ZEUS (zūs, Gr. Zeus). The chief of the Olympian gods, corresponding to the Roman Jupiter (see Acts.14.12-Acts.14.13). His ancestry was as follows: Chaos, a heterogeneous mass containing all the seeds of nature, produced Gaea (Earth), who in turn produced Uranus (Heaven) and mar- ried him. Among their numerous progeny were Cronos (Saturn), who married his sister Rhea, and they became “Father and mother of the gods.” Chief of their children was Zeus, head of the Olympian gods and by various marriages and illicit unions the father of most of the greater gods of the Greek pantheon. One of the crowning insults that [[Antiochus Epiphanes]], king of Syria 176-164 b.c., offered to the Jews was his dedication of the temple at Jerusalem to Zeus (2Macc.6.1-2Macc.6.31).