Zeus
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2023
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zeus, the chief deity in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of sky and thunder, and is king of all other gods and men.
His tale is one of overthrowing fathers, eating babies and seducing women, both mortal and divine, by changing his own form. He's one of the most complex figures in history, and his story is one that's been retold throughout millennia. To try and make sense of it all, we're going back to very beginning, to the origins of Zeus, starting with his grandfather and grandmother, Uranus and Gaia. We learn about the prophecy that ultimately overthrows Uranus, the same one that is also fated for Zeus's father, Cronus, and start to understand the family-tree that becomes the Olympians - from Athena to Dionysus.
For this episode, Tristan Hughes is joined by academic, author, broadcaster and Professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick, Michael Scott. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy The Symposium: How To Party Like An Ancient Greek, also with Michael Scott.
Script written by Andrew Hulse
Voice over performed by Deryn Oliver
Produced, edited and sound designed by Elena Guthrie
The Assistant Producer was Annie Coloe
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First published November 2022
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sing Muses. |
| 0:03.0 | Sing to me a history of Olympus |
| 0:08.0 | and the deathless gods who govern Earth, sea, and sky. |
| 0:14.0 | That is Zeus's command. |
| 0:16.9 | The Father of Gods and Men has summoned the Muses, that company of sisters, to the bronze-f flawed halls of Olympus, for his mind is filled with worry. |
| 0:27.0 | Nervous peals of thunder boom amid the peaks and roll across the plains plains and lightning flashes spread anxiety among man and beast alike. |
| 0:38.0 | The muses know which song to sing, which threads to weave. |
| 0:47.0 | It is the same story Zeus has asked for every stormy evening since his bride, Wise Meatus, grew round with their first child. It is a story of incarceration, usurpation, |
| 0:56.8 | dominion and prophecy, a cycle that repeats like the pattern on a loom. |
| 1:02.2 | It is the pattern on a loom. It is the story of Zeus himself. |
| 1:07.0 | It's the entrance on history hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and in today's |
| 1:18.9 | episode when it's the last one of 2023 and we wanted to re-release the first episode of a series that has been |
| 1:26.2 | a regular feature of the ancients for the past year and a half. It is of course our special miniseries on the Greek gods and goddesses. |
| 1:36.2 | This first episode is all about Zeus, king of the gods with the brilliant professor Michael Scott. Once you've listened to this you can |
| 1:46.2 | listen to more than ten others we recorded since then, including Heera, Aries, Athena, Poseidon, |
| 1:52.3 | Hades, Demeter to name just a few, alongside other mythological |
| 1:56.9 | figures from ancient Greek history such as King Midas,, and Medusa. |
| 2:03.4 | I really do hope you enjoy. |
| 2:05.4 | Here's the myth of how Zeus became King of the Gods, and then here's Michael to talk all things |
| 2:10.6 | Zeus. Zeus. The Muses start their story with a world at its youngest, all saplings, striplings, |
| 2:26.8 | an unwethered stone. |
| 2:28.6 | It is not Zeus but his grandfather, Star-clad Uranus who holds the sky and that young world in his power. |
... |
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