Divine Myth
The Rise of Zeus
“Sing all this to me, Muses, you
who dwell on Olympus: from the
beginning tell me, which of the
gods first came to be.”
Hesiod, Theogony (114–5)
The cosmogony is the
theogony.
The Beginning of Creation
•
Classical mythology starts with the creation of the
universe and the creation of the human race.
•
To the Greeks, the universe began with a mystery
that sprang from the unknown, from Chaos.
•
Hesiod and Ovid had differing views of creation:
- Hesiod conceived of Chaos as an enormous
chasm born into darkness
- Ovid viewed Chaos as shapeless, mutable matter
The Children of Chaos
• Is Gaia the mother
of all things?
Gaia
•
After Chaos came Gaia, the Earth; either born from
Chaos or simply rising on its own.
•
Earth surrounded Chaos. From where they came is
neither explained nor elaborated.
- The Earth came into being to serve as a
solid foundation
- The emergence of Earth brought harmony
and order to Chaos
- Its birth separated heaven from Earth, water
from land, and air from airless space
•
After Chaos and Gaia came Tartarus, located deep
within the Earth’s depths and was the lowest level of
the Underworld.
•
Then came Eros (love). The fairest of all the immortals, the
driving force behind all creation.
The Children of Chaos
•
Beings born through parthenogenesis
(creation resulting from just one gender)
1. Chaos gave birth to
a. Erebus - the darkness of the night
b. Nyx (Night)
2. Gaia (in her sleep) gave birth to
a. Uranus - Sky and the god of the sky,emerged
as her equal
b. Pontus - Sea and the god of the sea
• From here on - virtually all of Creation came through
mating
• Uranus enveloped Gaia with love and showered her
with fertile rain
a. Gaia gave birth to the rest of the physical world
(bodies of water, mountains, flora, fauna, etc.)
b. 12 Titans (discussed later)
1. Two of them (Oceanus and Tethys) continued
Creation themselves
2. Their mating produced
a. 3,000 rivers of Earth all of which draw their
waters from the mighty stream Oceanus
b. 3,000 Oceanids, ocean goddesses all
One of the 3,000 rivers
An Oceanid or sea nymph
Nyx mated with Erebus and produced
*Hemera (Day) and Aether (upper air)
-Night and Day dwell in the same house but never
share that house together.
*Moros - doom
*Thanatos - death
*Hypnos - sleep
Nemesis - goddess of
retribution
Eris - goddess of strife, bred a host of woes ranging
from famine and sorrow to lies and murder
The Keres - female death spirits,
would be charged with collecting and
carrying off the bodies of the dead
The Moirai - the fates, would be charged with determining
the course of events in mortal lives
a. Clotho - spun the thread of life
b. Lachesis - measured it with a rod
c. Atropos - snipped it with shears ending the life span
The first children of Gaia and Uranus
*Hecatonchires
1. Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges
2. Each had 50 heads and 100 arms/hands
3. The mightiest of all Gaia’s children
4. The later Titans and Olympians would quake with
fear at the sight of them
Cyclops, Hecatonchires
• Also children of Gaea and Uranus
• Cyclops
–Not the Cyclops of Homer
(Polyphemos)
–Blacksmiths for the gods
–Brontes (“Thunderer”), Steropes
(“flasher”), Arges (“brightener”)
Cyclops, Hecatonchires
• Hecatonchires (“hundred-handers”)
–Also fifty heads
–Cottus, Briareus, Gyes
Cyclopes (not the man-eating monsters of later myths)
1. Brontes, Steropes, and Arges
2. Had only one eye
3. Enormous stature
4. Almost godlike - they were smiths, builders, and the
forgers of thunder and lightening
5. Also, arrogant, powerful, and unwilling to bow to
authority
6. Uranus hurled them and their brothers down into
Tartarus because he feared them so.
