Zeus Coloring Pages
Zeus was the king of the Greek gods and ruler of the sky. He lived on Mount Olympus and threw thunderbolts when he was angry. The eagle was his sacred bird, and the oak was his sacred tree. His brothers Poseidon and Hades ruled the sea and the underworld. You'll find easy pages for young kids and detailed ones for adults and teens below.
This Zeus information worksheet and coloring page has the name "Zeus" in large letters at the top for you to color. Below it, a simple picture of Zeus as a strong but friendly elder leaves room to add your own details, like lightning. The bottom half has a few fun facts about him.
information worksheet and coloring pages
In this coloring page, lightning crackles from Zeus's clenched fist, ready to be thrown. Zeus was the god of the sky, so storms, thunder, and lightning were his to command. The Greeks also saw him as the protector of oaths and guests, and he punished people who broke them.
Zeus' lightning bolt: This is a great magical weapon, in my opinion. Zeus threw thunderbolts at anyone who challenged him, including the Titans and the monster Typhon. The Cyclopes forged them for him before the war with the Titans began, and the bolts helped him win.
In this graffiti-style coloring page, Zeus glares out with a fierce expression, surrounded by lightning bolts, clouds, and swirling patterns. The sharp, detailed lines make it a good challenge for adults.
Zeus as an elder: In these coloring pages, Zeus has flowing white hair and a long white beard. The Greeks pictured him as a mature, bearded king, and he was the father or ruler of many of the other gods.
Zeus ruled the gods and he usually gave the impression that he wasn’t afraid of anything.
When Hera wanted Zeus asleep so that she could interfere with Herakles, she went straight to Hypnus (Sleep). Sleep was playful and jumped at the chance but when Zeus woke up, Sleep realizes he was in big trouble. Zeus was furious! And Sleep quickly ran for his life, straight to his mother.
Zeus chased him all the way to her door. And then he stopped. No one knows what went through his mind as he stared up at the Palace of Night... all we know is that he grumbled to himself, turned around and went home. So who was Sleep’s mother, and what was it about her that made even Zeus think twice...
Zeus with a shield: In these coloring page, Zeus holds a shield. In Greek mythology, his famous shield-like cloak was called the aegis, and Homer often calls him "aegis-bearer." It was fringed with snakes and sometimes shown with Medusa's head in the middle, and shaking it could terrify an enemy. Zeus later shared it with his daughter Athena. I kind of think of Zeus as being a shield carrier and Athena as wearing the magical cloak. Mythology is like that though... at least some of us is left to our imagination.
Zeus and the eagle: The eagle was Zeus's special bird, and here it perches right beside him. The Greeks thought it was fitting for the king of the gods, since eagles fly higher than almost any other bird. In some stories, an eagle even carried his thunderbolts for him!
Zeus and the oak tree: The oak was Zeus's sacred tree, so here he is standing right beside one. Oaks get hit by lightning more often than many other trees, which may be why the Greeks linked them to the god of thunder. At Dodona, in northern Greece, people even listened to the rustling leaves of a giant oak to hear what Zeus was saying.
Zeus with glowing eyes: Look at those glowing eyes! This Zeus looks like he's about to unleash a storm. The Greeks sometimes called him "the all-seeing," since they believed nothing on earth escaped his notice. That's one reason people swore oaths in his name, because he'd know if they broke them.
Zeus in a storm: Of all Zeus's symbols, the thunderbolt is the big one, and I love drawing a good storm! Here he stands in the middle of swirling clouds with lightning crackling all around him. Thunder and lightning were his to command, and his bolts were forged for him by the Cyclopes. Coloring the sky is where you can really go wild, with deep purples, stormy grays, and bright yellow for the lightning.
Zeus in ancient Greek clothing: I sometimes give the gods a bit of a comic book look, so on these pages I worked to dress Zeus the way an ancient Greek would. Here he wears a himation, a big rectangular cloak draped over one shoulder. Artists often showed Zeus this way, with his chest bare and the cloak wrapped around his waist and arm. Underneath, everyday Greeks wore a simple tunic called a chiton.
