Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's episode, we're going to explore whether Zeus, lord of the black cloud, wielder of the smoking bolt, he who sits highest in Olympus, ruler of the cosmos, the raging storm incarnate is, in fact, more powerful than all of the other Olympians combined, as he so proclaims to the other gods in the Iliad, trumpeting the terror of his own tempest. Let's get into it.In the Iliad, Zeus harangues the other gods, ordering them not to interfere in the Trojan war so that the war can be brought to a close more quickly. He demands their obedience, a demand delivered emphatically by Zeus expressing the extent of his true strength, which he claims is more than that of all the other Olympians combined. Here's the passage: "Hear me, all you gods and all goddesses too, as I proclaim what the heart inside me urges. Let no lovely goddess - and no god either - try to fight against my strict decree. . .then he will know how far my power tops all other gods'.Come, try me, immortals, so all of you can learn. Hang a great golden cable down from the heavens, lay hold of it, all you gods, all goddesses too: you can never drag me down from sky to earth, not Zeus, highest, mightiest king of kings, not even if you worked yourselves to death. But whenever I'd set my mind to drag you up, in deadly earnest, you and the sea, all together, then loop that golden cable round a horn of Olympus, bind it fast and leave the whole world dangling in mid-air - that is how far I tower over the gods, I tower over men"It's impossible to gauge for certain the depth of Zeus' conviction in these words. He could very well have been exaggerating or, alternatively, inflating inadvertently through overestimation. Was he speaking bombastically, just a blustering king trying to keep his subjects in line, or was there some substance to this threat?