The forge of the Cyclopes
The Titans
Thereafter Gaea was bedded with Uranus, lord of
heaven, and bore deep-swirling (1) Oceanus, (2) Coeus,
(3) Crius, (4) Hyperion, (5) Iapetus, (6) Theia and (7)
Rhea, (8) Themis, (9) Mnemnosynê, (10) Phoebê, and
fair-featured (11) Tethys. Last of all she gave birth to
(12) Cronus, that scheming intriguer, cleverest child of
her brood, who hated his lecherous father.
Hesiod, Theogony (126–38)
The 12 Titans - the first rulers of the universe
(children of Gaia and Uranus)
*The Daughters
1. Theia - early goddess of light
2. Rhea - earth goddess/mother of Olympian gods
3. Themis - earth goddess
4. Mnemosyne - personification of memory
5. Phoebe - early moon goddess
6. Tethys - most ancient goddess of the sea
*The Sons
1. Oceanus - firstborn of the Titans; the god of the
primordial river and the river itself, which flowed from
the Underworld in a circular and never-ending stream
around the edge of the world
2. Coeus - father of Leto
3. Crius - father of Astreus
4. Hyperion - early god of the sun
5. Iapetus - father of Prometheus
6. Cronus - the youngest but craftiest and most
daring/father of the Olympian gods
* All the Titans hated Uranus, and he hated them!
1. Once born, he thrust them all back into Gaia’s womb
2. He wanted to remain in power forever
3. He took great pleasure in Gaia’s pain
4. Finally, Gaia reached her breaking point and plotted
revenge
Gaia’s Revenge
A. Gaia devised a scheme to avenge Uranus
Cronus Against Uranus
• Uranus stuffing newly born Titans
back into Gaea
• Cronus, the youngest, castrates
Uranus with a sickle
• Blood from the severed genitals
becomes the Erinyes
The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters
and Sea Deities
• Aphrodite springs up from the
“foam” at Cythera
• Monsters
• Altered Egyptian and
Mesopotamian archetypes:
–Harpies, Sirens, Sphinx
More children produced from the blood of Uranus
1. The Eyrines (Furies)
a. Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megara
b. They avenge perjury and crime against one’s
family
2. The Race of Giants born in full armor with spears in
their hands
3. The “Ash Tree Nymphs” - inhabited the forests of
Greece
Uranus cursed them all with the name “Titans” which
means “overreachers” and swore revenge
The Furies
Race of Giants
Ash Tree Nymph
The Birth of Aphrodite
A Titanic Struggle
A. The Titans gained their freedom and made Cronus
their king and freed the Cyclopes and Hundred Handed
Giants
B. Cronus wasn’t much of an improvement and soon
cast arrogant, authority hating brothers back into
Tartarus
C. The 12 Titans and Titanesses remained free and
began breeding the second generation of Titans together
1. Theia & Hyperion (1 son and 2 daughters)
a. Helios - the sun and god of the sun
b. Selene - the moon and goddess of the moon
c. Eos - the dawn and goddess of the dawn
2. Phoebe & Coeus (2 daughters)
a. Leto (mother of Apollo and Artemis)
b. Asteria
3. Oceanus & Tethys
a. 3,000 male river gods
b. 3,000 Oceanids
4. Cronus & Rhea (the most impressive union)
a. Three sons
1. Zeus
2. Hades
3. Poseidon
b. Three daughters
1. Hera
2. Hestia
3. Demeter
c. All of whom would take their place on Mount
Olympus
Zeus
Poseidon
Hades
Hera
Hestia
Demeter
Zeus Against Cronus:
The Battle with the Titans
• Olympians win with the help of
the Cyclopes and the
Hecatonchires
• Titans cast into Tartarus
• Altas given special punishment
–Forced to hold up the heaven at
the edge of the earth
Cronus’ Story
*As lord of the immortals, Cronus became even more of
a tyrant than Uranus
*Zeus’ birth
1. Rhea pleaded with her mother to devise a plan to
conceal his birth.
