Myths of Ancient Greece
The Gods and Heroes of Hellas
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ZEUS *1
THE BIRTH OF ZEUS
Kron was not sure that the power would remain in his hands forever.
He was afraid that his children would rise up against him and find him to the same fate to which he had doomed his father Uranus.
And Cronus commanded his wife Rhea to bring him children who were born and mercilessly swallowed them.
Rhea was horrified, seeing the fate of her children.
He has already swallowed five Crowns: Hestia *2, Demeter *3, Hera, Hades (Hades) and Poseidon *4.
Rhea didnot want to lose her last child.
On the advice of her parents, Uranus of Heaven and Gaia of Earth, she retired to the island of Crete, and there, in a deep cave, her youngest son Zeus was born.
In this cave, Rhea hid her son from a cruel father, and gave him a long stone wrapped in diapers to swallow instead of his son.
Kron did not suspect that he was deceived by his wife.
Meanwhile, Zeus was growing up in Crete.
The nymphs Adrasteya and the Idea cherished the little Zeus, they fed him with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea.
Bees brought honey to little Zeus from the slopes of the high mountain Dikta.
At the entrance to the cave, the young kuretes * 5 struck their shields with swords every time the little Zeus cried, so that Kronos would not hear his crying and Zeus would not suffer the fate of his brothers and sisters.
The picture of the life of the gods on Olympus is given according to the works of Homer - the Iliad and the Odyssey, which glorify the tribal aristocracy and the basileuses who lead it as the best people standing much higher than the rest of the population.
The gods of Olympus differ from the aristocrats and basileuses only in that they are immortal, powerful and can work miracles.
*1 Zeus - Roman Jupiter
* 2 The goddess of sacrificial fire and the fire of the hearth, the patroness of cities and the state.
In Rome, Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, was later identified with Hestia
* 3 The great goddess of the fertility of the earth, who gives growth to everything that grows on the earth, gives fertility to the fields, blesses the work of the farmer.
The Romans named the goddess Demeter after their ancient goddess of the fertile field - Ceres.
*4 For the Romans, they corresponded to Juno, Pluto and Neptune
* 5 Demigods, guardians and protectors of Zeus.
Later, the priests of Zeus and Rhea were called kuretes in Crete
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