To gain total control of the universe Zeus fought a series of wars with the Titans, the Giants, and Typhon. In the war with the Titans, Zeus along with his five brothers and sisters (Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera, and Demeter) conquered the Titans with the help of the Hundred-handed monsters and a wise son of a Titan, Prometheus. Pan, the satyr, took glory in the idea that his weapon, a shrill shout, with a sudden, unreasoning terror, or "panic," helped in overcoming the Titans. Zeus bound the Titans in chains and hurled them into Tartarus of the Underworld.

        The gods and goddesses continued in a war with the Giants. Although the gods seemed to have the advantage, they learned from an oracle that they could never defeat the Giants without the aid of the mortal, Hercules, who shot many of the strongest of the Giants. Zeus and Hercules fought together. Zeus struck Giants with his thunderbolts and Hercules finished them off with his arrows. Zeus then hurled the Giants into Tartarus as well.

        Zeus fought Typhon with lightning until even the Titans imprisoned in the depths of Tartarus trembled. At last the god prevailed. He crushed Typhon's smoking body with a mountain, Mt. Ætna.

       The 12 Olympians

        Thus the twelve great gods and goddesses, the Olympians, became supreme. They were called the Olympians because Olympus was their home. What Olympus was, however, is not easy to say. There is no doubt that at first it was held to be a mountain top, Greece's highest mountain, Mt. Olympus in Thessaly, in the northeast of Greece. But some ancient Greeks thought of Mt. Olympus as more than a real mountain. They imagined it as some mysterious region far above all the mountains of the earth. Wherever it was, the entrance to it was a great gate of clouds kept by the Seasons. Within were the gods' dwellings, where they lived and slept and feasted on ambrosia and nectar and listened to Apollo's lyre. It was an abode of perfect blessedness. No wind, Homer says, ever-shakes the troubled peace of Olympus; no rain ever falls there or snow; but the cloudless firmament stretches around it on all sides and the white glory of Sunshine is diffused upon its walls.

As with any typical family, there were some disagreements. Often Zeus had to throw a thunderbolt to break up family arguments.

These "Twelve Olympians" made up the divine family.