1. Ways of Interpreting Myth: Ancient
Zeus

2. The Web of Myth
Interpreting myth is like Penelope at her loom. Thread upon thread of interpretation is interwoven in myth. As one approach to myth goes out of favor and is unraveled from the fabric, another takes its place. The result is that, like Penelope's shroud, the cloth of myth interpretation is ever-changing and can never be finished.
See Sienkewicz on the Web of Myth
See also Michael Webster’s Ways of Interpreting Myths

3. Monolithic vs. Multifunctional
Relief, marble. Temple of Hera at Selinus. ca. 465 B.C.

4. Ancient Ways of Viewing Myth
Archaic B.C.
Classical B.C.
Hellenistic B.C.
Myth as Venerable Tradition
Questioning of Myths (Rationality)
Myths as Allegory
Myths as Instructive Models
Myths as Inaccurate
Myths of Questionable Morality
Myths as Dangerous
Gods as Deified Heroes and Kings
Homer Xenophanes
Theagenes
Anaxagoras
Aeschylus
Euripides
Socrates
Plato
Euhemerus

5. Myths as Venerable Tradition
Hesiod, Theogony 921 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"Lastly, he [Zeus] made Hera his blooming wife : and she was joined in love with the king of gods and men, and brought forth Hebe and Ares and Eileithyia.“
For other versions, see:

6. The Rationalist Approach Xenophanes of Colophon c.570 B.C.
Questioned the gods’
Anthropomorphism
#170 But mortals consider that the gods are born, and that they have clothes and speech and bodies like their own.
#171 The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub- nosed and black, the Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair.
#172 But if cattle and horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their hands and do the works that men can do, horses would draw the forms of gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had themselves.
The anthropomorphism of Zeus

7. Myths as Allegory Theagenes of Rhegium (525 B.C.)
gods as symbols of human qualities; e.g.,
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c B.C.)
The misdeeds of the gods are intended to illustrate evil and teach virtue.

8. Myths as Allegory Theagenes of Rhegium (525 B.C.)
gods as symbols of human qualities; e.g., Zeus = Justice and Wisdom
Hesiod’s Theogony
(ll ) Now Zeus, king of the gods, made Metis his wife first, and she was wisest among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to bring forth the goddess bright-eyed Athene, Zeus craftily deceived her with cunning words and put her in his own belly, as Earth and starry Heaven advised. For they advised him so, to the end that no other should hold royal sway over the eternal gods in place of Zeus; for very wise children were destined to be born of her, first the maiden bright-eyed Tritogeneia, equal to her father in strength and in wise understanding; but afterwards she was to bear a son of overbearing spirit, king of gods and men. But Zeus put her into his own belly first, that the goddess might devise for him both good and evil.

9. Myths as Instructive Models (Paradigmatic Model)
Aeschylus (c B.C.) used myth to teach Athenians about the gods and the their role in the civic life of Athens.

10. Myths as Instructive Models (Paradigmatic Model)
Aeschylus (c B.C.) used myth to teach Athenians about the gods and the their role in the civic life of Athens.
Is Zeus a Paradeigm?
What instructive model does he offer?

11. Myths as Instructive Models (Paradigmatic Model)
“Hymn to Zeus” (Aeschylus. Agamemnon )
Zeus: whatever he may be, if this name pleases him in invocation, thus I call upon him. I have pondered everything yet I cannot find a way, only Zeus, to cast this dead weight of ignorance finally from out my brain. He who in time long ago was great, throbbing with gigantic strength, shall be as if he never were, unspoken. He who followed him has found his master, and is gone. Cry aloud without fear the victory of Zeus, you will not have failed the truth: Zeus, who guided men to think, who has laid it down that wisdom comes alone through suffering. Still there drips in sleep against the heart grief of memory; against our pleasure we are temperate From the gods who sit in grandeur grace comes somehow violent.
Aeschylus (c B.C.) used myth to teach Athenians about the gods and the their role in the civic life of Athens.
THE RELIGIOUS AND MORAL IDEAS OF AESCHYLUS
More Aeschylus on Zeus:

