(In Pics) Shapeshifting and Sexual Assault: The Many Disguises of Zeus

Zeus, father of the gods and hurler of thunderbolts in Greek myth, was not a good guy. An alarming number of his adventures involve his faithlessness to his wife Hera and he spawned a legion of illegitimate demigod children with mortal women.

Often these women had no choice in the matter, something the Greek legends gloss over: Zeus was a god, after all. However, to put aside this grossly inappropriate behavior for one minute, there is another aspect to these stories: Zeus was a master of disguise.

Zeus’s visitations rarely came in a straightforward manner, He was almost always shapeshifted into something else: an admission of guilt, perhaps, given his need for this clandestine approach. Maybe he was just afraid of his wife.

1. Antiope

For his seduction of Antiope, daughter of the river god Asopus, Zeus at least kept things from descending into explicit beastiality (this time). Disguising himself as a satyr with horns and cloven hooves, he rapes her, leaving her pregnant with his *twins* *Amphion and Zethus (sometimes Zethus is a mortal child) (Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres /* *Public Domain*)

2. Leda

*Leda, Queen of* *Sparta* *and mother of Helen of* *Troy*, required a more subtle approach. Zeus disguised himself as a swam and sought her protection from an attacking eagle. Leda them proceeded to sleep with the swan and her husband in the same night, producing eggs containing Helen, Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra, as well as the Gemini twins Castor and Pollux, pictured bottom left (Cesare da Sesto / *Public Domain*)

3. Europa

*Europa was a Phoenician princess and the mother of King Minos of* *Crete*, famous for his labyrinth and Minotaur. Unsurprisingly Zeus goes for the form of a bull this time, and interestingly this appears to point to the origins of the legend being specifically Cretan. Hiding in a herd of cattle, Zeus carried Europa off when she climbed on his back, swimming to Crete, where he makes her a queen and then rapes her (ArchaiOptix / *CC BY-SA 4.0*)

4. Danae

If you’re struggling to see Zeus in this picture, it is because he had to be extra cunning. Danae, a rare beauty, was locked away by her father to prevent just the kind of assault Zeus had in mind. However Zeus disguised himself as a shower of *gold* *and managed to get into her chambers. Danae bore Zeus a son, the Greek hero Perseus (Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller /* *Public Domain*)

5. Callisto

*According to most sources, Callisto was either a nymph or the daughter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia. What is consistent is that she was a worshipper of* *Artemis*, goddess of the hunt. Zeus therefore went for the most straightforward route and disguised himself as Artemis, and the two slept together. When Callisto was found to be pregnant, the real Artemis cast her out (Jacob Adriaensz Backer / *Public Domain*)

6. Bonus: Io

*Io, an Argive princess, was one of Zeus’s early lovers and the ancestor of Perseus,* *Heracles*, and Minos, to name a few. She was also a priestess of Hera, an extremely risky target for Zeus. In this instance Zeus did not disguise himself at all but rather transformed Io into a white heifer so he could hide her from his furious wife. This did not work, and Hera tormented Io by sending a gadfly to bite her and drive her insane (Godfried Maes / *Public Domain*)

Top Image: Zeus, disguised as a satyr, assaults Antiope. Source: Dosseman / CC BY-SA 4.0.

References

Joseph Green

Joseph Green is editor for Historic Mysteries, which combines his background in English Literature with a lifelong fascination for the strange and the unexplained. Read More