Zeus

Zeus (ゼウス, Ζεύς) is a mythological thunder god who governs over the other deities of Mount Olympus. Known for his romantic escapades, he fathered many heroic figures in Greek myth.

Role in Games
In the fourth installment of the Warriors Orochi series, Zeus took an interest in Orochi's parallel world and brought the heroes back there to realize his ambitions.

Through his mirror in Olympus, Zeus saw the history of how Orochi created a parallel world and taking heroes from the Three Kingdoms era and the Sengoku period and how the heroes defeated Orochi, the Hydra and the God of Destruction. Intrigued, he decided to recreate that world for his own goals and created the Ouroboros bracelets from his powers and the power of Orochi's scythe, which he had "borrowed" from the Mystic Realm. As he creates the world, pulling heroes back to the parallel world and drops a couple of the bracelets, Perseus, a half-mortal son of Zeus stole the bracelets which delays Zeus' plans. As the bracelets were not activated, powerful beings such as himself cannot enter without risking the destruction of the recreated world, thus he ordered his children, Athena and Ares to go to the world and prepare for his arrival, without telling what his plan was. As the world stabilizes, more powerful beings arrived from the Mystic Realm and Olympus, and this includes Zeus, who arrives and immediately fights the human coalition, who had noticed that Perseus is not actually Perseus, but Loki, an Asgardian god. In a tough battle, the humans barely defeated Zeus, who was intrigued by the humans' strength. Meeting his children, he continues to order them to engage the humans without telling why, which irritates Ares.

As the humans fought and bested Zeus again, he commented at the strength of the humans and superficially said that seeing the humans fight his children wants to make him fight, this angers Ares and Ares stole Zeus's power, having made a deal with Loki and the one who sent him, Odin, King of Asgard. This forces Zeus to a comatose state, with his weapon separated and his body hidden by Loki. The coalition then fought Loki to find out where Zeus's body was hidden, which Loki then tells them voluntarily. Zeus was then revived by Athena, the Mystics who helps the humans and Ares, who was backstabbed by Odin and stole Zeus's power. Revived, Zeus then punishes Ares by forcing him to dedicate his life in defense of all lives on all worlds.

With his revival, he then tells the coalition his real goal: he never wanted power or conquest, instead, Zeus wanted to use his power as bait to lure Odin out and defeat him with the humans and Mystics; before he created the parallel world, Zeus had seen how Odin survived his demise and how his fear of destruction and thirst for power had created a disturbing ambition to conquer all worlds and started marshalling his forces for war. This concerns Zeus as this would mean all-out war between the gods of Asgard and Olympus and will engulf the human world and the Mystic Realm as well. In order to prevent this, he saw the humans' fight against Orochi and decided that it would be best that he traps Odin in the parallel world and defeat Odin there with the humans. Zeus also accounted for Orochi to be revived by Odin and planned for this to allow the Mystics to enter the parallel world to help the humans. While he did not account for Ares' betrayal and Odin stealing his power and use of the God of Destruction, he remains helpful towards the humans after seeing them fight, and decided to help them directly after the humans gave his weapon back.

He then fights in the final battle alongside Athena, Ares and the humans against Odin. He helped the humans defeat the God of Destruction and Orochi, and was surprised at the fight between the two. In the final battle, he then personally cleared the way to Odin's weapon, Yggdrasil. With Odin defeated, Zeus retakes his own power and destroyed Yggdrasil, which destabilizes the parallel world; Zeus then apologizes for his doings, retakes the bracelets back and with the help of the Mystics, sends back the humans to their respective time periods.

Personality
As the King of the gods of Olympus, Zeus is a regal and arrogant god, with good reason as he is the strongest being in Olympus. His arrogance is matched with his tendency to manipulate mortals and other gods alike, even his own children, to his ends; with his arrogance, he is also extremely intelligent, capable of hiding his own goals until he think it's necessary to reveal them. However, his true personality far differs from what is seen on the surface: he is incredibly tolerant towards other beings, be it mystics, or humans, and genuinely cares for other beings as well, even going as far as using his own power as a trap for Odin. This true personality of Zeus came out of concern after seeing Odin escape his fated death and became obsessed with power and knowledge; concerned for the well-being of Olympus, the Mystic Realm and the human world, he did not want to risk all-out war as he knows it would engulf all worlds.

Character Symbolism
Keraunos, Zeus' weapon is the Greek word for Thunder or Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is one of Zeus' key capabilities as the Greek god of thunder.

Voice Actors

 * Takashi Matsuyama - Warriors Orochi 4

Greek Mythology
Zeus is the King of the Olympians, and associated as the God of Sky, Thunder and Lightning. Often considered the greatest of the Olympian Gods, he is one of the most famous mythological being, his exploits as well known as his progeny, with infidelity caused him to have many gods, goddesses and demigods to be his children. Literature of the Hellenistic or Greek Mythology comes from a poem recorded by Hesiod in the 8th century BC called the Theogony, which recalled the rise of the Greek Gods and the fall of the Titans.

Zeus was the youngest son of the Titan Cronus or Kronos, Kronos himself is a son of Uranus, a first generation Titan. Kronos had overthrown Uranus in a battle, but was then prohesised to be overthrown by his children, just as he overthrown Uranus. In an attempt to make sure that this prophecy never happens, Kronos would consume and swallow each of his children whole, the mother of said children was his sister-wife Rhea. When Rhea gave birth to Zeus, Kronos was tricked by Rhea who switched Zeus with a rock wrapped in a blanket. Rhea then took Zeus in a cave in the island of Crete, which he was raised by a deity called Amalthea. As Zeus reached adulthood, he masqueraded as a cupbearer for Cronus, and when he was confirmed to be his servant, one of the Titaness, Metis gave him a mixture of mustard and wine which caused Cronos to throw up his consumed children. This was the start of a ten-year conflict known as the Titanomachy or the Battle of the Gods, which was a battle for the control of the universe with Zeus and his siblings on one side, and Cronus and his Titans. For ten years, the Olympian gods and Titans fought each other, in a series of battles. In the end, the Olympians won and imprisoned most of the Titans in Tartarus. Zeus and his siblings then divided the universe, with Zeus gaining control of the sky and lightning and became leader of the Olympians.