12. Myths as Inaccurate Euripides on the birth of Dionysus:
Confusion between thigh (meron) and hostage (hemeron), a reference to the false image of Dionysus which Zeus gave to Hera as a hostage.
Boston Museum of Fine Arts Attic Red-Figure Lekythos

13. Myths as Dangerous Plato Banishes Poetry (=Myths) from his Ideal Republic
In Republic Book X Socrates banishes poets from the city as unwholesome and dangerous because:
The poets pretend to know all sorts of things, but they really know nothing at all. The things they deal with cannot be known: they are images, far removed from what is most real. By presenting scenes so far removed from the truth poets, pervert souls, turning them away from the most real toward the least.

14. What would Plato criticize in Aeschylus’ version of Zeus?
“Hymn to Zeus” (Aeschylus. Agamemnon )
Zeus: whatever he may be, if this name pleases him in invocation, thus I call upon him. I have pondered everything yet I cannot find a way, only Zeus, to cast this dead weight of ignorance finally from out my brain. He who in time long ago was great, throbbing with gigantic strength, shall be as if he never were, unspoken. He who followed him has found his master, and is gone. Cry aloud without fear the victory of Zeus, you will not have failed the truth: Zeus, who guided men to think, who has laid it down that wisdom comes alone through suffering. Still there drips in sleep against the heart grief of memory; against our pleasure we are temperate From the gods who sit in grandeur grace comes somehow violent.
Aeschylus (c B.C.) used myth to teach Athenians about the gods and the their role in the civic life of Athens.
THE RELIGIOUS AND MORAL IDEAS OF AESCHYLUS
More Aeschylus on Zeus:

15. Myths as Dangerous Plato Banishes Poetry (=Myths) from his Ideal Republic
In Republic Book X Socrates banishes poets from the city as unwholesome and dangerous because:
Poetry corrupts even the best souls. It deceives us into sympathizing with those who grieve excessively, who lust inappropriately, who laugh at base things. It even goads us into feeling these base emotions vicariously. We think there is no shame in indulging these emotions because we are indulging them with respect to a fictional character and not with respect to our own lives.
Does Tantalu’ myth corrupt? If so, how?

16. Euhemerism
On Euhemerus of Messene, see
From Diodorus Siculus:
Now Euhemerus, who was a friend of King Cassander [of Macedonia (301 to 297 B.C.)] and was required by him to perform certain affairs of state and to make great journeys abroad, says that he traveled southward as far as the [Indian] ocean; for setting sail from Arabia he voyaged through the ocean for a considerable number of days and was carried to the shore of some islands in the sea, one of which bore the name of Panachaea. On this island he saw the Panachaeans who dwell there, who excel in piety and honor the gods with the most magnificent sacrifices and with remarkable votive offerings of silver and gold.... There is also on the island, situated on an exceedingly high hill, a sanctuary of Zeus, which was established by him during the time when he was king of all the inhabited world and was still in the company of men. And in the temple there is a stele of gold on which is inscribed in summary, in the writing employed by the Panchaeans, the deeds of Ouranos and Kronos and Zeus.
Egyptian Pharaohs as Living Horus
Roman Emperors Deified (Apotheosis)

17. DIVO·ANTONINO·ET DIVAE·FAUSTINAE·EX·S·C
Temple of Antonins Pius and Faustina
Rome, c. 141 A.D.

18. Ancient Ways of Viewing Myth
Archaic B.C.
Classical B.C.
Hellenistic B.C.
Myth as Venerable Tradition
Questioning of Myths (Rationality)
Myths as Allegory
Myths as Instructive Models
Myths as Inaccurate
Myths of Questionable Morality
Myths as Dangerous
Gods as Deified Heroes and Kings
Homer
Xenophanes
Theagenes
Anaxagoras
Aeschylus
Euripides
Socrates
Plato
Euhemerus