Prior to the rule of the twelve Olympians there existed another group of deities who ruled over Mount Olympus: the Titans. Cronus was the ruler of these deities; he was the son of Mother Earth, Gaia. Gaia warned Cronus that he would one day be deposed by his child. Heedful of his mother’s premonition, he swallows every child his wife Rhea gives birth to. Those children were Hestia, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon and Hades. The youngest was Zeus. His destiny was different from his siblings. Rhea, with Gaia’s help, managed to cajole Cronus into thinking that a stone wrapped in cloth was the new born Zeus. He swallowed the stone and Zeus was secretly transported to Crete to a cave on Mount Dicte, where he was brought up by Amaltheia, a goat. Crete was later called ‘the island or nurse of the great Zeus.’ Zeus faced his father once he reached an able age. He returned to Mount Olympus for retribution. He forced Cronus to regurgitate his siblings and moved onto liberating all the prisoners as well as enemies of Cronus. Amongst them were Hecatonchires (the three giants with fifty hands each), Cyclopes (the one eyed giants), Gigantes (the giants with one hundred hands each) and the siblings of Cronus who had been incarcerated in Tartarus. In gratitude of their liberation, the Cyclopes bestowed Zeus with the craft of generating thunderbolts. With an army of vengeful giants and siblings, Zeus waged a war on the Titans.This led to the momentous battle known as Titanomachy; a battle where Zeus defeated the Titans and incarcerated them in Tartarus. They were to be punished for eternity. The Giants, who were the earlier prisoners, became the guards of the place.
Mount Olympus and Greek Gods
