The Most Messed Up Things Zeus Ever Did

Before marrying Hera, Zeus was in a union with a Titan named Metis. Things were going well until a prophecy was spoken to Zeus that said he'd be overpowered by one of the two children he'd have with Metis - the same way he overtook Chronus. 

To keep from having children with Metis, Zeus convinced her to turn into a fly and then he ate her. At the time, Metis was pregnant with Athena, and when the girl was born, she had to be split out of Zeus's head by Hephaestus. Metis, however, was never heard from again. 

Prometheus took fire from the gods and gave humans the gift of heat and light. Zeus wasn't pleased with Prometheus for his act of pilfering, but more than anything, the god was angry that someone would defy his will. To punish Prometheus, Zeus chained him to the side of Mount Caucasus.

But Zeus didn't just chain Prometheus - the king of the gods added a little twist to his retribution. Zeus ordered an eagle to peck out Prometheus's liver every night. Then, his liver would revive itself, and the eagle would come back and start the whole thing over again. 

While in an immortal union with the goddess Hera, Zeus stepped out on her many times, usually in creative ways to conceal his infidelity. Zeus turned into a bull to sleep with Europa, he impregnated Semele with the god Dionysus, and he turned into a swan to get with Leda, an Aetolian princess.

While all of those transformations are odd, perhaps the strangest was when he turned into a shower of gold so he could be with Danaë. 

In order to seduce Io, the princess of Argos, Zeus covered the world in clouds so he could got intimate with her without Hera knowing. However, Hera grew suspicious and began dispersing the clouds. So as to protect Io (and himself) from Hera's wrath, he transformed Io into a white cow. 

Although Zeus claimed he had never seen the cow before, Hera was suspicious and asked him to gift her the cow. Hera placed the hundred-eyed giant Argus Panoptes in charge of watching over the transformed Io. In an effort to rescue her, Zeus sent Hermes to kill the giant and set her free. 

Further angered, Hera sent the mother of all gad-flys to constantly torment Io. Driven to near-madness, Io wandered the earth for years. Eventually, upon reaching the Nile River, Io was finally transformed back into human form by Zeus.

Zeus designed Pandora to be a burden on humanity. After she was created by the gods, Hera gifted Pandora with a thirst for knowledge, and then Zeus gave her a jar (in later tellings, a box) and made her promise never to open it - something he knew she couldn't do. 

Unable to curb her curiosity, Pandora opened the jar and unleashed everything evil into the world. 

When Zeus got frustrated with the decadence of humanity, he decided to wipe everyone out with a great flood. He raised the oceans so high that everyone except for Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha lost their lives. 

Deucalion and Pyrrha rode out the flood in an ark and landed on Mount Parnassus. They offered the gods a sacrifice to repopulate humanity, and were told to “cast behind them the bones of their mother.” Deducing that this was a reference to “mother earth,” they began throwing stones, which were transformed into people.