16 February: Zeus

In this month, the ancient Greeks celebrated the marriage of Zeus.

1. He was the god of the Sky, Lightning and thunder and king of the Greek gods.
2. The most prominent symbols associated with him are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull and Oak Tree.
3. The name Zeus derives from Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky.
4. Zeus was the son of Cronus and Rhea. According to mythology he was both the oldest and youngest of their children. How? Gaia, the Greek goddess personifying earth, had told Cronus that one of his children would overthrow him like he had overthrown his own father. Cronus decided to prevent this by swallowing all his children as soon as they were born. By the time Zeus came along, Rhea was wise to this and hatched a plot to save him. She gave Cronus a stone wrapped in baby clothes and he swallowed that instead. Meanwhile, she hid the real baby in a cave and got a goat nymph called Amalthaea to look after him and young warriors to guard him. The warriors would clash their weapons every time Zeus cried so Cronus wouldn’t hear.
5. Zeus’s first act of revenge was to try and poison his father. Disguised as a cup bearer, he gave him poisoned Wine. Cronus drank it, but it didn’t kill him. It only made him throw up. He threw up all the babies he’d eaten. So Zeus was the last born, but the oldest of them at this point since he’d been allowed to grow up.
6. Zeus gathered an army by killing the guards at the dungeon Tartarus and released the brothers of Cronus, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes. As gratitude for releasing them, the Cyclopes gave Zeus the thunderbolt. Together they fought Cronus and his Titans and won.
7. Zeus and his brothers then shared the world by drawing lots. Zeus took control of the sky and air; Poseidon got the waters; and Hades got the underworld, the world of the dead.
8. Zeus was a randy so and so. He had seven wives including two of his sisters, his aunt and several of his cousins. Not to mention numerous affairs with both goddesses and mortal women, including his own daughter Aphrodite. It is estimated that Zeus had a total of at least 57 sexual partners.
9. Zeus is mentioned in the Bible. In Acts 14:8–13: when the people of Lystra saw the Apostle Paul heal a lame man, they mistook Paul and his partner Barnabas as gods, identifying Paul with Hermes and Barnabas with Zeus.
10. The Olympic Games began in Ancient Greece as a contest held every four years in honour of Zeus.

Character birthday

February, one of a band of villains known as the Calendar Mob. He is an Olympic level athlete at all winter sports; because his identity has never been revealed it is not known whether he ever actually competed in the Games. He also has the superpower of cold damage, and bio-integrated boots which adapt to the terrain and his needs, eg becoming ski boots/skis in snow and skates when travel on ice is required. He is also the shortest in stature of the Calendar Mob.