2. Rhea was sent to the island of Crete to give birth to
Zeus
3. Gaia then hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Dicte and
nourished him with food and love
4. Meanwhile, Rhea returned to Cronus and
presented him with a rock wrapped in swaddling
clothes
5. Cronus did not examine the package, he simply swallowed
it
6. Zeus grew up on Crete in the care of the Ash Tree Nymphs,
and he became invincibly strong and swift
7. Summarize Zeus’ plan to free his brothers and sisters
Titanomachy -Clash of the Titans
1. Of the twelve original Titans, only five fought with
Cronus
a. None of the six original Titanesses got involved
b. Oceanus and Tethys did not take sides and instead
cared for Hera
c. Hestia refused to take sides
d. Prometheus and Epimetheus took Zeus’ side
2. Every day for 10 years both sides fought
3. Gaia foretold that the children of Cronus would triumph
if joined by their allies in Tartarus
a. Zeus heeded this oracle and went straight to
Tartarus to free the Giants and Cyclopes
b. The Cyclopes made special gifts for the gods
1. For Zeus - thunder and lightening
2. For Hades - the helmet of invisibilty
3. For Poseidon - the trident
c. Briareus, Cottus and Gyges attacked the Titans by
hurling boulders and the tops from mountains
E. The battle ended with Poseidon and Hades distracting
Cronus while Zeus hurled a lightening bolt at him
F. Cronus finally conceded victory to his sons
Zeus Against Cronus:
The Battle with the Titans
• Cronus swallows the newly born
Olympians:
– Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Hades,
Poseidon, Zeus
• Rhea delivers the youngest, Zeus, in Crete,
hidden from Cronus
• Zeus raised by nymphs
– Alamlthea, Melissa, Corybantes,
Curetes
• Cronus fooled by rock in baby’s clothing
Zeus Against Cronus:
The Battle with the Titans
• Zeus overthrows Cronus
–The stone vomited out and became
used as the omphalos in Delphi
• Other Titans attack
–The “Titanomachy”
–Only the Titans Themis and her son
Prometheus side with the Zeus and
the Olympians
Revenge
A. Punishments
1. Zeus decreed all his enemies would remain in
the lowest depths of Tartarus forever
2. The three Giants stood guard over them
3. Only one Titan avoided eternal punishment,
Atlas, who had to lift up the sky and hold the
weight of the heavens forevermore on his
shoulders
Rewards
1. Briareus - Zeus gave him a daughter
2. Any Titans who did not oppose him retained their
places of honor
3. Zeus was assured that his reign would last forever
Zeus’s Battle with the Giants
• Will the succession continue after Zeus?
• Metis, one of his consorts, is pregnant
• Hears that the next child of Metis after this
one will replace him
• She is pregnant, so he ingests her
• Athena, the warrior goddess among things,
is born from his forehead (Prometheus or
Hephaestus helps)
Zeus’s Battle with the Giants
• Much later: Battle of the Giants
• Not in Hesiod
• Giants spring from Uranus’s severed
genitals
• With the help of Hercules(!), are defeated
• World divided among Zeus (Sky),
Poseidon (Ocean), and Hades
(Underworld)
Zeus’s Battle with Typheous
• Gaea with Tartarus produce Typhoeus
• Defeated by Zeus’s thunderbolts
• Apollodorus adds details
– Olympians fled to Egypt disguised as animals
– Zeus temporarily defeated and “deboned”
– Hermes puts Zeus back together
– Typhoeus defeated in a “bloody” battle at Mt.
“Haemus”
– Typhoeus buried under Mt. Etna
Themes in Greek Creation Story
• Divine Myth with folklore elements
• Cosmos becoming increasingly
complex, away from original unity
Themes in Greek Creation
Story
• Female is ambiguous –
creative and destructive
• Creation is through sexual intercourse
• Ascendancy of male over female
• Based on contradictory tendencies in
a family (folktale)
Themes in Greek Creation Story
• Zeus’s story on Crete from local religion
on Crete
– Zeus’s story there is pattern after a local
vegetation god
• Titans represent untamed forces of nature
• Zeus overcomes them by righting old
wrongs (against the Hecatonchires and
the Cyclopes)