Greek Gods and Goddesses
This is an explanation of the confusing world of Greek Mythology and how everyone is related, very related. First things first, I’d like to clarify the fact that Greek mythology involves relationships between parents/siblings/children. In the supposed time of Greek mythology incest was completely normal and accepted. Just keep that in mind guys.
There were three ranks of Gods in the Greek mythology:
The Primordial Gods (primordial – existing at the beginning of time)
The Titans
The Olympians
Remember these three ranks, you’ll need them later when I try to explain that Zeus basically had sex with everyone.
Everything was created from Chaos – a void, an abyss. Chaos was the creator of Nyx, his daughter, Erebus, his son, Gaia, his creation, Tartarus his creation and Eros who was self-created.
Nyx is the personification of night.
Erebus is the deep darkness and shadows.
Gaia is the personification of earth – she is Mother Earth.
Eros is the god love and affection (There are two different stories of him also being the son of Ares and Aphrodite, but I prefer the version of Love being a self-created force J.)
Tartarus is both a place and a God. He is the personification of the deep abyss, and ruler of the dungeon used to torment the Titans and other creatures.
Between all these Primordial Gods, many children were created (who we also place in the rank of ‘Primordial God’, but I won’t talk about them as there are too many of them for this article), one of them being Uranus – the ‘Father Sky’ or ‘Heaven‘. It’ll sound horrid, but Uranus actually created the whole generation of Titans with Gaia, who is technically his creator.
The Titans were all children of Gaia and Uranus – there were 12 main ones. The brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, with Cronus and the sisters Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys.
Oceanus is the God of the great River Okeanos, the waters encircling earth - Oceans and Sea.
Coeus is the God of the Intellect and the embodiment of the celestial axis around which the Heavens revolved. He is the ‘pillar’ of the north pole.
Crius is the God of Constellations and the ‘pillar’ of the south pole.
Hyperion is the God of Heavenly Light.
Iapetus is the God of Mortality and Craftsmanship.
Cronus is the youngest brother, God of Harvest.
Theia is the Goddess of Sight and Bright Light.
Rhea is the Goddess of Fertility.
Themis is the Goddess of Law and Order.
Mnemosyne is the Goddess of Memory.
Phoebe is the Goddess of Prophecy.
Tethys is the Goddess of Rivers.
The youngest brother Cronus (God of Harvest), was the leader of the Titans, and lead them to overthrow their tyrant father: Uranus. Uranus wouldn’t allow any of his children – The Titans – to leave their mother’s (Gaia’s) womb. Therefore, Gaia whispered to her children to follow her instructions and overthrow their vile father. Once they succeeded, Cronus ruled all for a brief amount of time, until reading a prophecy which stated his son Zeus (King of Thunder and Lightning) would overthrow him too. This is exactly what happened.
There were actually two generations of Titans. This 1st generation, and the 2nd one being the children of these first Titans who married each other. Yes, very strange, but how else did you think they were to reproduce? With their parents? Well I mean you’re probably right, let’s be honest. Anyway.
The first generation of 12 Titans were all paired off with each other and married. All of who gave birth to many children: the 2nd generation of Titans (which I will also not talk about because there’s too many of the brats). All but one pair: Cronus, the leader of Titans, and his sister-wife Rhea. These two sired six other children, the Olympic Gods themselves:
Hestia, Home and Heritage,
Hera, Childbirth and Family,
Demeter, Agriculture,
Poseidon, the Sea,
Hades, the new ruler of the Underworld
And none other than Zeus.
Their father, Cronus, knew that one day his son Zeus was to overthrow him. But he was smarter than Uranus; knowing how violent he was towards his father and not wanting history to repeat, Cronus knew better than to throw his kids in Hell or trap them in the stomach of his wife-sister. So, he swallowed them instead.
Rhea – as any decent mum might – didn’t appreciate this. She sought guidance from her parents, Gaia and Uranus (who for some reason still weren’t divorced) on how to defeat her terrible husband-brother Cronus, and eventually made a plan. Once the youngest was to be born, she would hide him and feed Cronus a rock instead. Since apparently Cronus couldn’t tell the difference between a rock and a child, he swallowed it, satisfied that all 6 of his children were inside of him now.
This youngest was Zeus. Rhea raised him in secret, and when the time came, he forced his father Cronus to regurgitate his siblings. Then Zeus had sex with his parents, siblings and children, gave birth to more Olympians who then ran off and had sex with a bunch of humans and created Demi-Gods, that’s basically it.
Hope you enjoyed!
