I have included this page on Greek mythology under the Greek photo gallery, as it seemed as good a place as anywher to place the page

The Titans

They were a rum lot the Greek gods, and that is putting it politely. The best place for most of them was prison! The foundation of all things was Chaos a gaping void. Gaea the earth was the daughter of Chaos. Chaos and Gaea were followed by a bottomless depth called Tartarus, and Eros or love. Eros was needed to draw the divinities together so that they could breed and multiply. Chaos produced Night, and Gaea produced Uranus (heaven). The Titans were the 12 children of Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth), they were giants and for many epochs rulers of the universe. Cronus was the youngest and most important of the Titans he was ruler of the universe until he was dethroned by his son Zeus. Some of the other Titans were Oceanus the river that flowed around the earth; Tethys the wife of Oceanus; Mnemosyne the goddess of memory; Themis the goddess of divine justice; Hyperion the father of the sun, moon, and dawn; Lapetus the father of Prometheus who created mortals; and Atlas, who carried the world on his shoulders. The Titans strove to commit arrogant deeds. Also born of Gaea and Uranus were the Cyclops and one-eyed giants who created thunderbolts, Gaea also produced the mountains, the sea, and Typhon a one hundred headed monster

Uranus (the son and husband of Gaea) worried about his supremacy tried to force back into Gaea the children whom she gave birth to. Cronus however thwarted his father, by castrating him with a sickle and tossing his genitals into the sea. From the bloody foam Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love, was born

Cronus took control, but he also was scared shitless by what his offspring might do, so when his sister-wife Rhea gave birth to Zeus, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, Cronus swallowed them. The youngest child Zeus escaped the fate of being devoured by his father, because Rhea tricked Cronus by giving him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of the baby Zeus. When he grew up Zeus forced his father Cronus to spew out his siblings and with their help, Zeus armed with a thunderbolt made war on Cronus and the Titans, and overcame them. Of all the Titans only Prometheus and Oceanus sided with Zeus against Cronus. As a result, they were honoured and the others were cast into Tartarus (a bottomless pit mentioned at the start)

The Olympians

On this chart I have placed the Roman names in brackets. As far as I can work out the Olympian children or offspring of Cronus and Rhea were no better than their parents

Ares

Ares (Mars) was the god of war

Hades

Hades (Pluto) was god of the dead, ruler of the underworld

Poseidon

Poseidon (Neptune) was the god of the sea

Zeus

Zeus (Jupiter) was god of the sky and ruler of the gods of mount Olympus

Apollo

Apollo was the god of prophecy and the twin of Artemis

This page was last updated on 10.05.2009 16:53
Email me with questions or comments about this site