THE CREATION OF THE TITANS &

from Hesiod’s Theogony

O
ut of the original emptiness, which was called Chaos, emerged the first three immortal beings:
Gaea (Mother Earth), Tartarus, who ruled the deepest, darkest region of the Underworld, and Eros
(Love), whose great beauty inspired the creation of many of the deathless gods. Then Gaea,
without any partner, gave birth to Uranus (Father Sky). She made him her equal, so that he would surround
her on all sides and would provide a home for the immortal beings. Gaea also gave birth to Ourea
(Mountains) and Pantus (Sea).
Gaea then married Uranus, and he ruled over all that came into being. The first immortal children of
Gaea and Uranus were the three Hundred-‐Handed Giants. Each Giant had fifty heads and fifty arms
extending from each shoulder.
Their next immortal children were the three Cyclopes. Each Cyclops had only one eye, set in the middle
of his forehead. They were expert craftsmen, and they later built the palaces for the gods on Mount
Olympus.
Uranus feared the terrible strength of these six children, and he hated them because they terrified him.
So as each child was born, Uranus took him from his mother, bound him, and hurled him deep into Gaea’s
being, the earth. Each child fell for nine days and nine nights, finally landing in the region named after its
ruler, Tartarus, on the tenth day. There Uranus kept the Hundred-‐Handed Giants and the Cyclopes, far
from the surface of the earth and the light of the sun. His eyes now shone with pride and satisfaction, for he
ruled without fear of any challenge to his authority, and he expected to rule forever.
Gaea was outraged by her husband’s actions. She longed for her children, and she hated Uranus for
what he had done to them. However, she buried her feelings deep in her heart and quietly waited for the
time when she could take revenge.
The next immortal children born to Gaea and Uranus were the thirteen Titans. They and their children
became the oldest generation of Greek gods. Helios was the god of the sun and drove it across the sky in his
chariot. Selene was the goddess of the moon. Oceanus was the god of the river that surrounded the earth.
Like her mother, Gaea, Themis was the goddess of prophecy at Delphi. Cronus married his sister Rhea, who
was a goddess of the earth like her mother, and in time they became the parents of the Greek gods. Later,
Atlas, by far the strongest of the Titans, held up the sky so that it would not fall upon the earth. Soon
thereafter, Prometheus, the most intelligent and clever Titan, created mortal man out of clay and water. His
brother, Epimetheus, married Pandora, the first mortal woman.
Gaea decided to use her Titan children as her means of revenge against Uranus. She took a large piece
of flint and shaped it into a huge, sharp, stone sickle. Then, she approached her sons and said, “I want you
to punish your father, for he is very cruel. He has imprisoned your brothers in the land of Tartarus against
my wishes and against their will.”
Almost all of Gaea’s sons were so terrified of Uranus that they listened to her command in silence and
refused to obey her. But Cronus, the youngest Titan, was very similar to his father in temperament, and he
was much more courageous than his brothers. When he saw their reaction, he said, “If no one else will help
you, Mother, I certainly will! If our father has been cruel to you and to our brothers, we should take
revenge!”
 When she heard Cronus’ words, Gaea’s heart overflowed with pride and satisfaction. It was gratifying to
have one son who had the courage to help her. Now, Uranus would learn what it was like to endure endless
suffering!
So Gaea put the great, flint sickle into Cronus’ hands. She warned him to be careful with its sharp,
curved blade. Then she told him where to hide and what she wanted him to do. Later, when Helios had
drawn the chariot of the sun across the sky and had retired for the night, Uranus joined his wife by the
shore of the sea and lay down to sleep with her.
Selene shed the light of the moon upon the sleeping figure of Uranus as Cronus, from his place of
hiding, raised the huge, stone sickle and emasculated his father. Then he quickly threw the severed pieces
into the sea and said, “Your reign is over, Father! Now I shall reign in your place. You may challenge me, but
my power is clearly greater than yours. So, I advise you to submit to your fate.”
Uranus, being immortal, could not die. However, he screamed in agony, for his immortality did not
prevent him from feeling excruciating pain. Part of his anguish came from the realization that his power
had suddenly ended.
From Uranus’ blood, which flowed into the earth, Gaea brought forth the three black-‐clothed Furies.
With eyes that dripped poisonous tears and breath that was too foul to bear, these immortal goddesses
