Greek mythology is full of divine judgments, whether rewarding loyal heroes with blessings and gifts or punishing traitors with unimaginable pain. One god above all could really dish it out. Here are the worst punishments of Zeus, king of the gods.
The best known of Zeus’ rageful punishments is the terrible repetitive torment the god visited upon Prometheus. This son of a Titan is regarded as one of the great patrons of humankind, the bestower of fire, and the teacher of technology and useful arts to man.
The enduring love he had for humans frequently put Prometheus at odds with Zeus, the mighty and somewhat cruel leader of the Olympian gods. The meaning of the name Prometheus, Forethought, denotes the intellectual qualities of his multifaceted character. According to some accounts, Prometheus is even credited with the creation of the male of the human species.
Prometheus was born to the Titan Lapetus and the nymph Clymene. Despite Prometheus being the son of a Titan and therefore an ally of the race, he had helped Zeus to become victorious in the war of the Titans (Titanomachy), a conflict between the Titans led by Kronos, Zeus’ father, and the Olympian gods. The battle concluded with Zeus dethroning his father and becoming the leader of the gods on Mount Olympus.
Relations between Zeus and Prometheus were good at first, but as men on Earth grew in number and became prosperous, helped by Prometheus who had given them fire and other beneficial arts, Zeus regarded their growing power as a threat.
Zeus’ anger against mankind and their helper, Prometheus, was first aroused when the latter tricked the leader of the gods into choosing the worst part of a sacrificial bull. Prometheus wrapped the bones of the slain bull in fat while he covered the best part, the flesh, with intestines. Zeus unknowingly chose the fat-draped heap of bones, while the flesh wrapped in the intestines was given to hungry men by their patron Prometheus.
Acting in vengeance, the enraged Zeus withheld fire from humankind, visiting darkness and misery on the species. However, Prometheus soon helped them by stealing fire from the workshop of Hephaestus, the god of fire and patron of artisans and craftsmen, and passed it—hidden in a stalk of fennel—onto humankind. Other accounts state Prometheus stole fire from the hearth of the gods on Mount Olympus.
The leader of the gods decided to punish Prometheus. Zeus had the titan chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus for eternity. He subjected him to relentless torture by having an eagle feed on his liver. The liver would regenerate again overnight so that the great bird could consume it again the following day.
According to some versions of the legend, Prometheus’ liver would have been the daily meal of the eagle until the end of time if the hero Heracles hadn’t slain the bird and released Prometheus from his torment.
After committing murder on Earth, Ixion, the king of the Lapiths in Greek mythology, went mad. Zeus took pity on him when everyone else was condemning him and brought him to Olympus. He introduced him at the table of the gods.
Gratefulness was not one of Ixion’s strengths. Instead of being thankful to Zeus, he became lustful for Hera, Zeus’ wife. The leader of the gods found out about Ixion’s intentions and created a cloud that resembled Hera (known as Nephele), tricking Ixion into making his move.
After this Ixion was expelled from Olympus and struck with a thunderbolt. Zeus ordered Hermes to tie Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was continuously spinning for all eternity. At first, the burning wheel spun across the heavens but in later myths transferred to Tartarus.
Io was a mortal priestess of the goddess Hera, Zeus’ wife, in Argos. Zeus was taken with Io and began to lust after her. According to one version of the story, Io initially rejected Zeus’ advances until her father threw her out of his house on the advice of the oracles.
Other stories have it that Zeus transformed Io into a cow so that he could hide her from his wife. In this version of the tale, the deception didn’t go to plan, and Hera begged Zeus to give her the cow as a present, which he did.
Feeling sorry for the priestess, Gaia, the goddess of the earth, created the violet so the cow could eat. The various colors of the violet—red, purple, and white—changed due to Io’s life with red for the blushing maiden, purple for the cow, and white for the stars.
Hera then sent the 100-eyed-giant Argus Panoptes to surveil Io and ensure Zeus did not visit her. Hence, Zeus ordered Hermes to distract and eventually kill Argus. According to Ovid, Hermes did this by first lulling the giant into a deep sleep. He played the panpipes and told the giant stories.
Zeus freed Io, who was still in the form of a cow at this point. However, to exact her revenge, Hera sent a gadfly to sting Io continuously. She thus wandered the earth without being able to rest.
Sisyphus was the founder and ruler of Ephyra (now Corinth) in Greek mythology. He carried out a number of misdeeds which led to harsh punishment. First of all, he betrayed one of Zeus’ secrets by revealing the location of the Asopid Aegina to her father, the river god Asopus, in return for the creation of a spring on the Corinthian Acropolis.
Following this, Zeus ordered Hades to chain Sisyphus in Tartarus, the lowest level of hell. Sisyphus wanted to know why Charon, whose job it was to guide souls through the underworld, was not around on this occasion.
The king of Ephyra asked Hades to show him how the chains worked, and as the god of the underworld obliged, Sisyphus took the opportunity to trap Hades in the chains instead.
Once Hades was bound by the chains, no one on earth could die. This caused tremendous problems. Ares, the god of war, grew increasingly frustrated because his battles had lost their fun. Nobody would die. The infuriated Ares intervened, freeing Hades, and restoring death to its normal rhythms. Ares then handed Sisyphus over to Hades.
As punishment for his crimes, both Zeus and Hades made Sisyphus eternally roll an enormous boulder up a steep hill in Tartarus. The maddening nature of the punishment was exacted upon Sisyphus for his belief that his intelligence surpassed that of Zeus himself. Hades added his own malicious element to the punishment. He enchanted the boulder into rolling away from Sisyphus before he reached the top. This meant the king of Ephyra was consigned to an eternity of useless efforts and unending frustration.
