Where did Zeus come from?

As Tom alluded to, it deserves an episode. It would be an interesting detective tale.

Zeus is essentially a derivative of Dios — a name found in many of the pantheons of Indo-European speaking peoples. Linguists reconstruct it to an ancestral *Diyeus; likely a skygod. Based on archaeology, the speakers of that ancestral language lived in what’s now the Ukraine

An episode about the Indo-Europeans (and maybe the pre-Indo-European populations of Europe) would be interesting.

The most likely Oxford professor you're looking for is Robin Lane Fox, a prominent classicist and ancient historian who has lectured and written extensively on ancient Greek myths and has even theorized about their origins.

I really hope you do do a future episode on the potential historic origins of these gods. Euhemerus, Diodorus Siculus and Sanchuniathon all explicitly say that these are mythologised accounts of kings. Newton tried, but no one’s managed to competently piece together the history.

Thanks to your Greek myths cast, I now understand the Genesis lyric "Take a little trip back with father Tiresias... I have crossed between the poles, for me there's no mystery. Once a man, like the sea I raged, Once a woman, like the earth I gave."!!!!!!

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Very interesting. I would also be interested in learning if there are any known instances of a king in bronze age Greece or Anatolia being worshipped as a god after death.

Er, he came from what is now called Crete.