Zeus was the sky god, "the father of gods and men," and the ruler of heaven and earth. He was the "cloud compeller" at whose will the clouds gathered or scattered across the sky, the "ruler of the storms," the "thunderer," by whom were hurled the ruddy lightnings. How far he surpassed all other gods in power is explained in the Iliad in an address made by Zeus himself to the gods:-- "Suspend from heaven A golden chain; let all the immortal host Cling to it from below: ye could not draw, Strive as ye might, the all-disposing Jove From heaven to earth. And yet if I should choose To draw it upward to me, I should lift, With it and you, the earth itself and sea Together, and I then would bind the chain Around the summit of the Olympian mount, And they should hang aloft."[4] [4] Iliad, Book viii., lines 21-30 in Bryant's translation. [Illustration: Alinari, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc. BUST OF ZEUS OTRICOLI _Vatican Gallery, Rome_] In the imagination of the Greeks Zeus was endowed with all the noblest elements in human character. He ruled the affairs of men with fatherly benevolence. He rewarded goodness, punished the wicked, and was withal the fountain-head of justice. By a nod of his head he made known his will, and there was no appeal from his decrees. Naturally, the Greeks pictured this god as a being of majestic stature and grand, benignant countenance, and sculptors did their best to make statues worthy of this conception. By common consent a certain type of countenance was accepted as the most fitting expression of this ideal. At last a great artist named Phidias produced a statue which perfectly carried out all the ideas at which other sculptors had aimed. It was of colossal size, made of gold and ivory, and was set up in a temple of Olympia. From this time forth every sculptor who had to represent Zeus had only to repeat the design of Phidias. Now we know that the farther an imitator gets from the original standard, the weaker is his copy. The first successors of Phidias made direct studies from his statue, but those coming after worked from copies. Still later artists took for their models copies of these copies, until at last much of the original grandeur of Phidias's conception was lost. The bust of Zeus reproduced in our illustration is thought to be a far-away copy of the head of Phidias's statue. From the marble of which it is made we know that it was executed in Italy, probably by some Greek sculptor who had come thither after his own nation had been conquered by Rome. The marvel is that he preserved so well the noble dignity of the ideal Zeus. This is the father of gods and men in his most benign aspect. The massive head is crowned like that of a lion with long, overhanging locks with which the flowing beard is mingled. These are the "Ambrosial curls Upon the Sovereign One's immortal head,"