Old SymbolsWhere every symbol began

Plate 1 A bearded god holding a thunderbolt raised in one hand, an eagle beside him

Zeus

Zeus’s symbol is the thunderbolt, the weapon Hesiod says the Cyclopes gave him. In Greek art he also holds a sceptre, often with an eagle, his bird, perched on it; the oak was his tree.

Greek gods and their symbols. Also called symbol of zeus, zeus symbol, zeus symbols, zeus thunderbolt.

Meaning

Zeus was the sky god of the Greeks and the father and king of the gods, and in Greek art he is the bearded man with a thunderbolt in his hand. The Metropolitan Museum of Art names the ox and the oak tree as sacred to him. William Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849) adds the eagle and the summits of mountains, and gives his usual attributes as the sceptre, the eagle, the thunderbolt and a small figure of Victory in his hand, sometimes with a cornucopia; the Zeus of Olympia sometimes wears a wreath of olive and the Zeus of Dodona one of oak leaves. The Romans identified their Jupiter with him, and a Roman bronze in the Met shows Jupiter enthroned with a thunderbolt in his right hand and a long sceptre in his left. Zeus is not only a figure of the past: the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes, which the Greek state recognised as a known religion in 2017, keeps the Hellenic religion today.

Origin and history

The thunderbolt was a gift. In Hesiod’s Theogony the Cyclopes, sons of Earth and Heaven, are named Brontes, Steropes and Arges, which the translator Hugh Evelyn-White renders as the Thunderer, the Lightning Flash and the Vivid One, and they “gave Zeus the thunder and made the thunderbolt”. Later in the poem Zeus frees his father’s brothers from their bonds, and in gratitude they give him “thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightning”, which Earth had hidden until then: “In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals.” The mythographer Apollodorus tells the same story with the other brothers in it. The Cyclopes gave Zeus thunder, lightning and a thunderbolt, gave Pluto (Hades) a helmet and gave Poseidon a trident, and with these weapons the gods beat the Titans. Then the brothers cast lots: Zeus drew the sky, Poseidon the sea and Hades the underworld.

The eagle comes from Homer. In the last book of the Iliad, Priam is told to pray to Zeus for a sign, “the swift messenger that to himself is dearest of birds and is mightiest in strength”, and Zeus sends an eagle, “surest of omen among winged birds”, which appears on the right. The oak belongs to Dodona in Epirus, where, in the Odyssey, Odysseus goes “to hear the will of Zeus from the high-crested oak of the god”. The aegis was his too. Homer calls him “Zeus that beareth the aegis”, a shaggy, fringed thing that Hephaestus made for him “for the putting to rout of warriors”, though in art it is usually Athena who wears it.

Why is the eagle Zeus’s bird?

Because the Greeks read it as his messenger. Homer’s phrase in the Iliad is the bird “dearest of birds” to Zeus and “surest of omen among winged birds”, and an eagle seen on the right was his answer to a prayer. Smith lists the eagle first among the things sacred to Zeus, with the oak and the mountain tops. Pheidias put one on the sceptre of his Zeus at Olympia, and Roman artists kept it beside Jupiter.

The statue at Olympia

The image most later artists followed was the gold and ivory Zeus that Pheidias made for the temple at Olympia, a few years before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. Smith writes that Pheidias took the idea of it from Homer’s words, and that in works of art Zeus is generally shown as the father and king of gods and men “according to the idea which had been embodied in the statue”. The statue is lost, but Pausanias saw it. The god sat on a throne with a garland of olive shoots on his head. In his right hand he held a Victory, also of ivory and gold, and in his left a sceptre inlaid with every kind of metal, with an eagle sitting on it. His sandals and robe were gold, and the robe was embroidered with animals and lilies.

Zeus or Poseidon?

A bearded god about to throw something could be either brother, and the thing he threw is often lost. The Met has a bronze statuette of the early fifth century BC that it calls “Zeus or Poseidon”: the identity, its catalogue says, “would have been clear from the attribute that was originally held in the right hand”, a thunderbolt for Zeus or a trident for Poseidon. The same puzzle at life size is the bronze god found in the sea off Cape Artemision in Euboea, made about 460 BC and now in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Its raised right hand, the museum says, held a lightning bolt (Zeus) or a trident (Poseidon), and the question is still open.

On the Greek two-euro coin

Greece’s two-euro coin shows Zeus in one of his disguises. The European Central Bank describes the design as a scene from a third-century AD mosaic in Sparta, showing Europa being abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull.

See also

Hades, Thor, Thunder gods, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena.

Sources

  1. Theogony 139–146 (Hesiod, tr. Evelyn-White), Hesiod, Theogony, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), lines 139–146, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 139–146 and note 1
  2. Theogony 501–506 (Hesiod, tr. Evelyn-White), Hesiod, Theogony, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), lines 501–506, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 501–506
  3. Library 1.2.1 (Apollodorus, tr. J. G. Frazer), Apollodorus, The Library, translated by Sir James George Frazer (1921), 1.2.1, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 1, chapter 2, section 1
  4. Iliad 24.290–295 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (1924), 24.290–295, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 24, lines 290–295
  5. Iliad 24.314–321 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (1924), 24.314–321, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 24, lines 314–321
  6. Iliad 15.306–311 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (1924), 15.306–311, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 15, lines 306–311
  7. Iliad 5.733–742 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (1924), 5.733–742, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 5, lines 733–742
  8. Odyssey 14.327–328 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Odyssey, translated by A. T. Murray (1919), 14.327–328, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 14, lines 327–328
  9. Description of Greece 5.11.1 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 5.11.1, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 5, chapter 11, section 1
  10. Greek Gods and Religious Practices (Colette and Seán Hemingway, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Colette Hemingway and Seán Hemingway, “Greek Gods and Religious Practices”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2003), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, essay text
  11. Zeus (4. The national Hellenic Zeus) (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Zeus (4. The national Hellenic Zeus)”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
  12. Zeus (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Zeus”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
  13. Bronze statuette of Zeus or Poseidon (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection entry “Bronze statuette of Zeus or Poseidon”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object description
  14. Bronze statuette of Jupiter Capitolinus (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection entry “Bronze statuette of Jupiter Capitolinus”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object description
  15. Zeus or Poseidon of Artemision (National Archaeological Museum, Hellenic Ministry of Culture), Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Odysseus portal, National Archaeological Museum, “Zeus or Poseidon of Artemision”, inv. X15161, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, exhibit description
  16. Classical Period (National Archaeological Museum, Athens), National Archaeological Museum, Athens, collection guide “Classical Period”, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, collection guide text
  17. Greece: national sides of euro coins (European Central Bank), European Central Bank, “Greece”, euro coins, national sides, European Central Bank, €2 and €1 entries
  18. What is the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE)? (YSEE, frequently asked questions), Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), “Frequently asked questions”, Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), first and second answers

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 8, 2026. How we research

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