I am the Alpha and the Omega
In the begining there was only chaos. Then out of
the void appeared Erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and Night.
All else was empty, silent, endless, darkness. Then somehow Love was born
bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. Once there was Light
and Day, Gaea, the earth appeared.
Then Erebus slept with Night, who gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light,
and to Day the earthly light. Then Night alone produced Doom, Fate, Death,
Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis, and others that
come to man out of darkness.
Meanwhile Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus,
the heavens. Uranus became Gaea's mate covering her on all sides. Together they
produced the three Cyclopes, the three Hecatoncheires, and twelve Titans.
However, Uranus was a bad father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires. He
imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's
womb. This angered Gaea and she ploted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle
and tried to get her children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid except, the
youngest Titan, Cronus.
Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush of Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night.
Cronus grabed his father and castrated him, with the stone sickle, throwing the
severed genitales into the ocean. The fate of Uranus is not clear. He either
died, withdrew from the earth, or exiled himself to Italy. As he departed he
promised that Cronus and the Titans would be punished. From his spilt blood came
the Giants, the Ash Tree Nymphs, and the Erinnyes. From the sea foam where his
genitales fell came Aphrodite.
Cronus became the next ruler. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the
Hecatoncheires in Tartarus. He married his
sister Rhea, under his rule the Titans had many
offspring. He ruled for many ages. However, Gaea and Uranus both had prophesied
that he would be overthrown by a son. To avoid this Cronus swallowed each of his
children as they were born. Rhea was angry at the treatment of the children and
ploted against Cronus. When it came time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea
hid herself, then she left the child to be raised by nymphs. To concel her act
she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as the baby to Cronus,
who swallowed it.
This child was Zeus. He grew into a handsome
youth on Crete. He consulted Metis on how to
defeat Cronus. She prepaired a drink for Cronus design to make him vomit up the
other children. Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son and Zeus was allowed to
return to Mount Olympus as Cronus's
cupbearer. This gave Zeus the opertunity to slip Cronus the specially prepaired
drink. This worked as planned and the other five children were vomitted up.
Being gods they were unharmed. They were thankful to Zeus and made him their
leader.
Cronus was yet to be defeated. He and the Titans, except
Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Oceanus, fought to retain their power. Atlas became their leader in battle and it looked
for some time as though they would win and put the young gods down. However,
Zeus was cunning. He went down to Tartarus and freed the Cyclopes and the
Hecatoncheires. Prometheus joined Zeus as well. He returned to battle with his
new allies. The Cyclopes provided Zeus with lighting bolts for weapons. The
Hecatoncheires he set in ambush armed with boulders. With the time right, Zeus
retreated drawing the Titans into the Hecatoncheires's ambush. The
Hecatoncheires rained down hundreds of boulders with such a fury the Titans
thought the mountains were falling on them. They broke and ran giving Zeus
victory.
Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against him into Tartarus. Except
for Atlas, who was singled out for the special punishment of holding the world
on his shoulders.
However, even after this victory Zeus was not safe. Gaea angry that her
children had been imprisoned gave birth to a last offspring, Typhoeus. Typhoeus was so fearsome that most
of the gods fled. However, Zeus faced the monster and flinging his lighting
bolts was able to kill it. Typhoeus was burried under Mount Etna in Sicily.
Greek Mythologie.