"When it's time for you and I to say goodbye, you'll know." ―Kent Nelson, Black Adam
This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the most recent DC Extended Universe content. You have been warned.
Zeus was the king of the Old Gods, worshiped by the Amazons, Ancient Greeks, and Ancient Romans (under the persona of Jupiter). He is the father of numerous children which includes the fearsome God of War, Ares, the Goddess of Hunt Artemis, as well as the heroic Wonder Woman.[1]
Zeus ruled over Mount Olympus and his kin, the Old Gods, as the most powerful and eventually fathered Athena, Apollo, Artemis, and Ares, among other godly and demigodly children.
Creating the Humans
At some point afterward, Zeus proceeded to create humanity, making them in the Old Gods' likeness, imbuing his creation with many virtues.
It was also said that Zeus cruelly punished the Titan Prometheus for enlightening humankind, as Lex Luthor would recall, millennia later. However, the accuracy of said myth is unclear[2].
As Zeus' son Ares started corrupting humanity with violence, Zeus with the help of the other Old Gods promptly created a new race in response - the Amazons, a species of women blessed with immortality and superhuman attributes, who were intended to protect humanity from Ares' influence by spreading both love and compassion.
30,000 years before the modern day, Zeus would lead a coalition of humans, Amazons, Atlanteans, at least one Green Lantern, and his Old God children Ares and Artemis against the armies of the New God Steppenwolf. Zeus himself would blast apart the Unity with lightning, kill several Apokoliptian Priests, and blast back Steppenwolf himself with more subsequent lightning. Following this, the forces of humans, Amazons and Atlanteans divided the three Mother Boxes, and kept them contained for millennia.[3]
As Zeus was preparing to lead the Old Gods to the Amazons defense to free them from enslavement and stop humanity from destroying one another, Ares, who still viewed humanity with envious disgust, violently rebelled, proceeding to kill the Old Gods one-by-one for disagreeing with his bloodthirst and extremist ways. Zeus decided to father Diana (as a contingency weapon that could one day save humanity by defeating Ares once and for all) with Hippolyta instead of immediately participating in the war, anticipating the posibillity that he and the other Old Gods died in the War. After having fathered Diana, Zeus fearlessly engaged his malevolent son in combat and altough Ares's powers had greatly increased, he was able to defeat the God of War, banishing Ares from Olympus and griveously wounding him and leaving him badly weakened and much smaller, altough he sustained severe wounds in the battle. Knowing that Ares would recover and return to create an endless war, which would destroy both Mankind and the Amazon races, Zeus chose to sacrifice himself, using the last of his powers to create the protected island paradise Themyscira for the Amazons to live in safety, hidden from the God of War and the dangers of the world and Diana would be safe until the time came for her to defeat Ares, an act of power that caused the King of the Gods to die due to his severe wounds made worse due to his overexertion of his powers.
Legacy
To be added
Personality
Zeus is known to have been incredibly powerful, yet equally benevolent and just, as well as divinely wise, since he would create humanity in the Old Gods' likeness (imbuing them with many virtues), and when Ares sought to corrupt them, he created the Amazons to protect humanity (imbuing them with the ability to spread love, compassion, and a mutual understanding among all human nations) from him not killing Steppenwolf (even during the latter's Invasion of Earth) and later, simply driving back Ares during the War of the Gods, and banishing the God of War instead of killing his own son. This demonstrates Zeus' great love for his firstly created race, other beings, and his own family, as well as an extraordinary level of emotional intelligence and wisdom.
Zeus' fearlessness, nobility, and foresight are on display both when Zeus personally fights and defeats Steppenwolf, and later when despite Ares managing to slay every other Old God in the War of the Gods, Zeus faced his malevolent son in combat without hesitation and drove him back, in order to buy himself enough time to father Diana and create the protective paradise of Themyscira, so that when Ares returns, humanity will still have a godly savior capable of stopping the fearsome God of War. And indeed, Wonder Woman as a superhero seeks to uphold her late father's virtues and ideology.
If the myth mentioned by Lex Luthor (about Zeus cruelly punishing Prometheus) is true, then Zeus can be said to have a darker side, but given Wonder Woman's reaction of frustration and anger upon hearing the account, it is likely that the myth is actually inaccurate.
Olympian Physiology: As the King of the Old Gods, Zeus was a divine being of unparalled power and might, and the most powerful of all the Old Gods, surpassing even Poseidon and Hades as well as being considerably more powerful than the minor Old Gods and most Kryptonians, even surpassing the power of Doomsday and the resurrected Superman, with Lex Luthor using Zeus as one of the examples when describing the tremendous might of Superman. Zeus's extradionary power was shown when he single-handedly easily defeated and forced Steppenwolf into retreat millennia ago, and during the War of the Gods, despite Ares having been so enhanced by the violence that occured to the point of massacaring all the other Old Gods, even Poseidon and Hades, Zeus was still able to single-handedly face Ares when his powers were at their strongest on equal grounds and even eventually achieve victory and banish him from Olympus, griveously wounding Ares to the point of permanently weakening the God of War and leaving him much smaller.
