Zeus - London, England, UK
Posted by: Metro2
N 51° 31.131 W 000° 07.573
30U E 699376 N 5711441
This sculpture is in the British Museum.
Waymark Code: WMDG3M
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/11/2012
Views: 6
The British Museum does not charge an admission fee and does allow flash-free photography.
This bust of Zeus, the Supreme Greek God, depicts him barechested with long curly hair and a curly beard. The placard accompanying the work indicates that it is 2nd century Roman and was found at the Roman Emperor Hadrian's Tivloi villa.
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds that Zeus:
"ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter , Hindu counterpart is Indra and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.
Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione.[2] He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.[5]
As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."[6] For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe."