Gaea, the Earth, came out of the darkness so long ago that no one knows when or how. Earth was young and lonesome, for nothing lived on her yet. She created Uranus, the Sky, dark and blue, set all over with sparkling stars. He was magnificent to behold and Earth fell in love with him. Soon young Earth became Mother Earth. All her children loved their warm and bountiful mother and feared their mighty father, Uranus, lord of the universe.
The Titans were the first children of Mother Earth, the first gods, taller than the mountains Earth created them for thrones. Both Gaea and Uranus were proud of the Titans. There were six Titans, they had six sisters, the Titanesses, whom they took for wives.
When Earth gave birth again, Sky was not happy, their new children were also huge, but they only had one huge glowing eye in the center of their head; these were the three Cyclopse and they named Lightning, Thunder and Thunderbolt. They were not handsome but were extremely strong smiths. Sparks from their hammers flashed across the sky and Uranus' stars faded.
After a while Gaea bore three more sons, Uranus looked down in disgust, they were ugly monsters with 50 heads. Sky hated to see such ugly creatures walking on beautiful Earth. He seized his horrible children and locked them in Tartarus, the deepest, darkest pit under the Earth. Gaea could never forgive her cruel husband, so out of the hardest flint she fashioned a sickle and spoke to the Titans:
"Take this weapon, make an end to your father's cruelty and set your brothers free."
All but one, the youngest, Cronus, backed down in fear. Cronus was the youngest but strongest, he took the sickle and cut of his cruel father's genitalia. Where the blood hit Earth Pontus, the Seas, came forth. She took Pontus as her second husband, and from this union the gods of the watery depths came up. And from her rich ground grew an abundance of trees, flowers and, out of her crevices, sprites, beasts and early man crept forth.
Now Cronus was lord of the sky. This was what was called man's golden age. Cronus knew that history would repeat itself and his children would overthrow him someday. To prevent this tradgedy Cronus devoured all of the children that his wife and sister Rhea, bore to him. Soon Rhea got mad, all of her sisters were surrounded by her children, and she was all alone. When Rhea was again pregnant she whispered to her mother, Gaea to help her save her unborn child from certain doom. Earth was still mad at Cronus for not releasing his brothers from tartarus, and told her to wrap a rock in baby clothes and give it to Cronus and hide her child Zeus on the island of Crete. Her plan was successful and Zeus grew up tended by nymphs and the fairy goat Amaltheia, which gave an unlimited supply of necter and ambrosia, the food and drink of the gods. When he was grown he sacrificed the goat and in thanks, he gave the nymphs the horns of the goats and from it's hide he made himself the Aegis, his and later Athena's armour. He was strong enough now to beat Cronus.
First Zeus married Metis, the daughter of Oceanus, for his first wife. She told him that he may defeat Cronus but the other Titan's together would surely put an end to his rebellion, he needed the help of his 5 brothers and sisters, they were: Hestia, Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, and Hera. Metis confronted her uncle Cronus and gave him a magical herb, she told him it would make him stronger than ever, hastily Cronus ate the herb. Metis had tricked him, the herb had made Cronus so sick he puked up his five other children and the rock. Now Zeus had allies. The new gods or Olympians charged into battle with the help of two other Titan's, Prometheus and Epimetheus, Prometheus had the power to look into the future and saw the new order of Zeus, he told his brother's, but only Epimeteus listened. Atlas, the other brother did not. Zeus freed the Cyclopes's and their brothers, the monsters were so grateful they made each god a gift, for Poseidon a trident, the ground shook when he smashed the trident into it and frothing waves stood mountain high. For Hades they made a cap of invisibility, so he could strike his enemies unseen. And finally for Zeus they forged lightning bolts, with his lightning, nothing could stand up to him. The gods and Titans fought each other with all their might, but it was all in vain. The gods had won and locked the Titans into tartarus for the rest of time.
Again the rule of the sky had changed, and the three brother's Zeus, Poseidon and Hades drew straws for positions of rule. Zeus got the longest and picked the sky, Poseidon recieved the seas, and Hades meandered off to his underworld realm. The land was left as common property.
For Atlas' treachery of joining the Titans he sent him to hold up the vault of the sky for all eternity. The Marriage of Zeus and Hera
Zeus had many wives, but he chose his sister, Hera to be his queen. At first Hera despised him, but Zeus was determined to win her over. One day, in a thunderstorm, Zeus turned himself into a helpless Kookoo bird. She hugged him to protect him from the wind. At that moment Zeus changed back to normal state. Hera was disorientated, and Zeus took advantage of her and raped her. Hera was so ashamed to have a child without being married. So she married him in shame and disgust. All of nature burst out in bloom for their wedding. Even if it was a sham. The wedding was not a good one, Hera spent most of her time spying on Zeus, and dispensing her wrath on his other wives. At one time, Hera even convinced the other gods to betray Zeus and imprison him in unbreakable bonds. For that, Zeus hung Hera in the sky, but her weeping kept him up at night, and finally released her on the promise she would never betray him again. Home|Guestbook