Immortality: As the oldest Old God, Zeus is immortal, and has lived for millennia without visibly aging, with him far predating humanity and the Amazons, having created both of these races, as well as even being older than all the other Old Gods. [4].
Super Strength: As the King of the Old Gods, Zeus had the highest level of the incalculable physical strength that all Olympians had, making him pheneomonally strong, with his strength far surpassing most of the other Old Gods and Kryptonians even proving to be greater than that of resurrected Superman, Poseidon, Hades, and even a violence enhanced Ares. He was so strong to the point that he was able to easily defeat and wound Steppenwolf to the point of forcing him to flee during the first Invasion of Earth as well as effortlessly slay many Parademons during the battle. He even was strong enough to be able to not only go toe-to-toe with Ares in their final battle when his strength was dramatically enhanced due to the violence of the War of the Gods to the point of slaying all the other Old Gods by himself, but he also was able to overpower and griveously injure the God of War to the point of leaving him considerably weakened and much smaller even centuries after his victory.
Life Creation and Power Bestowal: Zeus was known to have created both the human and Amazonian races (imbuing both with their mindsets and abilities, notably the ability of the Amazons to speak every human language), the latter race in order to bring peace to humanity. Zeus also fathered the extremely powerful Wonder Woman specifically as the Godkiller - a contingency weapon to be used to subdue Ares and the latter's warfare manipulation powers.[4].
Realm and Barrier Creation: Right as the War of the Gods drew to a close, despite being severely wounded and tired from his battle with Ares, Zeus was able to create the island of Themyscira and the extremely powerful magical wards that shielded the island, in order to guarantee the Amazons protection from the outside world and from Ares, a shielding that was so powerful that even Ares was never able to penerate the island, although this cost Zeus his life.
Divine Electrokinesis:
Zeus using his thunderbolt attack
As the God of Thunder, Zeus was able to generate and control divine electricity to an unparalled degree. Capable of summoning vast amounts of powerful celestial thunder into his hands and then precisely shaping them into blasts and bolts of lightning of unparalled power, Zeus's electrokinetic powers was so potent that with a single blast, he is easily capable of injuring and hurting Steppenwolf to the point of quickly forcing him into retreat in the first Invasion of Earth, and he even grievously wounded Ares when his powers were dramatically enhanced by the violence of the War of the Gods with a single tremondously powerful lightning blast to the torso (forcing the wounded God of War to retreat off Olympus and leaving him much weaker and smaller even centuries after). Zeus even easily pried apart the nearly fused Unity with a single thunderbolt, a feat which visibly exhausted the combined effort of both Superman and Cyborg.
Superhuman Stamina: As the King of the Old Gods, Zeus had the highest level of tremendous superhuman stamina among them. His incalculable levels of stamina made him easily capable of exerting himself at full capacity for long periods of time without becoming tired, as evidenced when he fought in the prolonged battle Invasion of Earth without showing any deterioation in his performance, as he swiftly confronted and defeated Steppenwolf. The most prominent display of his stamina was shown by the fact he was able to outlast and best the violence enhanced Ares during the War of the Gods and retained enough energy to create Themyscira, although at the cost of his life.
Invulnerability: As the King of the Old Gods, Zeus possess the highest level of vast invulnerabillity an Olympian can have, making him nearly indestructable both to physical and supernatural means. While he could still be harmed and potentially slain by other beings of extreme power, given as how the violence enhanced Ares was able to severely wound him, his invulnerabillity, notably surpassing that of the ressurected Superman, Poseidon, Hades and a violence enhanced Ares, was so great that even those beings have extreme difficulty harming and killing him, as he emerged uninjured from his fight with Steppenwolf and was able to effectively resist the violence enhanced Ares's power enough to eventually defeat him and while Ares was incatipated until he healed, Zeus retained enough power to create the shielded island of Themyscira and his death was mainly because he overexerted his powers while already being severely wounded. st[4].
Superhuman Speed: Zeus, as the King of the Old Gods, had the highest level of vast super speed among them that made him extradionarily fast. His speed allowed him to easily outmanuevere Steppenwolf in single combat and mamaged to swiftly hit him with an extremely powerful lightning blast that forced him to retreat before he could react. He was also capable of going toe-to-toe with and even outmanuevering the violence enhanced Ares in their duel in the War of the Gods, eventually defeating and catching him off guard with a tremondous lightning blast that griveously wounded him.
Flight: Zeus, as seen in Ares' War of the Gods illusion, could levitate himself off the ground and fly at extradionary speeds, as both he and Ares remained in the air through their battle on Olympus and Zeus notably managed to outspace Ares's already extreme flight speed enhanced greatly by the violence that occured in the War of the Gods.
Omnilingualism: Zeus had the ability to fluently speak, read and understand all human languages, even currently dead ones.
