When the titan Kronos took the throne from his father Uranus, he was afraid that one of his own children would do the same to him. So every time his wife Rhea gave birth to a child, he would swallow it and keep it inside him. Rhea was inconsolable by this tragedy,so she decided to save her last child, Zeus and send him away. Instead of the baby she gave Kronos to swallow a rock. And that he did.
The devine infant was fed with the milk of agoat named Amalthea in a cave of the Aegean Mountain of Crete. When Zeus grew up,he forced Kronos to release all the (now)grown up gods that he had swallowed. Those were the olympian gods: Hera,Demetra,Estia,Hades, and Poseidon. They rallied along with Zeus,against Kronos and many other Titans,in a war called the Titanomachy(battle of Titans).
The side of Zeus took the first titan Oceanus and his daughter Styx,with her four children,Kratos and Via, Zelos and Nice. Another valuable ally was Prometheus,son of Iapetus the titan.
Zeus followed Gaea's advice and set free the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes from Tartarus where they were prisoned by Kronos. Cyclopes gave precious gifts to Zeus: Thunder, thunderbold and lightning.
The Titans were no easy opponents.The fought from mount Othrys,while Zeus and his allies fortified themselves on Olympus.
When Zeus won the war,he used heavy chains to imprison Kronos and the rest of the Titans in Tartarus. The Hecatonchires became their guardians.
Zeus divided the realms with the rest of the Olympians and reigned as king of the gods.
12 мар 2016
