Zeus, the god of atmospheric phenomena and daylight, also called the god of the firmament, presides over Olympus. Among the most celebrated statues erected in his honour is that at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, long since disappeared.

The Gulbenkian Collection contains various coins with Zeus on the obverse, normally with the head represented in profile or at three quarters, but many others with the god on the reverse side and showing his whole body, naked from the waist up, sat on a backless throne with eagle and sceptre, standing like the statue by Doidalsas erected in Nicomedia ca. 250 BC, or even standing, seen from the back, at three quarters, advancing fearlessly and brandishing a thunderbolt.