Cult of Zeus

The religious practice in honour of Zeus, known as his "cult", stretched across the Greek world. He seldom occupied an elevated position in the pantheons of individual cities, few of which had him as their patron god. He was often worshipped on the peaks of mountains, and his Panhellenic sanctuaries (which attracted Greeks from afar) were located in remote areas.

Zeus's cult is attested as early as the 2nd millennium BC, his with name appearing on tablets written in Linear B (a script of Mycenaean Greek). His preeminent sanctuary was Olympia, where the high point of the religious festival which included the ancient Olympic Games was a giant sacrifice of cattle to Zeus. It was the site of a a temple dedicated to him, the largest in the Peloponnese, and an ash altar measuring 6.5 metres (21 ft) in height, composed of bones and ash which had accumuluated from repeated sacrifice. At Nemea, another athletic festival, the Nemean Games, was held in his honour. Under different epithets (surnames or titles), he was the recipient of Athenian festivals such as the Dipolieia and Diasia. His Cretan cult sites included a sanctuary at Palaikastro, where the Hymn to Zeus Diktaios was discovered, and a cave on Mount Ida, where he was worshipped for over 1000 years. His sanctuary on the peak of Mount Lykaion, in Arcadia, was rumoured in antiquity to have been the site of human sacrifice.