Genius-level Intellect: As the oldest, wisest and smartest of the Old Gods, Zeus had extradionary levels of divine wisdom and intellect due to his tremondously long godly lifespan allowing him to obtain and refine the wisdom of the ages. His intelligence and wisdom far surpassed all other Old Gods, even Ares. Indeed, he had an unparalleled level of emotional intelligence and wisdom, demonstrated by his ability to imbue many virtues into both his human and Amazonian creations; he even knew of the darker traits of humanity, something that no other Old God apart from Ares knew.[1] Zeus's emotional inituition and vast divine wisdom also made him an amazingly foresightful and exceptionally capable strategist, able to see through even the most intelligent and unpredictable of individuals nature with pinpoint accuracy to correctly deduce how said person would react and he always seems to think many times ahead and be able to create nearly flawless plans to counter said individual's intentions effectively, as evidenced before he went to fight Ares, he fathered Diana in case he should die so that humanity would have another god powerful enough to defeat Ares and protect them from other powerful threats and while severely wounded after defeating Ares, he was able to quickly deduce that Ares is not dead and would use all of his powers and focus to heal himself even if improperly as long as he can recover before Zeus and destroy humanity before Zeus could stop him. Anticipating Ares would recover even if only partially and quicker than Zeus, Zeus decided to sacrifice himself so that the Amazons would survive Ares' return and Diana could safely grow up well until the time came for her to become the protector of humanity by creating the powerfully protected island of Themyscira to cut them off the danger that humans and Ares posed to them.
Expert Leader: Zeus, having been King of Mount Olympus and chief of the Old Gods for many millennia, was therefore an extradionarily experienced, charismatic and accomplished leader, with his leadership inspiring complete loyalty in all the other Old Gods and he notably even managed to inspire sufficient loyalty from Ares that the God of War obeyed Zeus despite his distaste for the other Old Gods for centuries before he finally rebelled. He also was an amazingly skillful orator, as he was able to easily convince the Amazonian, Atlantean, human, and Green Lantern to form an alliance against Steppenwolf during the first Invasion of Earth and in addition to having the support of Artemis in the war, Zeus was even able to convince Ares to briefly set aside his distaste for humanity and the other Old Gods and join him. Zeus's charisma and compotence as a leader made all the members of the alliance acknowledge him as the leader of the alliance and follow his orders without question. Zeus then led such a large alliance effectively enough without fail that he was succesfull in repelling Steppenwolf's invasion despite Steppenwolf's vast army and having conquered many other planets without fail, notably the only known commander with the sufficient level of leadership to do so.
Master Combatant: As the King of the Old Gods and thus the greatest and most experienced fighter among his kind, Zeus had millenia worth of combat experience and intensive training and unparalled mastery and knowledge of the combat arts, exceptionally formidable in the use of both armed and hand-to-hand combat. A notable display of Zeus's combat skill was during the first Invasion of Earth, Zeus survived the battle unscathed and played a prominent role in the battle by being the one who easily overpowered and wounded Steppenwolf to the point of forcing him to retreat and had certainly killed many of the forces of Apokolips. The most prominent display of his skill was during the War of the Gods, as when he finally engaged Ares when the God of War was at his strongest and deadliest in single combat, he was able to not only fight evenly with the violence enhanced Ares, who was so much more deadly and powerful than ever that he had killed all the other Old Gods, but he even emerged victorious, grievously wounding and driving the God of War back off of Olympus, leaving him badly weakened and much smaller even centuries after, though Zeus sustained severe wounds on his own right.[1]
Beings of Equal Power: Zeus, only when fighting other beings of sufficiently extreme power to fight against his own, mainly other gods (such as Steppenwolf, or Ares, when the latter was enhanced by violence), was more vulnerable, as they are potentially powerful enough to injure and even kill Zeus, notably when Ares became empowered by the violence of the War of the Gods and, although Zeus managed to defeat him in their ferocious one-on-one combat, showing it takes extreme effort even for those of extreme power, was still able to severely wound him, resulting in his death after he overused his powers to create Themyscira.[1]
DCEU Zeus has several differences from his original Greek mythology counterpart - the original Zeus had not been the one to create humanity (Prometheus doing so instead), and the original Zeus had been far more narcissistic and cruel, in addition to being less wise, loving, and foresightful.
DCEU Zeus life and role with humanity are quite similar to the role of the biblical God for multiple reasons:
Zeus and God both created humanity, bestowed them with many virtues, and greatly loved them.
Zeus and God both defeated a former ally - and child - turned archnemesis (Ares and Lucifer), casting him out of the divine realm (Olympus and Heaven) for his rebellion and for envy of humanity.
When the ancient Greek Stoics referred to Zeus, they referred to him as the timeless, unmoved Prime Mover beyond space and time (the general complex concept of God) that Aristotle and Plato spoke of - who the Romans called Jupiter (or sometimes Deus) - rather than a robed, grey-bearded man as commonly depicted.
Jupiter, the fifth and largest planet of the Solar System, is named after Zeus' Roman name.
Thursday (Iovis Dies in Latin), in most Romance languages, is named after Zeus' Roman name as well.
In the DC Comics, the 'Z' from 'SHAZAM' is used to signify Zeus.
