地女神德墨忒尔、美神阿弗洛迪斯、太阳神阿波罗、女战神雅典娜、战神阿瑞斯、月神阿尔特弥斯、众神使者赫尔墨斯、工神赫菲斯托斯。十二个主神都有鲜明的性格与七情六欲，具有人的性格和情绪，具有超人的特殊本领。

　　宙斯Zeus

　　希腊神话中的主神，第三代神王。克洛诺斯和瑞亚之子，乌拉诺斯和盖亚之孙。众神之神，奥利匹斯山最高统治者。本词条中的动漫人物或游戏人物，亦是以其为原型或由其延伸出来的人物。

　　In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus is the Father of Gods and men who rules the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father rules the family. He is the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Romancounterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.

　　Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he is married toHera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort is Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father ofAphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone , Dionysus, Perseus,Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses ; by Hera, he is usually said to have fatheredAres, Hebe and Hephaestus.

　　As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence. For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men. In Hesiods Theogony Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

　　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.

　　King of the gods

　　After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge first the stone 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 inTartarus, 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 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 and Hades claimed the humans that died .

　　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 Gaias other children, the monsters Typhon and Echidna. He vanquished Typhon and trapped him under Mount Etna, 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 Hellenicdynasties are famous. Olympian mythography even credits him with unions with Leto, Demeter, Dione and Maia. Among mortals were Semele, Io, Europaand Leda and with the young Ganymede .

　　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 nymphnamed Echo had the job of distracting Hera from his affairs by talking incessantly, and when Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others.