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Cronos dethroned his
father, but as he ruled with the same evil spirit
he was himself dethroned by his own son.
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Uranus dethroned
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It is told that
Uranus, the first ruler
of the universe, hated his own offspring and kept
the CYCLOPES and the
HECATONCHEIRES
imprisoned in the depth of the earth.
This cruelty grieved their mother
Gaia who encouraged the
TITANS to revolt against
their father. They did overthrow him, but the new
ruler Cronos abstained
from restoring justice, and shut his brethren up in
the same dark depth again.
Revolt breeds revolt in ever swifter succession,
and that may be the reason why both
Gaia and
Uranus foretold
Cronos that in turn he
would be dethroned by his own son.
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Attempting to escape fate
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Having heard the prophecy,
Cronos began to swallow
his children at birth, a method that, while seeming
to prevent fate, enraged his wife
Rhea 1, who saw herself
always pregnant and yet never a mother. So while
expecting Zeus, she went to
Crete, and gave him birth
in a cave, giving Cronos
a stone wrapped in clothes to swallow, as if it
were the newborn child.
This is how Zeus escaped
being devoured by his father. When he had grown up,
he asked Metis 1 to help him against his father,
and she gave Cronos a
drug that forced him to disgorge first the stone,
and then the children he had previously swallowed.
Some affirm that
Cronos did not swallow
all of them, but cast
Hades in
Tartarus, and
Poseidon under the sea.
Others assert that Rhea 1,
having given birth to
Poseidon, declared to
Cronos that she had given
birth to a horse, and gave him a foal to swallow
instead of the child.
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The prophecy begins to materialize
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When Zeus grew to
maturity, he decided to wage the war against
Cronos and the
TITANS, declaring that he
who was without office or right under
Cronos, should be raised
to both office and rights. And on becoming the
ruler of the universe, Zeus
did not deprive Hecate of
the privileges either.
So Styx came first to Olympus, and together with
her children rallied to his side. This is why
Zeus granted her special
honours, and appointed her to be the great oath of
the gods [see
Underworld for
details about the oath], and her children
Nike, Zelos, Cratos, and
Bia, to live near him always.
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Prisoners released
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The TITANS fought from
Mount Othrys, and the gods from Mount Olympus, but
after ten years of continuous fight, the issue of
the war hung evenly balanced.
It was then that Gaia
prophesied victory to Zeus
if he should have as allies those who had been
hurled down to Tartarus by
Cronos: the
CYCLOPES and the
HECATONCHEIRES.
Cronos had imprisoned the
HECATONCHEIRES
because he was jealous of their manhood and
comeliness, as they say. He made them live beneath
the earth, being set to dwell under the ground for
a long time and with great suffering. But
Zeus and his brothers
decided to bring them up again at
Gaia's advising.
Consequently, Zeus slew
their jailoress Campe, and freed them.
Zeus then provided the
HECATONCHEIRES
with nectar and ambrosia, and their spirit revived.
Then he addresed them:
"Hear me,
bright children of
Earth and
Heaven, that I may say what my heart
within me bids. A long while now have we, who are
sprung from
Cronos and the Titan gods, fought with
each other every day to get victory and to prevail.
But show your great might and unconquerable
strength, and face the
Titans in bitter strife; for remember our
friendly kindness, and from what sufferings you are
come back to the light from your cruel bondage
under misty gloom through our counsels."
[Zeus to the
HECATONCHEIRES.
Hesiod,
Theogony
645]
The CYCLOPES gave
Zeus thunder and lightning
and a thunderbolt, with which the god smote
Menoetius 1 (brother of
Atlas and
Prometheus 1). And
they gave Hades a helmet,
and Poseidon a trident.
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The war
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It is told that during this great war the sea
rang terribly, the earth crashed loudly, heaven was
shaken, and Olympus reeled from its foundation:
The
HECATONCHEIRES
held huge rocks with their hundred arms, and
Zeus hurled his lightning,
while the earth burned and the woods crakled with
fire. The streams of Ocean seethed, and the vapor
lapped round the TITANS.
A huge flame rose to the upper air, and that the
glare of thunderstone and lightining blinded the
eyes of the TITANS. And
it is said that heat seized
Chaos, and that it seemed
as if earth and heaven came together in a mighty
crash, amid earthquakes and dust storms.
But the
HECATONCHEIRES
overshadowed the TITANS
with the many rocks that their hundred arms hurled
at them, and having defeated them, they chained
them as far beneath the earth as heaven is above
earth. That is, in Tartarus, a place of deep
darkness with a bronze fence around it that even
the gods abhor.
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Two TITANS who sided
with Zeus
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The titaness Themis
sided with Zeus because she
knew that neither the brute nor the violent would
prevail, but the clever.
Prometheus 1
listened to her words, and sided with
Zeus too. However, after
the war, when Zeus had
Prometheus 1 chained
for having given fire to mortals, he lamented his
choice:
"Thus I helped
the tyrant of the gods and with this foul payment
he has responded; for it is a disease that is
somehow inherent in tyranny to have no faith in
friends."
[Prometheus
1. Aeschylus,
Prometheus
Bound 225]
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The victors divide the spoil
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Zeus appointed the
HECATONCHEIRES to
guard them, and in time
Poseidon gave the
hecatoncheire Briareus his daughter Cymopolea as
wife.
Having thus won victory, the gods cast lots for
the sovereignty, and to
Zeus was allotted the
dominion of the sky, to
Poseidon the dominion
of the sea, and to Hades
the dominion of the
Underworld.
It is also told that, as time went by,
Zeus issued an amnesty and
set the TITANS free,
except for Atlas, who
still holds the sky.
A rumour has it that the
TITANS, encouraged by
Hera who was jealous on
account of Io, once tried to
mount to heaven and restore the kingdom to
Cronos, but that
Zeus aided by
Athena,
Apollo, and
Artemis, cast them back
to Tartarus. It is said that it was then that the
gods put the vault of the sky on
Atlas, for having been
their leader.
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