The Use of The Apostrophe To Indicate Possession?

Question

I have forgotten the rule.

Please help me.

Suppose that a word ends in the letter "s," like Zeus.

How do you indicate possession in English grammar?

Are you suppose to write Zeus' or is it Zeus's?

Like, what would be the correct way of say his realm?

Should you say, Zeus' realm extended far?

Or Zeus's realm extended far?

Answer 1

It would be Zeus' real extended far, because the 's' indicates plural, but because the last letter of Zeus is 's', then it is changed to Zeus'

So something Zeus owned would be 'that of Zeus'

Answer 2

This is an excellent question.  According to Strunk and White in The Elements of Style*, you form the singular possessive of words that end in s by adding 's.  

However, names are different.  Although possessives of most names that end in s are formed the same as above, with historical names (Jesus, Moses, Zeus), you simply add the apostrophe and do not add the additional s.

FYI, The Elements of Style is the 'bible' of serious writers.

Answer 3

There is no one English rule.

Some would write “Zeus’s thunderbolt”  and some say “Zeus’ thunderbolt”. It partly depends on how the person would say it. Dialects of English differ.

The form “Zeus’s” is probably more common today.

A rule sometimes used is “Singular nouns that would sound awkward with another ‘s’ added: Ulysses’ adventures, Borges’ novels.” The trouble with this rule is that what sounds awkward to one person may sound perfectly alright to someone else. Maybe that's the idea of the rule. But some people get bothered with anything but absolute right and absolute wrong in dealing wtih formal English.

Answer 4

Zeus's.

You would use only an apostrophe if it would sound overly awkward. I.e. Moses'

Because you have two 's' sounds near the end of the word.

Answer 5

Zeus'