As I have been doing some thinking about Zeus, including during my sometimes harrowing commutes to and from work in wind, rain, and snow, I have been asking myself a question or two.
The first question has to do with all the wind rain and snow, and what part in it Zeus actually plays. Now, I am not a superstitious person, so I don't actually think of Zeus as sitting on a cloud and stirring up the weather, rather I think of Zeus as a vastly powerful force within which the weather is but a small part. It is as if Zeus, the force that is Zeus in our universe, is the medium by which these phenomena can occur.
That being the result of my thoughts on the matter, I then asked myself something else, what is the meaning of the myths that make Zeus the father of such divine beings as Dionysos and Herakles?
Yes, I have pondered his father aspect before, and I am not pondering the nature of his fatherhood, but rather why he is father to Dionysos and Herakles, two beings, one regarded always as a God and the other as probably the greatest, most remembered hero of Western antiquity.
Before I continue, I have to point out an important aspect of my belief system here. I believe the Gods are eternal, not just immortal, and as a result I do not believe any of them actually has a father or mother in the mortal sense, but what if Zeus has the same effect on divine interaction with the mortal world as he has with the weather? What if the power of Zeus serves as a kind of medium by which the other Gods' interactions with this universe, or if he is a medium by which their interaction with the universe is modulated, controlled, or softened.
What if Dionysos is a clue to that? What if the influence of a power like Dionysos is of such immensity that it drives mankind insane, literally, and that going through Zeus, through the medium of his power, allows us to experience that power without completely losing ourselves. Without going insane.
Of Herakles, however, I have distinctly different ideas, because I believe that Herakles is, in fact, Zeus himself. That if indeed there was once a man named Herakles (or if that was a title given to a man) that it was an incarnation, an avatar if you will, of holy Zeus himself. The how or why a God might incarnate is not something I am truly qualified to give answer to, except to myself of course, but I am convinced more and more as I look and read and learn things not only about our Gods, but about how other people in the world see the Gods as well, that the Gods have, from time to time, been incarnate in the world, leaving an indelible mark in history.
That when man reaches a point of crisis, of true need, Gods have interfered in the affairs of man, not with miraculous events, but by coming among us as mortal beings, perhaps a small part of them incarnating in the world, living out a life, and then rejoining their greater self at life's end and taking extraordinary steps, doing great deeds, and making righteous choices that we remember into posterity and help guide us.
Are the Gods then living among us right now? I don't know, nor do I know if they truly incarnate or if, perhaps, they pick a person or people who they then guide to do great things, but I am made to believe that my conclusion here, that Zeus is a medium by which they do it. That in some way, his being King of the Gods, Father of Gods and Men, Ruler of all things, is tied not to any actual rulership of anything as if it were a kingdom, but rather a reflection of how his power manifests in the universe as almost a gateway by which all Gods must go in order to affect the universe.
