The Coming of Zeus

Zeus was the son of the Titan, Kronos, and Rheia. Kronos had been warned by his mother, Gaia, also known as the Earth, that one of his sons or daughters could possibly usurp his royal powers. Because of this, Kronos rid himself of each child by swallowing them whole when they were still a baby, these included: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon.

The constant death of her children upset Rheia. She became pregnant once again, with her grief growing each day as the child's birth grew near. She decided to beg Gaia to find a way in which she could give birth without Kronos ever seeing the child. Gaia told Rheia what the future held, that her son could survive and in time overthrow Kronos, the King of the Titans. Rheia fled to the mountains on the island of Crete. There, deep inside a cave on the lofty peak of Mount Ida, she gave birth to Zeus. However, this time, instead of giving the child to Kronos, she wrapped a large rock in swaddling clothes and handed it to her husband Kronos. He shoved it down his throat.

Not much more than a year later, Kronos threw up. He threw up the stone and then all of his children, one after another. By this time, Zeus had grown amazingly fast and was now very powerful and extremely crafty. To show his power, Zeus took the rock his father had eaten and set it in the ground at Delphi, where it remains to this day.

To prepare for his final struggle with the Titans, Zeus freed his three Cyclops uncles: Thunder, Lightning, and Flash. They had been held in chains in the gloomy depths of Tarturus. As a thank you, the brothers gave Zeus his ultimate weapon, which was named after them.

The Titans rallied around their king, Kronos, high atop of Mount Othrys, while Zeus and the other gods set up their base on the snow topped peak of Olympus. Their battle continued to rage on for the next decade, with no winner in sight, until Gaia suggested to Zeus a way to end the war. She told him of the Hundred-Handers.