The Mythology Book

26

K

ronos, Titan son of the

earth goddess Gaia and

the sky god Ouranos,

proved every bit as possessive a

patriarch as his father had been.

After just one generation, a dismal

pattern of godly conduct was

emerging; just as Ouranos had

dominated Gaia, Kronos required

his wife and sister Rhea to be

exclusively and endlessly available

to him in order to meet his sexual

needs. No one else, least of all his

children, would be allowed to

compete for her attention. Having

deposed his own father to become

king of the Titans, Kronos knew

how dangerous it was to let a child

grow in envy and rage.

Determined that no one should

pose such a threat to him, Kronos

ensured that the children Rhea

bore him were destroyed just as

quickly as they were conceived.

As soon as she gave birth to a new

baby, he would swallow it whole.

Hestia, the first child that Rhea

bore, was gone in a single gulp,

before her mother could even cradle

her in her arms. Another daughter,

Demeter, soon followed: she, too,

was swallowed promptly. Hera, the

third daughter, went the same way,

and Kronos’s sons fared no better.

First came Hades—swallowed

down before he could utter his first

helpless cry, swiftly followed by

the next son, Poseidon, who met

the same fate.

The despairing Rhea finally

turned to her mother, the elderly

Gaia, and her neutered father,

THE OLYMPIAN GODS

Kronos, known as Saturn by

the Romans, as depicted in Saturn

Devouring His Son, Francisco Goya,

(1821–1823). The work is part of the

artist's “Black Paintings” series.

IN BRIEF

THEME

Origin of the Olympian

gods

SOURCES

Theogony, Hesiod, ca. 700 bce;

Library, Pseudo-Apollodorus,

ca. 10 0 ce.

SETTING

Crete.

KEY FIGURES

Kronos King of the Titans;

son of Gaia and Ouranos.

Rhea Sister and wife of

Kronos.

Hestia Goddess of the hearth.

Demeter Goddess of the

harvest.

Hera Queen of the Olympian

gods.

Hades Lord of the Underworld.

Poseidon God of the seas.

Zeus King of the Olympian

gods; killer of Kronos.

Tricked by Rhea, he

misses Zeus, who comes

back to kill him.

Kronos becomes a cruel

father in turn.

Kronos eats his children

to prevent them from

supplanting him.

Kronos castrates

and kills his cruel

Both Earth and Sky father, Ouranos.

foretold him that he

would be dethroned

by his own son.

Library

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27

Ouranos, for help. Together they

hatched a devious plan to save

their daughter’s next child.

Switched with a stone

Rhea followed her parents’ advice.

As soon as she had given birth

to Zeus, the last of her sons, and

before his father, Kronos, had had a

chance to see him, she hid the

baby away. Then she wrapped

a stone in swaddling clothes and

handed it to her unsuspecting

husband in place of the infant.

Kronos, in his rapacious greed,

did not even look at the bundle

before he tipped back his head,

opened his mouth wide, and

dropped it in. The “baby” tumbled

straight down into his stomach,

ready to join the jostling crowd of

children already there. Unknown to

Kronos, they had all survived in the

deep darkness of his belly. There

they grew in size and resentment.

Brought up in safety

Meanwhile, Rhea, on the

recommendation of the child's

grandmother, Gaia, spirited the

infant Zeus away, carrying him

across the sea to the fertile island of

Crete. There, in a concealed cave on

the thickly wooded slopes of Mount

Ida (now known as Psiloritis, the

highest mountain on Crete), Rhea left

her son in the care of a warlike tribe

called the Kouretes. They, in turn,

gave the baby to a nymph named

Adamanthea (Amalthea in some

sources), who nursed Zeus in secret.

According to Hesiod, the nymph

was frightened that Kronos—

thanks to his universal authority

over the earth, sea, and sky—would

be able to see where his son was

being hidden. To prevent Kronos

from finding him, she hung Zeus

from a rope that dangled between

the earth and the heavens but was

in neither one realm nor the other.

Adamanthea cared for Zeus

and nursed him with milk from

a herd of goats that grazed nearby.

Whenever the baby gurgled,

squealed, or cried, the Kouretes

danced and chanted to disguise

the sound. As a result, Kronos

was completely unaware that

his youngest son was still alive.

Zeus seeks his father

In no time at all, it seemed,

Zeus grew to manhood. He was

hungry for revenge against his

cruel father. Yet if Zeus was ever

to emerge from hiding, some sort of

showdown between them would ❯❯

See also: Origin of the universe 18–23 ■ The war of the gods and Titans 32–33 ■ Mount Olympus 34–35 ■ The founding

of Athens 56–57 ■ The sybil of Cumae 110–11

ANCIENT GREECE

Zeus is protected from all-seeing

Kronos by his attentive nymph carers

and the noise of the Kouretes, as shown

in this 17th-century painting, The

Childhood of Zeus on Mount Ida.

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