drove to insanity any child who killed one of his parents. From the same blood, Gaea also brought forth
another group of terrible beings, who were simply called the Giants. They looked fearsome, with their hairy
heads and faces and their dragon-‐like feet. When they wore their shining armor and carried their long
spears, they appeared to be invincible.
The severed pieces of Uranus’ immortal body remained in the sea, where a white foam surrounded
them. In time Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and sexual desire, was born from them, and she was often
called the foam-‐born goddess.
Cronus became god of the sky, as his father had been before him. Like his father, he feared the
Hundred-‐Handed Giants and the Cyclopes, so he ignored his promise to Gaea and kept his brothers bound
and imprisoned in Tartarus.
Gaea, disappointed and angry, watched and waited for the next opportunity to free her children. Being
a goddess of prophecy, she enjoyed informing Cronus that one day a son of his would overpower him just as
he had overpowered his own father. “I shall fool the Fates!” he exclaimed to himself, with a clever smile. “If I
do not have any children, then I will be able to rule forever!”
However, it was not so easy to change his destiny. Cronus loved his wife, Rhea, and in time she gave
birth to a lovely daughter, Hestia. When Rhea proudly presented their baby daughter to Cronus, the words
of his fate screamed inside Cronus’ head! His great fear of losing power brought a mad, distraught glint into
his eyes. Without considering whether the baby was female or male, Cronus took the baby lovingly from his
wife, opened his gigantic mouth, and swallowed the infant in one gulp. “Now,” he thought with satisfaction,
“I have cheated the Fates of their prophecy and my child of his throne!”
Four more children were born to Cronus and Rhea: Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Each time
Cronus embraced the infant so lovingly that Rhea was certain he would accept this child. However, each
time the glint of madness would steal across his eyes as the words of the prophecy roared in his eats, and
each time he would open his gigantic mouth and swallow the infant in one gulp. Then, once again, Cronus
would grin with satisfaction and think to himself, “I have cheated the Fates of their prophecy and my child
of his throne!”
By this time, Rhea’s heart was overflowing with grief. When she was about to give birth to her sixth
child, she went to Gaea and said, “Mother, please help me! Cronus has robbed me of our children just as
Uranus robbed you of the Hundred-‐Handed Giants and the Cyclopes. I cannot bear to let him steal this
baby too! What can I do? Can we hide the infant from Cronus before he sees it? How can I trick him?”
Gaea replied, “My heart understands your pain, my daughter, and I think I can help you. I know that
Cronus is destined to be overpowered by his son just as he overpowered his father before him. Surely the
child about to be born to you is the son who is destined to take revenge upon Cronus for his treatment of
his father, his brothers, and his own children.
“When your time to give birth arrives,” Gaea counseled her daughter, “go to the island of Crete and take
refuge in the deep, hidden cave high on the slopes of Mount Dicte. I shall see that nymphs nurse your
infant son with goat’s milk, and I will have them hang his cradle from a tree so that Cronus will not be able
to find him on land, or sea, or in the air. Young boys, the Curetes, will march beneath his cradle, clanging
their spears against their bronze shields to smother the
sound of his cries.
“And as for how to trick Cronus;” Gaea concluded, “he is so crazed with fear that an ordinary rock
should be all you need to fool him!”
So it came about that Rhea gave birth to the infant, Zeus, in the cave of Mount Dicte, on Crete. She left
her mother, Gaea, in charge of the baby and quickly returned home. She then found a rock about the size of
her newborn infant and wrapped it in swaddling clothes as if it were an infant. Soon Cronus entered the
room. “How are you feeling?” he asked her sweetly. “Let me admire our latest child. Not every infant is born
into such a royal family!”
Rhea forced herself to think of the fate of her other five children as she handed the well-‐wrapped rock
over to her husband. As usual, Cronus took the bundle she gave him and lovingly embraced it. Then the
words of the prophecy screamed in his head, and the look of madness shone forth from his eyes. Beside
himself with fear of his destiny, Cronus opened his gigantic mouth and swallowed the rock in one gulp.
“Now,” he said to himself, smiling with the greatest satisfaction and relief, “once again, I have cheated the
Fates of their prophecy and my child of his throne! I shall rule forever, after all!”

