Recap: Zeus is the youngest Olympian, born to Cronus and Rhea. He escapes being eaten alive when his mother begs Gaia to hide him from his father. Gaia carries baby Zeus away to the mountains of Crete, and Rhea gives Cronus a rock to eat instead. After growing up safely in Crete, Zeus returns to confront his father.

"Holler! Zeus is about to get his thunder on." Wait, that's too cheesy. Let's try again.

"And in the red corner, weighing in at an astonishing we-don't-know-how-many pounds, it's Zeus the almighty Thunderrrrrrrrrrr God!" That's better. Hey, don't laugh. It's hard to introduce a guy who's been in more movies than Samuel L. Jackson.

Like many of the other characters in Hesiod's Theogony, Zeus comes off at first glance as pretty one-dimensional. He's born. He grows up. He stomps his father. He and the other Olympians lay the smack down on the Titans. But to really get a feeling for Zeus as a character we need to look at what he does after he imprisons his father's generation in a gassy, dank, hole in the ground. Fortunately, Shmoop has been keeping tabs on the Lighting Thrower for you. Read up!