Loves of Zeus.
Although married to his sister Hera (Juno), Zeus (Jupiter) was an incorrigible philanderer, pursuing a host of other deities and mortals. Many legends concerning his amorous pursuits have as their subplot the revenge of his jealous wife. In an effort both to conceal his lechery from her and to lure his unwitting quarry, Zeus often disguised himself. He seduced Europa as a white bull, Leda as a swan, Danaë as a shower of gold, Antiope as a satyr, Mnemosyne as a shepherd, the boy Ganymede as an eagle, Alcmene as her own husband, and Callisto as the goddess Artemis. According to Ovid, he even made love to his own daughter, Persephone (Proserpina), in the guise of a spotted serpent. On occasion he conducted his conquests without benefit of disguise, and sometimes simply seized an opportunity during one of his wife’s less vigilant moments.
       Hera’s wrath was sometimes vented on the women Zeus seduced, sometimes on their offspring. Hera destroyed his children by Lamia, who became savage with grief. She caused both Leto and Alcmene to suffer prolonged labor in her attempt to prevent the births of Apollo and Artemis and of Heracles; the latter was to endure Hera’s ire throughout his life. She also set the stage for Semele’s fiery death, and after Zeus saved Semele’s son Dionysus, she punished the infant’s nurse by driving her and her husband mad. According to some accounts, the death of Callisto at the hands of her son Areas was contrived by Hera as well. Others, like Io, were tormented mercilessly but managed to survive Hera’s vengeance.
      The lesser-known loves of Zeus included the nymph Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus. Zeus carried her off to the island that now bears her name and, in the form of a flame, raped her. She bore a son, Aeacus; he beseeched Zeus’s intervention when Hera visited a plague upon the island.
      When Zeus tried to seduce Asteria, sister of Leto, she turned herself into a quail and jumped into the sea, whereupon she became the island called Ortygia (Quail Island, at Siracusa), sometimes considered another name for Delos. The Pleiad Maia, daughter of Atlas and Pleione, was seduced by Zeus while Hera was asleep, and bore him Hermes (Mercury).
      
      
      
      See also Amphitryon and Alcmene; Birth of Heracles; Antiope; Callisto; Danaë; Europa; Ganymede; Hera; Io; Lamia; Leda; Leto; Mnemosyne; Semele; Thetis.