Zeus
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Zeus. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in Greek mythology, the chief of the gods. He was the son of Cronus, who ruled before him, and Rhea. Cronus was in the habit of swallowing his children as soon as they were born. Rhea decided to save Zeus. So she gave the father a stone wrapped in cloth to swallow, and concealed the infant in a cave in Mount Ida, where he was tended by nymphs. The goat Amalthea supplied him with milk and bees gathered honey for him. When Zeus was grown he gave his father a draught which caused him to disgorge the children whom he had swallowed. Then the brothers and sisters united to depose their father, calling the Titans to their aid. Zeus, Poseidon, and Pluto divided the dominion by lot. Poseidon obtained the sea; Pluto, the lower world; and Zeus, the heaven or upper air. The earth itself was supposed to be shared in common, although mankind regarded Zeus as more powerful than his brothers. Metis, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, was the first wife of Zeus, who swallowed her because it had been prophesied that she should bear a son who should rule the world. Zeus then married Themis, but he preferred Hera and took her for his third wife. Hera is regarded usually as the queen of heaven, sharing the throne with Zeus. The children of Zeus and Hera are Hebe, Ares, and Hephaestus. Zeus was regarded as the founder of law and order. He avenged wrongs, punished the sinner, and rewarded the virtuous. Nevertheless, he is himself guilty of all sorts of intrigues. He was crafty and almost malicious at times. The original conception of the god doubtless gave him the characteristics of wisdom, justice, and benevolence; but gradually the faults of mankind were ascribed to him. In art Zeus is represented as of majestic appearance. The scepter, the thunderbolt, and the eagle are his symbols. Zeus is identified with the Jupiter of the Romans, but the Roman conception was superior in many respects. See Jupiter ; Titans ; Cronus
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the greatest of the national deities of ancient Greece; according to the most received mythology, son of Cronos and Rhea.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The myths Aiton's set down in 1910 — the stone swallowed in place of the infant, the cave on Mount Ida, the goat Amalthea, the lots drawn with Poseidon and Pluto — are still told in the same order today, because they come from Hesiod and Homer and those texts have not changed. What has moved is the evidence for the god's antiquity: when Michael Ventris deciphered Linear B in 1952, the name turned up as di-we and di-wo on Bronze Age tablets from Knossos and Pylos, showing Zeus was already receiving offerings some six centuries before Hesiod wrote. Excavation at Olympia in the 1950s uncovered the workshop where Pheidias built his colossal gold-and-ivory Zeus, identified by a cup scratched "I belong to Pheidias." The one judgement a modern writer would not repeat is Aiton's closing line that "the Roman conception was superior in many respects" — that kind of ranking of one people's gods above another's has dropped out of scholarship.
Written for this edition, 2026.