Of course, in normal life, I call it a "toga" but togas are actually Roman not Greek.
Fun fact about lightning: A single bolt can heat the air around it to about 50,000°F (28,000°C), which is several times hotter than the surface of the sun! That heat makes the air expand so fast that it creates a shock wave, and that's the boom we hear as thunder. Next storm, try counting the seconds between the flash and the thunder. About five seconds means the lightning was roughly a mile away.
About Zeus
The Birth and Young Life of Zeus
Zeus's father, one of the Titans, was afraid of him before Zeus was even born.
His father's name was Cronus, and he ruled the whole world in those days. Someone had told him that one of his own children would take his throne, and he made up his mind that none of them would get the chance. Each time a baby was born, he swallowed it whole. There were five of them, one after another, and their mother, Rhea, could only watch.
When the sixth child was about to be born, she had a plan.
She wrapped a large gray stone in baby blankets and held it out to her husband. Cronus was in a hurry and never looked closely. He swallowed the stone and went away satisfied. Rhea carried the real baby, Zeus, across the sea to the island of Crete and hid him in a cave in the heart of a mountain.
The cave was cool and dim, with walls the color of wet slate and a little gold light that crept in at the entrance each morning. A spring trickled out of the rock at the back and collected in a clear green pool. A goat named Amalthea gave the baby her milk. Eagles flew in with ambrosia, the food of the gods. And the nymphs brought honey, thick and amber, still dripping from the comb.
The youngest of the nymphs looked after him the most. She was cheerful and she talked to the baby as if he could answer back. She called him "your majesty" when he was being good and "your enormous majesty" when he wasn't.
The hardest part was keeping hidden from Cronus. Babies cry and a baby's cry can travel a long way. So Rhea's priests stood outside the cave and clashed their shields together, over and over, so loudly that no other sound could be heard. Cronus never once heard his youngest son.
One afternoon the honey jar was empty. Zeus screamed, red in the face, his fists clenched tight. The air in the cave began to prickle. Then a thin white bolt of lightning leapt from his hand, crackling and bright as a splinter of the sun streaking toward a crack in the roof where the sky showed through.
The young nymph didn't think. She flung out her arms and the spring leapt out of the rock. It rose in a shining ribbon and wrapped around the bolt, and she hauled it down with everything she had. The water hissed. Steam filled the cave. For a moment she couldn't feel her fingers.
When the steam cleared, the bolt was gone and Zeus was hiccuping in his blankets, perfectly cheerful. The young nymph slid down the wall and sat on the floor... pale and dripping.
"Lightning from a clear sky," she told him shakily. "Your father would have found us by supper. Your majesty, you owe me a spring."
Zeus grew quickly. He became strong enough to lift boulders that three grown men could not move. But as he grew, he realized he couldn't stop thinking about his father and about the brothers and sisters he had swallowed. In the worlds of Greek gods and Titans being swallowed isn't the end. Zeus knew his siblings waited in the darkness to be saved.
One morning the young nymph found him standing at the cave entrance, looking out at the sea. He had been standing there a long time.
"You're thinking of leaving," she said. She tried to make it sound light, and almost managed it.
"I'm thinking of my brothers and sisters," said Zeus. "They've been waiting a long time."
"And if your father swallows you, too?"
"Then he'll find out what I'm like when I'm angry."
She laughed in spite of herself. "I certainly know exactly what you're like, your enormous majesty. You still owe me a spring."
Zeus grinned despite himself and the nymph stepped aside. He was finished with hiding, and he walked out of the cave to make his father give back his siblings.
Print "The Birth and Young Life of Zeus" story and coloring pages (PDF)
Coloring Ideas for Zeus
- Leave the lightning bolt white or pale yellow and color the sky dark around it. The bolt seems to glow.
- Try a gray and silver beard instead of white. It stands out better against a pale sky.
- On the storm page, color the clouds in layers, dark at the bottom and lighter toward the top.
- For a challenge, draw Zeus meeting his brothers Poseidon and Hades, and give each a different weapon.
