28
be inevitable. Kronos could not
afford to let a potential usurper live.
If he became aware of Zeus’s
existence, he would view his son
only as a threat to his power.
Kronos’s fear of being usurped
was fully justified. When he finally
met his son, whom he believed to
be dead, he was forced to yield to
Zeus in the most brutal way: Zeus
simply turned up one day and, with
the help of his grandmother, Gaia,
ambushed his father. He kicked
Kronos violently in the stomach
and forced his father to vomit up
the contents of his stomach. First
to emerge was the stone Kronos
had swallowed, believing it to be
the infant Zeus. The young god
took this stone and set it upright
in the earth as a monument to
Kronos’s cruelty, and a symbol of
his triumph over the wicked god.
Zeus placed the stone at the
omphalos, or “navel,” of the Greek
ancient world—at Delphi, in the
very center of Greece. In future
ages, the stone would become
a shrine, renowned for its oracle.
Pilgrims would visit it to seek
the guidance of the priestess,
or Sibyl, regarding their personal
problems, and the Sibyl wouldprovide them messages of wisdom
that were said to come directly
from the gods.Great deities disgorged
After vomiting up the stone, Kronos
began to disgorge his offspring.
One by one, Zeus’s older brothers
and sisters came out of their
father’s mouth—no longer babies
now, but fully grown. Once reborn,
they became the Olympian gods
and were revered for their powers.
Soon after their rebirth, the
sons and daughters of Kronos went
to war with the mighty Titans for
control of the cosmos. After theirTHE OLYMPIAN GODS
victory, the gods set up their seat
of power on Mount Olympus and
drew lots to decide who would take
which role in ruling the universe.
The three sons of Kronos divided
the cosmos up between them;
one would take control of the sky,
another would have the sea, and
the third would preside over the
Underworld. Zeus, whose weapon
of choice was the thunderbolt,
became ruler of the sky and leader
of all the Olympian gods.
Hades, the first son to be born
and the last to be regurgitated,
became lord of the Underworld.
His name came to stand for both
the deity and his unseen realm,
where souls go after death. Hades
was not happy to have been
allocated this dismal domain,
but there was nothing he could
do about it. Meanwhile, Poseidon,
who had been the tiniest baby,
became the almighty “Earth-
Shaker,” the god of the sea in
all its awesome power.Disparate goddesses
The three female children of Kronos
also had important roles to play.
Hestia, goddess of the hearth, ruled
over people's domestic lives. AsHestia
Kronos and Rhea’s eldest child,
Hestia ("hearth"), was the first
to be swallowed by her father—
and the last to reappear when
Zeus forced him to vomit up his
offspring. Given that she was
both the oldest and youngest of
the children, she was widely
referred to as “Hestia, First and
Last.” Like the later Roman god
Janus, Hestia was seen as the
embodiment of all of life’s
ambiguities and ambivalences.
Like Janus, too, she quickly
came to be associated with thehome, with domesticity and all its
blessings. In particular, her realm
was that of the hearth—the fire
that was a household’s warm and
hospitable center. The hearth was
also the site of the altar where
sacrifices were offered to any
domestic gods; she presided over
these rituals, too.
Though herself a sworn virgin,
having refused all proposals of
marriage, Hestia was considered
the protector of the family. The
metaphorical family of the state
was also part of her realm, and
she would look after the public
altar or hearth within a city.First he vomited up the stone,
which he had swallowed last.
Zeus set it up to be a sign ...
a wonder to mortal men.
TheogonyUS_024-031_Olympian-Gods.indd 28 06/12/17 3:01 pm
29
Zeus and Hera become man and
wife in a scene from a decorative
marble-and-limestone frieze that
was part of a temple in Selinunte,
Sicily, dating from the 5th century bce.Aphrodite had an illicit affair with
another Olympian—Ares, the god of
war. They were caught in bed by her
husband, Hephaestus, the blacksmith
god, who threw a net over the pair.goddess of the harvest, Demeter
was a life-giver to the worshippers
who relied on her annual bounty.
She proved a fickle protector,
however, ready not just to cross
swords with her siblings but to
withhold favors from humankind at
any perceived slight.
Hera’s role was more prominent
than that of her sisters, and she
became the foremost female deity
following her marriage to her
brother Zeus. To her great dismay,
however, Hera never quite received
the recognition and honors she
expected as the queen of the gods.
As the goddess of women and
marriage, Hera was supposed to
represent the archetypal wedded
state, but she became known for
her marital troubles.
Nor was Hera the goddess who
inspired men’s passions. While
Hera was portrayed as a wifely
figure, Aphrodite was the goddessassociated with feminine beauty,
sexuality, and erotic pleasures.
The Greeks had these two different
deities for what, in ancient times,
were considered two separate
spheres of affection. One deity
represented marital love, the other
romantic and erotic love. While
this distinction may now be alien
to many people, in most cultures
and at most times in history, the
majority of marriages were
arranged—as transactions for the
management and transmission of
property and land. The idea of
“companionate” marriage—in
which the love between a husband
and wife is the driving factor—is
a relatively modern convention.The Dodekatheon
Aphrodite was the only member of
this first generation of Olympians
who was not a child of Kronos and
Rhea; some accounts suggest she
was the daughter of Zeus, but
Hesiod, Pausanius, and Ovid allANCIENT GREECE
described her as Kronos's sister,
who was born from sea foam after
the castration of Ouranos. Despite
being of the same generation as
Kronos and Rhea, she was always
considered an Olympian, rather
than a Titan, and one of the gods
and goddesses who eventually
made up the Dodekatheon—the 12
most important Olympians in the
Greek pantheon. The Dodekatheon
included Zeus, Demeter, Hera,
Poseidon, and Aphrodite from the
first generation of Olympians. The
hearth goddess Hestia was not
among them, as she later chose to
live on Earth to avoid her siblings’
squabbles. Hades, similarly, was
not included because he resided
permanently in the Underworld.
After the war between the gods
and the Titans established the
Olympians as rulers of the cosmos,
the first generation of gods went on
to have many children. Many of the
gods and other figures in Greek
mythology were children of Zeus. ❯❯US_024-031_Olympian-Gods.indd 29 05/12/17 4:16 pm