Greek Mythology: The Creation, the Titans, and the Olympians
Despite the fact that the Ancient Greeks lived thousands of years ago, their mythological archetypes still permeate Western culture, from Harry Potter to Nike and Amazon.com. Figures like Zeus, Poseidon, and Aphrodite are well-known to many of us, but the Greek pantheon began long before those gods were even born.
According to the Ancient Greeks, in the beginning, there was only Chaos — an infinite abyss or primordial void. In other words, there was basically nothing at first. And, contrary to Christian theology, the Ancient Greeks believed that it was the universe itself that created the gods, not the other way around.
Out of Chaos eventually came Love and Light, and together they created the Cosmos or world order. Cosmos brought forth Gaia (Earth), Tartarus, Eros (Love), Erebus (Darkness), and Nyx (Night).
By nature, Gaia was a mother, and she gave birth to Uranus (Ouronous), the sky. Together, she and Uranus gave birth to 12 Titans: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Oceanus, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys. They also created several other elemental and earthy creatures, like the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires.
These are what we call the “Titans”. In Remember the Titans (2000), Coach Boone (played by Denzel Washington) tells his team: “According to Greek mythology, the Titans were greater even than the gods. They ruled the universe with absolute power”. Yep, that’s these guys!
But wait, if the Titans were so much more powerful than the gods, what happened to them? Well, the most powerful don’t always make the best rulers.
You see, Uranus wasn’t so sure about all these kids of his — especially the more unusual ones, like the one-eyed Cyclopes and the 100-handed Hecatonchires. He decided that not only was he done having children, but also that his uglier kids should be imprisoned deep in the dark recesses of Tartarus (the deepest, darkest part of the Underworld).
As you can imagine, this didn’t sit too well with Gaia. She was a phenomenal mother who loved her children dearly, no matter how many eyes or arms they had — and her husband called them ugly and sent them away, never to be seen again? Not cool…
So, Gaia hatched a plan and went to her original 12 Titan children for help. However, Uranus was a powerful dictator, and none of his kids wanted to try to usurp him — no one, that is, except for their youngest son, Cronus (Kronos). Cronus was tired of being the youngest and smallest Titan and wanted to rule the universe himself, so he agreed to help Gaia overthrow his father.
After freeing his “uglier” siblings from Tartarus, Cronus ambushed and castrated his father with a long stone sickle (yeah, Greek mythology isn’t always pretty). As Uranus’ blood dripped onto the Earth, it brought forth the Gigantes, Erinyes, and Meliae. Cronus then flung his father’s severed testicles into the sea, where they bubbled into a white foam. When the white foam subsided, the goddess Aphrodite emerged on a large seashell.
With Uranus gone, Cronus became the ruler of the universe, taking his sister Rhea as his wife. However, much like his father, Cronus was creeped out by the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes, so he put them back in Tartarus — which of course upset Gaia again. She told Cronus that now he would be destroyed by his own son, just as he had destroyed his father.
To prevent such a prophecy from coming true, Cronus decided the only way forward was to make sure his kids never made it that far — so, anytime his wife Rhea gave birth, Cronus simply ate the baby. Yes, you read that right — he ate his own children…
Cronus swallowed baby after baby until Rhea finally had had enough. When she was pregnant with her sixth and final child — Zeus — she hid herself away and gave birth in secret. Instead of presenting her newborn son to her husband, Rhea disguised a stone in swaddling clothes. Uranus didn’t question it — he had already swallowed five babies by this point, after all — so he popped the swaddled rock right into his mouth and swallowed it whole!
But if Cronus swallowed a fake baby, what happened to the real one? Don’t worry, Rhea kept him safely hidden away in a cave on Mount Ida, where he was raised by goats and nymphs. Then when Zeus was old enough, Gaia got him a job as Cronus’ official cupbearer (yes, even thousands of years ago nepotism was alive and well). Metis, an Oceanid, gave Zeus a nasty mixture that he used to spike Cronus’ drink. This forced the Titan ruler to throw up everything — and I mean, everything, including the fake stone baby as well as all the real babies Cronus had swallowed over the years!
However, by this point, those babies had grown up and were now powerful gods and goddesses (remember, Greek mythology has its own natural laws of physics). Zeus also released the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires, and joined forces with his newly released siblings: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. The Cyclopes forged weapons for the young gods, including Poseidon’s trident, Hades’ helmet of darkness, and Zeus’ thunderbolts. Although most of the Titans fought against Zeus, a few joined his cause, including Themis and her son Prometheus. Together, they fought against Cronus and the Titans in the great Titanomachy (which is basically just a really epic way of saying “Titan-battle”).
The Titanomachy lasted for ten years, but in the end, Zeus and his siblings won. Taking Mount Olympus as their new home, they called themselves “Olympians”. Those who had fought against the Olympians were imprisoned in Tartarus, except for Atlas. He had served as the general of the Titan army, and as punishment, Zeus forced him to hold up the sky for eternity.
As you can see, a lot happened before the Olympian gods took over — and their story would continue with even more twists and turns as they continued to get themselves into trouble, both with each other and with the new mortals popping up all over the earth.
