Greek Mythology
Essay by review • September 2, 2010 • Essay • 312 Words (2 Pages) • 1,949 Views
The Greeks believed that the earth was formed before any
of the gods appeared. The gods, as the Greeks knew them,
all originated with Father Heaven, and Mother Earth. Father
Heaven was known as Uranus, and Mother Earth, as Gaea.
Uranus and Gaea raised many children. Among them were
the Cyclopes, the Titans, and the Hecatoncheires, or the
Hundred- Handed Ones. Uranus let the Titans roam free,
but he imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hundred- handed
Ones beneath the earth. Finally, Gaea could not bear
Uranus's unkindness to the Cyclopes and the
Hundred-Handed Ones any longer. Gaea joined Cronos,
one of the Titans; and together, they overcame Uranus,
killed him, and threw his body into the sea. Aphrodite,
goddess of love and beauty, later rose from the sea where
Uranus's body had been thrown. Now Cronus became king
of the universe. Cronos married his sister, Rhea, and they
had six children. At the time of Cronos's marriage to Rhea,
Gaea prophesied that one of his children would overthrow
Cronos, as he had overthrown Uranus. To protect himself,
Cronos swallowed each of his first five children -- Hestia,
Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon -- immediately
after
birth. After the birth of her sixth and last child, Rhea tricked
Cronos into swallowing a rock and then hid the child -- Zeus
-- on earth. Zeus grew up on earth and was brought back to
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