Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, seeing as this is a knowledge forum, I thought it appropriate to share my knowledge on one of the things I know most about. I will accept any questions relating to Ancient Mythology of any kind, but my forte is Pre-Olympian Greek.

Did you know that...

Gaia and Oranos had many children, but the most powerful of these were the twelve Titans:

Oceanus
Coeus
Crius
Hyperion
Iapetus
Cronus

Theia
Rheia
Themis
Mnemosyne
Phoebe
Tethys

One of the most powerful later Titans was the mighty Hecate. Hecate's parents were Asteria, daughter of Coeus and Phoebe and Persaus (or Perses) son of Crius and Eurybia.

Asteria had power over the moon, stars, night and necromancy.
Persaus had power over destruction and war.
Through her parents Hecate inherited powers over these and more. She became a Goddess of the night, magic and most mysteriously crossroads. She is often percieved as a threeheaded animal, usually a dog.

Just a taster.

I think his wife was his sister, Rhea.
And from what I remember Zeus just banished Cronus (who later became known to the Romans as Saturn, God of Time).

Roman!

Yea, I know, Greek and Roman are basically one in the same. But, I like the names better in Roman. razz

Rheia was the wife of Cronus. Rheia was the goddess of fertility and her name comes from the ancient greek word "Flow". She tricked him into eating a stone wrapped in swaddling cloth, in place of Zeus. When Zeus grew up he became Cronus's Cup Bearer. He fed Cronus a cup of (Myths differ on this) poison or scalding water, which made him retch, and out of his stomach came Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter. A long war followed. Many of the powerful Titans defected or refused to fight. Among those that defected were Hecate, Epithemeus and Prometheus. Together with the Olympians they defeated Cronus and the others. Cronus and the other Titans were locked up in Tartarus, despite a few such as Atlas who was cursed to hold up the sky.

That is the basics of the story, as the whole would have carried on forever.

Also Cronus was only father to six of the Olympians. The rest were children of the six, while Aphrodite was daughter of Oranos (will write that story later).

Greek Creation according to my book Gods & Goddess of Classicl Mytholoy

In the beginning, there was Chaos. The planets swirled and burned in darkness d the Earth sped through the galaxy. Born from this Chaos was Gaia, First of all the gods. Gaia was the Earth herself, but the planet was unformed when she first appeared. Gaia breathed life into the void and spread out her arms and legs, thereby creatng rivers, mountains, strems and plains. As he became more fully developed, Gaia yerned for both a mate and children. She gave birth first to Uranus, the Sky, who became her consort and lover.

The divine couple had three sets of children, known as the Titans, Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires. First came the twelve Titns, the youngest of whom was Chronus[Saturn]. Then Gaia bor the three Cyclopes: Arges, Brontes and Sterpes. Finally,she birthed the three Hecatoncheires: Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges. Urainus feared the size and strength of his children, who derived their primal strength from their mother. He locked them in Tartarus, the deep underworld, to keep himself safe from them. Furious over the containment of her children, Gaia descended to the Underworld and persuaded her youngest Titan Child, Crhonus, to rebeel against his father. Gaia provided the scythe with witch Cronus casterated his father; the dripping blood from Uranus's geitals fertilized Gaia yet again and she gave birth to the Furies, Gaints and Meliads (nymphs of ash trees).

Gaia presided over the marriage and family life of her children Cronus and Rhea [Ops], but when Cronus proved to be a tyrant like his father, she helped Rhea to conceal the infant Zeus [Jupiter]. Zeus overthrew his father, as Cronus had Uranus, and then chained the other Titans in Tartarus.

Grieving over this, the second imprisonment of her progeny, Gaia mated with Tartarus (The underworld) and gave birth to the many headed monster Typhon, whom she sent forth against Zeus. The struggles were fierce, but Zeus pervailed; he buried Typhon under the volcano at Aetna, in Sicily. Thus the Titans and other children of Gaia remained subordinate to the new Olympian gods and goddess. Gaia herself remained in the background, the ultimate Earth Mother, but no longer the object of direct worship by the Greeks. In her loyalty to her children and her assistance to Cronus and Zeus in the overthrow of their father's, she is one of the most primitive and elemental of the Greek divinities. Almost forgotten by later generations, she set the whole epic of the gods in motion.

oh greek mythology is my favorite. ^-^ i'm enjoying this just to read over some of the old stories.

I'm such a nerd that I went out and bought a book of Ovid's version of some of the greek myths.

Like, Ovid portrays Athena in the story of Arachne as a Vengful hateful witch. o.O

Like, you know how Arachne was a skillful weaver, and didn't acredit her talent to the gods?

Well we know sort of how the story goes, Athena finds out, warns her of her ways (in the disguise of a little old woman) and when Arachne still wont recant, challenges her to a dual

They began the weaving contest, Athena's showing the folly of humans who defied the Gods, and the sin of pride and Arachne's showing the folly of the Gods.

Well according to ovid, our friend Arachne was winning and athena (or Pallus as he calls her) is very envious and when it is apparent that she has lost she strikes arachne across the face three times to add insult to injury.

Arachne can't take anymore of this and hangs herself but Pallas, being the vengful thing she is, says "so shall you live, bad girl, to swing, to live now and forever, even to the last hanging creature of your kind" and she turns her into a spider.

O.o and reading this I thought "wow, she's harsh."

But i'm going to ask you, is this the only account of where Arachne wins the duel but ultimately loses, or is this the accepted version of how the story goes? Never in anything else have I found where arachne wins. ^_^ input is much appreciated.

I only read a few norse myths, I can't recall any of them. Just something about a really, really big dog. And I'm not thinking Cerberus.



Thanks muchos. It's one of my favorite myths, or else I wouldn't know that much about it. lol



I believe so. I didn't study the "elder" Gods very much, so I can't guarantee I'm right.


Yeah, the Greeks basically designed the Gods with human-like qualities, which includes the whole "jealousy" factor. Likes Ares, how he would frequently switch sides in the middle of a war or battle to be on the winning side. I thought that was kinda funny, actually. But, yeah, Pallas is a bit of a bizzo in that story. I think it's also to emphasize the God's wrath, to show their power. That's just my analysis.



I've never read an alternate version of this myth where Arachne wins. It always ends the same, Arachne winning and Pallas basically getting jealous and cursing her to become a spider. I do, however, remember reading that and thinking, "you jealous b***h >=O" because I wanted Arachne to win, haha. But that's greek myth for you, they don't agree with Disney's idea of "happily ever after".

Mostly correct, but Oranos had a brother, Pontus. Also Typhon was only defeated with the help of Hermes, and in some myths Apollo. There are some other mistakes, but only minor ones.