Years passed, and Zeus became a mature god. Cronus never realized that a son had escaped his eye and
evaded his gigantic mouth. He ruled untroubled and unthreatened, never thinking that his destiny might
be rapidly approaching.
One day when Cronus was thirsty, Rhea gave him a tasty drink. He was delighted and asked for more. A
young stranger walked in and handed him the cup, and Cronus had swallowed the drink before it occurred
to him that he had never seen the young man before. “Who is he?” he wondered. “Why should he have
brought me the drink? What if he has poisoned me! Why does my stomach feel so strange! Did I drink too
much? Was the second drink different from the first drink?”
Suddenly, Cronus felt an excruciating pain in his stomach. He vomited up the rock, followed by
Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, all of whom were fully grown by now. Rhea then entered the
room, with the young stranger, Zeus, by her side. “Your destiny is upon you, Cronus!” she exclaimed. “The
Fates prophesied that a son would overpower you just as you overpowered your own father. That son, Zeus,
now stands before you. You are reaping the fruits of the seeds you sowed when you swallowed our children
and kept your brothers in chains in Tartarus! We will now see whether Zeus will rule with more intelligence
and kindness than you did. Your mind has been as blind and your heart as hard as that rock you
swallowed!”
“If this stranger, son of mine or not, thinks that he is going to take my kingdom from me, he is not as
intelligent as you seem to think he is!” Cronus responded. “Anyone who wants to rule in my place will have
to fight me, and all of the other Titans, too!”
So it came to pass that Zeus and his brothers and sisters, the first Greek gods, waged war against
Cronus and the Titans who allied themselves with him. The gods and the Titans were so evenly matched in
numbers and in strength that they fought for ten years without victory for either side.
Finally, Gaea, who has given Zeus the poisoned drink to give his father, helped Zeus once again. She
told him about her lost children, the Hundred-‐Handed Giants and the Cyclopes, whom Uranus and Cronus
had kept imprisoned beneath the ground at the borders of the earth, and how they were chained in grief
and sorrow, far from the light of Helios and the companionship of the deathless gods. She prophesied that
the gods would win their war if they brought the Hundred-‐Handed Giants and the Cyclopes up from
Tartarus as their allies.
Zeus and his brothers went down to Tartarus to rescue Gaea’s children and encourage their alliance.
Once they had killed the guard, removed their uncles’ bonds, and fed them, Zeus said, “Listen to these
words from my heart: We have been fighting the Titans for ten years without success. If you will repay our
kindness to you by fighting on our side, your great strength will make us victorious.”
To these words one of the Hundred-‐Handed Giants replied, “We know that you are fighting to defend the
deathless gods from the cruelty of Titan rulers. And we know what it is to be the victims of Titan power.
Had you not freed us, we were doomed to face an eternity of darkness, bondage, and isolation. Uranus and
his son Cronus do not understand suffering and know nothing of mercy. We know that you will rule the
world with greater wisdom. Of course, we shall fight with you against the Titan tyrant!”
Then one of the Cyclopes said, “In return for our freedom, we present each of you with a special gift. To
you, Zeus, we give the gift of thunder and lightning in the form of a thunderbolt, an invincible weapon
against any enemy. We shall make more of these for you when we set up on Mount Olympus.
“To you, Poseidon,” he continued, “we give the trident. Not only is it a superior fishing spear, but you
will find it a most effective device for shaking the earth and creating waves at sea. Until then, its three
barbed prongs will make it a useful weapon against the Titans.
“And to you, Hades,” he concluded, “we give the helmet of invisibility. In time to come, the hero
Perseus will need your weapon to kill the monstrous Gorgon, Medusa. Until then, it will serve you well
against Cronus and his Titan allies.”
With high spirits, Zeus and his allies returned to the upper world and renewed the battle. The
Hundred-‐Handed Giants broke cliffs off the mountains until they had a huge crag in each of their multitude
of hands. Then they pelted the Titans with their stone weapons. The Titans responded with arrows and
spears. The combatants could not kill each other, for they were all immortal beings. However, they could
injure and overpower one another. The battle caused an upheaval across the earth and sea. The mountains
quaked, and even Tartarus felt the impact of the mighty rocks upon the earth high above him.
 Then Zeus hurled his invincible lightning bolt, which
engulfed in flames whatever it touched. The earth resounded
with the roars of mighty thunder as the blazing woods and the
scalding sea scorched the air. Finally, the Hundred-‐Handed
Giants hurled the Titans beneath the earth into Tartarus and
placed them in chains for eternity in that dark, dismal land.
Two of them volunteered to guard the hated Titans forever.
The third, Atlas, because of his size and his strength, was
forced to hold up the sky upon his shoulders. The war was
over.
When the three male gods drew lots for their kingdoms,
Zeus drew the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades, the
Underworld. In addition to maintaining peace and order
among all of the immortal beings in the world, Zeus taught
human beings to be just in their treatment of one another.
Those who did not respect the deathless gods and other
mortals were severely punished. Poseidon could use his trident
to cause earthquakes as well as storms at sea, but he also
taught mortals how to tame horses to work for them and how
to build ships. Hades taught mortals to have respect for the
dead by conducting proper funeral ceremonies and following
certain burial practices.
Saturno devorando a un hijo
Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) Zeus married his sister Hera, who became the goddess of
1823, Oil on marriage and childbirth as well as queen of Olympus. Hestia
canvas Museo del Prado,
Madrid became the guardian of the home and taught mortals how to
build houses. Demeter became the goddess of grain. She
taught mortals how to save the kernels of wild corn, plant them where they wanted corn to grow, and
harvest the mature plants.
Zeus became the father of many other gods: Athena, the goddess of arts and crafts and defensive war;
Apollo, the god of prophecy, medicine, and archery; Artemis, the goodess of the hunt; Hermes, Zeus’
messenger; Persephone, the queen of the Underworld; Ares, the god of war; and Hephaestus, the renowned
metalsmith. The rule of the Titans had ended. The rule of the gods had begun.
Principal Gods
The First Generation:
Gaea (Γαια): first Great Goddess or Mother Goddess in Greek mythology; Mother Earth, who
nourishes all life

