How many kids does Zeus have??

by Dejahnae Mikel
(Kansas)

People said 14?? What is the real anwser??

Hello Mikel!
Thank you for your question. I have done a quick search and found at least 74 children on one site and about 99 on another site, counting "twins", "muses", "horae" etc. as one (I'll soon add a page about Zeus' offspring).

He had lots of affairs with goddesses and with mortal women and many city-states claimed their founder was Zeus' son, and so they considered they had the right to conquer the others.

One of the historical characters who claimed to be Zeus' son is Alexander the Great. According to a legend, his mother, Olympia, had a dream about her womb being struck by a thunder, which was interpreted as that fact that the real father of the child was Zeus.

Alexander the Great was undefeated in battle and created an enormous empire by the age of thirty, so for ordinary people it was easy to believe he was the son of a god. (But let's not forget he had had Aristotle as a teacher!).