by Shawn Forno

Created on: April 18, 2010

As cool as Odin is, Zeus would win for four simple reasons:

1)      Zeus is immortal. Odin is not.

 The Asgardian Gods – Thor, Loki, Freya, Odin, etc. – are not immortal. They age like mortals, just very, very slowly. They can be killed in battle, and often are killed in fights with the ice giants and massive serpents of Norse myth.

Olympian Gods are never truly killed. They are banished, like Prometheus, or imprisoned, like the elder Gods – the Titans – inside of Tartarus, but Greek Gods are immortal, even when swallowed by other Gods, like Zeus was by his father Kronos. The pantheon of Norse Gods changes because of the natural progression from father to son. Odin’s father is not king because he aged and was replaced by Odin. He wasn’t defeated and ousted like Zeus did to Kronos and the other Titans. The changing of the guard was a natural progression of age versus youth, not a pitched battle between primal forces (the Titans) and refined strength (the Olympians).

There’s simply nothing Odin could do – Zeus, an immortal Greek God – would eventually slay or defeat Odin – a powerful, yet mortal being.

2)      Zeus has lightning bolts. Odin’s just really clever.

Zeus wields lightning bolts that smote enemies with pinpoint accuracy from his throne on Mount Olympus, while Odin wields control over the other Norse Gods through wisdom and manipulation. Odin is a fierce warrior and wily opponent, but his main virtue is knowledge of the future. The reason he only has one eye is because he gave is other eye to the Norse Fates at Mimir’s Well in exchange for knowledge of how to survive Ragnarok – the Norse apocalypse where many of the Gods are killed. He’s a brilliant god, and exceptional maker of weapons – he created Thor’s hammer – but ultimately he created that hammer to let Thor take care of most of the fighting.

Toe to toe, he’s no match for Zeus. Zeus almost single handedly turned the tide of battle against the Titans with his mighty lightning bolts, and he’s crafty as well, both evading Kronos during the years of his youth, and then marshalling the hundred-handed and other mighty beings against the Titans in his bid for control. He’s a god of cunning and might, while Odin prefers to work behind the scenes.

It’s simply a matter of a crafty middleweight taking on the heavy weight champ

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