sparklight | Zeus' Wives

Both a list and some short worldbuilding thoughts, more as an aid for my fic writing than anything else, though I follow the order they were with Zeus as Hesiod gives it and the children they get together!

Metis is first.
He meets her before the Titanomachy; Rhea brings her along as a second mind to help plan the eventual coup as she starts daring to visit him more directly the older he gets and might actually be able to fight his father. They get involved and are married through the war, but shortly after that whole Thing goes down and Metis is gone. He was young, it was half desperation, half impetuous action born out of aggressive (perceived self-)defense and confusion.

Themis is second.
She is perhaps as much rebound as an attempt at legitimacy (a king should have a wife), but it works out surprisingly well. They mesh beyond just any sexual attraction. As much as they do like each other, however, they don't last, though she's still second in terms of length. They work better as friends and confidantes without the bond and expectation "wife and husband" imparts on their relationship, it just takes time for them to get there to realize that (Themis does not like the cheating, but she immediately susses out why it keeps happening and that it has nothing to do with her and their relationship, so it's the lesser reason for the eventual divorce). The Horai (Dike, Eunomia, Eirene, also called Thallo, Auxo and Carpo, are the keepers of the gates of Olympos) and three nymph daughters (they care for some of the divine artifacts) are his oldest legitimate children.

Eurynome is third.
They lasted as long as it took for her youngest (Pasithea) to reach three before she decided she wasn't Up For This. Mostly because when she did approach him (and she approached him first, though made sure Zeus worked up to seduction/courting by himself, so it appeared to be from his initiation), it was intended as a way to get back at Rhea (and Kronos) for being dethroned. She ended up caring enough about Zeus that she knew it wasn't right for either of them, so, unable to continue her attempted revenge, broke things off to go back to her parents. They have three daughters, Aglaia/Charis, Thalia and Pasithea.
(Taking the Oceanid Eurynome as the same as the Eurynome and Titan Ophion who briefly ruled from Olympos before Rhea and Kronos got rid of them; it's a brief scrap of myth that I found rather interesting, and you can use it to add some substance and character and motivation to Eurynome.)

Demeter is fourth.
She wasn't really interested in marriage - and they don't precisely marry even after some wooing which involved a bride kidnapping (half as a joke honestly and she didn't take it seriously, especially when it ended like a couple miles away in a meadow, not on Olympos, which she... partially lives at anyway); they had a lot of fun, but exactly because of that Demeter realized she Super Wasn't Interested in making it official. It had less to do with Zeus as a person and more the fact that she just didn't want to marry, or be the queen, or have to have a family in the way you were supposed to when it comes to marriage. Neither knew about her pregnancy with Persephone yet when Demeter put her foot down, and Zeus was relieved this time when the child turned out to be a daughter and not a/his first son.

Mnemosyne is fifth.
They lasted for a while (Zeus divorced her when Leto caught his interest), the longest after Themis (third after he marries Hera) and while the nine children he got by her are of course loved, nine is a lot for not getting a single son. It's Zeus' greatest reason for divorce when it comes to Mnemosyne, but they were both in agreement here on top of the fact she was very disenchanted with his cheating and didn't take it as laconically as Themis did.

Leto is sixth.
Zeus pursues Hera at the same time (who keeps denying him) as he's involved with Leto, and while he doesn't marry her, he keeps being involved with her, which pisses Hera off and makes her feel both insulted as well as threatened as she picks up on the change in the flow, the possibility of changing order, as Leto becomes pregnant. That has Hera both extremely jealous (the chance Leto is pregnant with a son to induce such a change is very possible, after all) and insulted Zeus is still insisting with her, so she harries Leto throughout her pregnancy and especially close to labour in a fit of partially misplaced anger. Zeus only gives up on Leto shortly after Artemis and Apollo is born. (Leto is, honestly, relieved, for she wouldn't have done well as Queen, but would also not have taken steps for divorce herself if they had actually married.)

Hera is seventh.
A mix of persistence and, finally, Zeus humbling himself as much as he tricks her, for the transformation into a cuckoo does last for a whole Great Year. Not that he keeps it for that whole time, but he keeps up the pretense for that long, with Themis' help as needed. It ends up doing what he hopes as it endears him to her, so when he reveals himself, Hera is surprised and charmed he stayed something so cute and harmless for such a length of time, and is convinced (as well as for her own ambition) to marry him.