Though Zeus (Jupiter as his Roman mythology counterpart) is the closest figure in Greek mythology to an almighty ruler, he is far from all-powerful. He also lacks the perfection we might expect in a divine ruler.

However, this imperfection is only a detriment if we view Zeus as a moral authority, which, according to his stories, he is not. Hamilton portrays Zeus as both an agent and a victim of fate.

As ruler of the gods, Zeus is destined to overthrow his father, Kronos, who himself became lord of the universe after overthrowing his father, Uranus.

Kronos's inability to prevent his overthrow is the first example we see of the inevitability of fate—a recurring theme in mythological stories. Even Zeus himself is fated to be overthrown by one of his children.

Zeus is always conscious of what he sees as an impossible difference between gods and humans, he does not pity mortals. It is perhaps this essential lack of sympathy that enables Zeus to toy with humans heartlessly, ruining the lives of many women, who seem to exist only for his satisfaction.

Yet, this behaviour only represents one side of Zeus's character; the other, more evolved side is his role as the divine upholder of justice for both gods and humans.

But this side isn't shown often, and in YA books containing Greek mythology, like Percy Jackson, for instance, Zeus is shown to be lazy, overbearing, incompetent and seems to have a penchant for punishing others for crimes he excused himself for, sometimes even reaping the benefits from a crime.

An example of that is him punishing Prometheus- a Titan who is supposed to be above the gods. Prometheus was friends with Zeus after he sided with him in the Titan war. He is shown to be punished for giving mortals fire when Zeus said not to, and hence, is banished to the underworld, chained to a rock, having his liver eaten out everyday by an eagle, Zeus's sacred animal.

But later, when Zeus is worshipped and admired by the humans, he happily reaps the benefits, not caring about the fact he was against them being given fire, never giving a single thought to Prometheus.

Overall, although Zeus is shown as a lazy, incompetent fool, it is also shown that those traits come from internal insecurity of being the youngest born, as well as being hated by both his brothers; Poseidon and Hades.

Final conclusion: Zeus's insecurities of being overthrown and being undermined of his power limits his judgments as an authoritative being, and these insecurities lead to him having the worst traits, which leads to him being disrespected as a leader, further feeding into his insecurities. A vicious cycle as gods are forever destined to remain the same.