Uranus (Ορανος): son and husband of Gaea; ruler of the sky

The Second Generation:

Hundred-‐handed Giants (Ἡεκατονχειρες): triplets; best known: Briareus

Cyclopes (Κυπλωπες): triplets; one-‐eyed metalsmiths; servants of Zeus

Titans (Τιτανες Θεοι): thirteen; race of immortals who, with their children, ruled the universe before the
gods conquered them:

Cronus (Χρονος; Roman: Saturn): youngest child; god of the sky after Uranus and ruler of the Titans;
father of the first six Greek gods: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia

Rhea (Ῥεα; Roman: Cybele): sister and wife of Cronus; a Great Goddess or Mother Goddess like Gaea;
mother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia

Helios (Ἡλιος): god of the sun prior to replacement by Apollo in late Greek and Roman mythology

Selene (Σεληνη): goddess of the moon prior to replacement by Artemis in late Greek and
Roman mythology

Themis (Θεμις): goddess of prophecy at Delphi before Apollo conquered her oracle

The Third Generation:

Zeus (Ζευς; Roman: Jupiter, Jove): youngest, most intelligent, and most powerful child; lord of the sky after
Cronus; ruler of the gods; maintains order in the world of mortals; protects strangers and guests

Poseidon (Ποσειδων; Roman: Neptune): brother of Zeus; lord of the sea; causes earthquakes

Hades (Ἁδης; Roman: Pluto): brother of Zeus; ruler of the Underworld; lord of the dead

Hera (Ἡρη; Roman: Juno): sister and wife of Zeus; queen of Olympus; goddess of marriage and childbirth

Demeter (Δημητηρ; Roman: Ceres): sister of Zeus; a Great Goddess or Mother Goddess like Rhea and Gaea;
goddess of grain

Hestia (Ἑστια; Roman: Vesta): sister of Zeus; kindest and most loved of the gods; guardian of the home
Immortal Children of Zeus

Apollo (Απολλων): twin of Artemis; god of prophecy, medicine, archery, and music; god of the sun in late
Greek and Roman mythology

Artemis (Αρτεμις; Roman: Diana): twin of Apollo; goddess of the hunt; goddess of the moon in late Greek
and Roman mythology

Athena (Αθηνη; Roman: Minerva): goddess of arts and crafts and defensive war; helper of heroes; goddess
of wisdom in late Greek and Roman mythology

Aphrodite (Αφροδιτη; Roman: Venus): goddess of beauty and sexual desire

Persephone (Περσεφονη; Roman: Proserpine): wife of Hades; queen of the Underworld

The Fates (Μοιραι): Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos: determine the length of each mortal’s life

Ares (Αρης; Roman: Mars): god of war

Hephaestus (Ἡφαιστος; Roman: Vulcan): husband of Aphrodite; metalsmith of the gods, famous for his
creativity and skill

Hermes (Ἡρμης; Roman: Mercury): Zeus’ messenger; guides travelers and leads shades of the dead into the
Underworld; helps merchants and thieves