Zeus then imprisoned all the Titans and Cronus in Tartarus. Zeus and his family took control of the cosmos. The war lasted for some ten years, and the Olympians emerged triumphantly. The Titans fought back fiercely under the leadership of Atlas. Zeus then used his mighty bolts to strike the Titans. He ordered the Hecatonchires, who had a hundred hands each to bombard the Titans with stones. The future ruler of Olympus was able to persuade two of the Titans, Prometheus, and his mother to join him and his sisters and brothers. Zeus began the war with his father, who was portrayed as increasingly old and feeble. The best sources that we have for this myth are Hesiod, sadly several epics that were composed of the events were lost. Soon, the Olympians were ready to take on the Titans, and this resulted in a war between the gods known as the Titanomachy. The future King of Olympus also released the Hecatonchires. They also made a trident for Poseidon and a helmet for Hades. The Cyclopes were grateful and, in return, forged thunderbolts for Zeus. Then he freed some of the monsters and the Cyclopes that had been imprisoned by Cronus many years before. However, Zeus was ever-resourceful and had the secret support of his mother and grandmother. The Olympians were at a disadvantage because the Titans outnumbered them. Zeus and his brothers and sister were known as the Olympians and opposed the Titans. On one side was Cronus and his brother and sisters, and they were known as the Titans. Immediately they rallied to the cause of their younger brother.įrom this time on, there was a war for control of the world. Well, the potion acted as an enema, and Cronus threw up his five children whom he had swallowed. His mother gave him a powerful potion, and Zeus was able to give it to his father, secretly. In some myths, Zeus became the cupbearer of his father. Cronus did not know that his youngest son with Rhea was still alive. Zeus was desperate to overthrow his father, and he was guided by his grandmother Gaia. Zeus grew up to be a mighty god in Crete. In some sources, it was a nymph, and in others, it was his grandmother Gaia. There is no agreement in the sources as to who raised the young God. In reality, he grew up in Crete, according to a popular version of the myth by the 7th century BC poet Hesiod. Cronus swallowed the stone and was satisfied that Zeus was no longer a threat. She found a huge stone and wrapped it in swaddling clothes and they present this to the Cronus and told him that this was the infant. Rhea and Gaia had devised a clever strategy.
Now Cronus was aware that Zeus was born, and he demanded that the infant be handed over to him. This was a well-known pilgrimage site in Ancient Greece and can still be visited to this day. Here she delivered the future King of the Olympians in a cave in Mount Ida. When she was about to give birth to Zeus, she secretly went to the island of Crete. She sought the help of Gaia, who told her what to do. Naturally, Rhea was enraged by Cronus' plan to murder her child, so she came up with a plan. His reign was considered a Golden Age when men did not require laws and where everything was shared equally. He, along with his sister Rhea, became the monarchs of the gods. He was regarded as the personification of time in the Classical sources. Cronus imprisoned several monsters, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes, with his father under the earth. Uranus was weakened, and Cronus was able to imprison his father in Tartarus, often mistakenly referred to as hell. Gaia crafted a sickle for Cronus, and he sneaked upon his father and castrated him. Only he, among all the Titans, was brave enough to move against his father. He conspired with his mother to depose his father. The children of the sky and the earth were known in the ancient sources as the Titans. After a prophecy that his children would overthrow him, the original ruler of the world hid his children inside their mother (earth). He was married to Gaia, the goddess of the earth. The first ruler of the gods was Uranus, the personification of the sky. There is no one version of how the ruler of Olympus became King of the Gods. There are many myths regarding how Zeus became the ruler of the world, and they are known as 'Succession Myths.' This article relates how he became ruler of Olympus and King of the gods and goddesses. Zeus became King the way that many other monarchs seized power, with brute force and cunning. He became the absolute ruler of the universe after overthrowing his father and by battling the Titans. Instead, he came to power in a cosmic war. Zeus became King of the Olympian gods, not because he was morally good or a creator god. They were seen as great powers and not as spiritual or benign figures, as in the Monotheistic religion. The gods in Greek mythology are very different from many modern ideas about religion.