How Zeus Became KING of Gods - Greek Mythology Explained
"Hey everyone, welcome to another installment of Mythology Explained. In today’s video- we’re going to be covering almost certainly the best known deity in all of Greek mythology. This deity is, of course, Zeus, the lighting-bolt-wielding, titan-destroying king of the gods. More specifically, this video is going to take a look at Zeus as he pertains to the Greek creation myth. More videos about Zeus that cover other aspects of his life are to come. But for now, let’s get into it.
Zeus is the god of the sky and of thunder, and he ruled all of creation from his high seat on Mount Olympus. Zeus’ parents were Rhea and Cronus, the king and queen of the Titans. Cronus sired six children by Rhea. These six children were the first generation of the olympian gods in Greek mythology. They are Demeter (the goddess of harvest and agriculture), Hestia (the virgin goddess of the home, the family, and domesticity), Hera (the goddess of childbirth, women, family and marriage), Hades (the god of death and ruler of the underworld), Poseidon (the god of horses, earthquakes, storms, and the sea), and Zeus.
Zeus' story begins during a moment of great peril. Cronus learned of a foretelling that prophesied his demise at the hands of his sons, much as his own father’s demise was brought about by Cronus himself. To forestall the cycle of son supplanting father, Cronus decided to devour his children to imprison them inside himself. As each child was consumed, the situation became more and more unbearable for Rhea, who, eventually, beseeched Gaia for Aid. Gaia was sympathetic to Rhea’s plight and agreed to offer her support. Rhea bore Zeus in Crete without Cronus’ knowledge. With Zeus hidden, Rhea swaddled a stone in an infant's cloth wrappings, offering the stone to Cronus, who was hasty in ingesting his sixth child, failing to perform any sort of inspection. The notion that Rhea might betray him to save any of her children did not cross his mind.
After Zeus narrowly avoided being eaten by his father, he had to be raised in secret so that he would reach manhood without being discovered. Now, there are two versions of events that detail Zeus’ journey to manhood. One says he was raised by a nymph named Amalthea. In this version, Zeus is able to avoid being found by his father by being tied to a rope and hung from a tree. The idea behind this is that Cronus, as king of the titans and ruler of the cosmos, was the ruler of earth, sea, and sky; by dangling Zeus in such a way, he was suspended at the intersection of Cronus’ three domains and, thus, invisible to his father. The other version says that Zeus was raised by a goat - also named Amalthea - inside of a cave called Dictaeon Antron. Nearby, a cohort of boisterous soldiers capered around and banged their spears on their shields so that baby Zeus’ cries could not be heard, keeping him secret and safe.
Once Zeus reached manhood, he confronted his father and forced him to regurgitate his siblings. There are varying accounts of how this was achieved, ranging from Zeus slicing open Cronus’ stomach, to Zeus giving Cronus an emetic that caused him to purge. The brothers and sisters of Zeus then emerged from Cronus in the reverse order from which they were ingested. With his siblings freed, Zeus journeyed to Tartarus and slew the monster Campe, whom Cronus had set as a guard to ensure no one ever escaped, and set free Cronus’ siblings, the cyclopes and the hecatonchires. As a token of thanks for liberating them, the cyclopes gifted the thunderbolts that Zeus would use to devastate his enemies. Together, the gods, the cyclopes, and the Hecatonchires battered the Titans with an onslaught that eventually overcame them.
Many of the bested titans were cast down into the depths of tartarus, but not all of them. Atlas, for example, was punished by having to hold the sky up for all of eternity. Zeus, in a magnanimous move, elected to share the world with his brothers by drawing lots to see which domain would be ruled by which brother. The earth was left to Gaia and so was claimed by none; however, the skies became Zeus’ province, the sea, poseidon’s, and the underworld, Hades. "