Family disputes, murders, abductions, violations, ... the lives of Gods of Olympus It was plagued with conflicts. Acts absolutely inconceivable from the current point of view nurture the myths of Greek religion and although its purpose was to explain facts that were incomprehensible to them as the echo , luck, the hermaphroditism , etc. They do not stop surprising us. Many of these myths have been reflected in the history of art. The myth that occupies us on this occasion, the Mother of Zeus and the terrible cannibal act of Cronus, the father of Zeus , it was shaped in his canvases by artists of the stature of Goya or Rubens.
The Mother of Zeus and the cannibal act of Cronus, the father of Zeus
Before getting into the myth of the cannibalistic act of Cronos, it is interesting to know its protagonists, the father and mother of Zeus .
The Mother of Zeus | Rea
Rea was a Titanian, one of the twelve Titans who ruled as deities during the so-called "golden age" of humanity. His parents were Gea and Uranus and he married one of his brothers: Cronos. Along with Cronos they had six children: Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus. Rhea is the mother of the gods, is similar to Cybele with which sometimes merges, but does not have a facet so marked universal mother.
His name "Rea" may have different roots. Some authors believe that it means "flow" or "ease" and others that transpose sound can derive from " ἔρα "which means "Soil" in the sense of land. His cult was not widespread and was only venerated in Crete. His symbols were the moon and the lions that pulled his car.
The Father of Zeus | Cronos
Cronos, the father of Zeus , like his sister and wife Rea, he was a titan. His parents were Uranus, heaven, and Gea, the earth, and the behavior he had with his own children somehow he learned from his father.
Gea felt a great resentment for Uranus, because when her children were about to be born she held them in her mother's womb and did not allow them to see the light. He asked his elder sons for help to take down Uranus and reverse that situation, but only Cronos responded. He made a flint sickle and prepared a trap. When Uranus lay with Gea, Cronos approached and with the sickle cut off his genitals throwing them into the sea. Cronos, like that, castrated and overthrew his father. From that moment Uranus called his children "titans" which means "those who abuse". Uranus then predicted that Kronos would be punished for what he had done, being overthrown in turn by one of his sons. Gea communicated the prediction to Cronos and Rhea, which gave rise to the myth that concerns us: the cannibal act of Cronos .
The myth of the cannibal act of the father of Zeus
The mother of Zeus He had 5 children before he was born. At the time of birth, Rhea delivered them to Cronos (for the Romans Saturn) and he devoured them. He feared that, as his father had predicted, he would be overthrown by one of them.
Rea, tired of her children being swallowed one after the other, asked Gea for help. When the sixth of their offspring was born, Zeus, Gea and Rhea exchanged it for a stone that they wrapped in diapers. He was presented to Cronos who immediately devoured him. The child was hidden in the Island of crete where he was raised by the goat Amalthea. When he got older, Gea gave him a poison to give him to Cronus. When he ingested it he began to regurgitate his children in reverse order to how he had swallowed them. First the stone, then Poseidon and so on to the eldest of his children, Demeter.
A war began known as the "titanomaquia" in which fought titans and gods overcoming the latter.
Interpretation of the myth
Psychology has wanted to see multiple explanations in the myth of Chronos and Zeus, as well as in Uranus and Cronos: the conflict between youth and old age, jealousy and even the fear of sexual impotence.
In art, because Chronos, the father of Zeus was assimilated to Chronos, time, became an allegorical emblem and the act of cannibalism came to mean the inexorable passage of time that devours everything. In the case of Goya's painting, it has been interpreted that Cronos can represent Spain by swallowing his own children in revolutions and wars.
Did you know the mother of Zeus Rea? What do you think of the myth of Cronos cannibalism? If you have been interested in this post, maybe you want to know more about other mythological characters reading the article: 10 Short Greek myths | Epic stories of the Gods of Olympus.