TITANOMACHY

                                 TITANOMACHY - ZEUS VERSUS CRONOS

 

Cronos dethroned his father, but he was also dethroned by his own son.

 

It is told that Uranus, the first ruler of the universe, hated his own offspring, kept the Cyclopes and the Hecatonheires imprisoned in the depth of the earth.  This cruelty grieved their mother, Gaea, who encouraged the Titans to revolt against their father.  They did overthrow him, but the new ruler, Cronus, abstained from restoring justice and shut his brothers up in the same deep depth again.  Revolt bred revolt in succession and that might be the true reason why both Gaia and Uranus foretold Cronus that he would be dethroned by his own son.

 

Having heard the prophesy, Cronus began to swallow his children at birth, a method that enraged his wife, Rhea, who saw herself always pregnant but never a mother.  So while expecting Zeus, she went to Crete and gave him birth in a cave, giving Cronus a stone wrapped in clothes to swallow, as if it were a newborn child.  This is how Zeus escaped being devoured by his father.  

 

When he grew up he asked Metis to help him against his father and she gave Cronus a drug that forced him to disgorge, first the stone, and then the children he had previously swallowed.  Some affirm that Cronus did not swallow all of them, but cast Hades in Tartarus and Poseidon in the sea.  Others assert that Rhea, having given birth to Poseidon, declared to Cronus that she had given birth to a horse and gave him a foal to swallow instead of a child.

 

When Zeus grew up to maturity, he decided to wage a war against Cronus and the Titans, declaring that he was without office or rights that should be given to him.  Becoming the ruler of the universe, Zeus did not deprive a few others of the privilege also.

 

So Styx came first to Olympus together with her children rallied by his side.  This is why Zeus granted her special honors and appointed her to be the Great Oath of the gods and her children were Nike, Selos, Cratos, and Bia to be near him always.

 

The Titans fought from Mount Offries and the gods from Mount Olympos, but after ten years of constant fight, the issue of way hung evenly balanced.  It was then that Gaia prophesied victory to Zeus if he should have allies those who had been hurled down to Tartary by Cronos: the Cyclopes and the Hecatonheires.  Cronus had imprisoned the Hecatonheires because he was jealous of their manhood and comeliness as they say  He made them live beneath the earth for a long time with great suffering.  But Zeus and his brothers decided to bring them up again, at Gaia’s advice.  Consequently, Zeus slew their jailoress,  Compte, and fired them.  Zeus provided them with nectar and ambrosia and their spirit recovered.  Then he addressed them:

 

“Hear me, bright children of Earth and Heaven what I wished a long time now.   We who have sprung from Cronus and the Titan gods, fought with each other every day to get a victory and prevail.  But show your great might and strength and face the Titans in bitter strife and  remember our friendly kindness and from what suffering you have come back to the light from the cruel bondage under the misty gloom through all counsels.”

 

The Cyclops gave Zeus thunder and lightning and gave Hades a helmet and Poseidon a trident. It is told that during this terrible war, the sea rung terribly, the earth crashed loudly, the heaven was shaken and Olympus reeled from its foundation.  The Hecatonheires held huge rocks in their hundred hands and Zeus hurled his lighting, while the earth burned, and the woods crackled with fire.  The streams of the ocean seethed and covered the Titans.

 

A huge flame rose and the glaze of the lightning and thunderstorm blinded the eyes of the Titans.  And it is said that heat seized Chaos and that it seemed as if Earth and Heaven came together and there was a mighty crash, amid earthquakes and dust storms.

 

But the Hecatonheires overshadowed the Titans with mighty rocks that their hundred hands hurled at them and having defeated them they chained them as far beneath the earth, as heaven is above the earth.  That is in Tartarus, a place of deep darkness and a bronze fence around it that even the gods abhor.

 

The Titaness, Themis, sided with Zeus because she knew that neither the brute nor the violent would prevail, but the clever. Prometheus listened to her words and sided with Zeus too.  However, after the war, when Zeus had Prometheus chained for having given fire to the mortals, he lamented his choice.

 

“Thus, I helped the tyrant of the gods and with his foul payment he was responding to a disease that is interested in tyranny and had no faith in friends.”

 

When the heroes stopped at the land of the Babryces, king Amylcus challenged them as he did with all visitors, to fight to death.  Pollux the son of Zeus took up the challenge and killed Amylkus.   

The Argonauts then stopped to see Phineas, the blind King of Thynia.  Phineas was a prophet and the travelers needed advice on how to proceed.  Phineas agreed to help them if they got rid of the fierce part-woman part-bird creature, Harpies, who stole and spoiled his food.  Jason ordered a feast to be prepared.  When Harpies arrived to ruin the feast, two of the Argonauts, Calais, and Zetes, winged sons of Boreas, the North Wind, pursued her.

Eventually, Zeus sent a message to Harpies should be spared, but they should leave Phineass in peace.

After entering the entrance to the Black Sea, the Argonauts had to go through the Sympligades.  These were huge rocks that crashed together and destroyed any ship that tried to sail through them.  Following Phineas' advice, the Argonaugnts released a dove and watched its course as it flew between the rocks.  The dove made the passage, losing only a single tail feather. 

As soon as the rocks began to come apart, the Argonauts pulled hard on their oars, following the path of the dove.  When they had almost passed through, a huge wave held them back.  At that point, the goddesses Hera and Athena gave them a push and the ship made it to safety.  Forever after the Sympligades remained separated.     

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