Jared Smith

Pd. 3
Latin II
Greek/Roman Gods
The Greeks and Roman mythology was about how this world was created and it explains how
we get most of our English and Latin roots. The Greeks originally had the religion and then the
Romans adopted it from them along with other cultural ideas. Aside from the small stories, the
main focus was on the gods, deities worshipped by these two groups. Hesiods is the more
traditional version of these tales and thats who I mainly went off of. The story starts from Chaos.
Through Chaos, Uranus, Gaia, Nyx and Tartarus were born. Some accounts have them being
born from Chaos while others have Gaia be his mother and his wife. Uranus ruled over the
Heavens and is the personification of the sky, Gaia was Mother Earth and she is also she was the
personification of the Earth, Nyx was the night, Erebus was darkness, and their counterparts,
Aether and Hemera were light and day. Some accounts have Eros, or Cupid, to also be a
primordial deity while others had him be the son of Aphrodite. Tartarus is, in some accounts, a
Primordial Deity but mainly a place where the Titans and the souls of the wicked are held in
there for eternal punishment.
The two Primordial gods, Gaia and
Uranus had 3 types of offspring, Cyclopes, Hecatonchires, and the Titans. Cyclopes are a
primordial race of one-eyed giants who were mainly known as builders and craftsmen.
Hecatonchires where 3 giants who had one-hundred hands (thats what their name means) and
fifty heads. Then last but not least there were the Titans like Cronus. Uranus hated his children
and wanted them killed, even though theyre immortal, so instead he imprisoned the
Hecatonchires and Cyclopes in Tartarus. Gaia, filled with hatred, tried to convince her children,
the Titans, to castrate Uranus. Being the only one convinced, Cronus their youngest and most
ambitious child, helped her out. Gaia made a sickle for Cronus to amush. After the ambush, the
blood that spilt on the earth gave birth to the Erinyes (Furies), the Meliae, and the remains that
fell into the sea came Aphrodite, the goddess of romance. Uranus made a prophecy to Cronus
saying that his own children would overthrow him as he did to his father.
This marked the period in time where Cronus ruled as the Titan god of Time and he ruled
over land, sky, and the seas. Even after taking reign as king, Cronus re-imprisoned the Cyclopes
and Hecatonchires after helping him and at that time the twelve Titans ruled the world. Some
accounts have Ophion, the serpent god, ruling the world and having Cronus overthrowing him
and ruling the world justly. Later Cronus had six children: Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon,
Hades, and the youngest, Zeus. Cronus grew paranoid, so right after the first 5 births of his
children, he devoured them all. Zeus however was saved by Rhea replacing him with a rock in a
blanket. Some accounts have him being raised by a goat named Amalthea who kept him hidden.
Other versions have him being raised by a nymph who kept him hung from a tree so hes
suspended, since Cronus ruled over land, sky, and water, and another version had him being
raised by his grandmother, Gaia.

Once Zeus grew older, he served as Cronus cup bearer and gave him an emetic with the
contents of mustard and wine which caused him to disgorge the things in his stomach in reverse
order, the rock first, then his 2 brothers and 3 sisters. Other versions have Metis giving him an
emetic instead or Zeus cutting Cronus stomach open and freeing them. Then the Cyclopes had
forged Zeus thunderbolts, Poseidons trident and Hades helmet of invisibility.
The war between the Titans and Cronus children called the
Titanomachy lasted ten years and the gods won. Some Titans did take their side and those who
opposed them were eternally punished by being banished to Tartarus and imprisoned, Cronus
was either also imprisoned in Tartarus or imprisoned in the cave of Nyx. Atlas, the Titan of
endurance, was punished by holding the heavens on his shoulder. Prometheus, the Titan of
foresight who also gave man fire, was punished for being a thief by having an eagle of Zeus eat
his liver every day and have it grow back to be eaten again. Gaia being mad at the gods for
imprisoning the Titans bore Typhon, the father of monsters, soon afterwards. Zeus became the
god of the heavens and thunder, Poseidon became the god of the seas and water, and Hades
became the god of the Underworld and wealth.
The gods had
another war, the Gigantomachy, which was between the Olympian gods and the Gigantes. Gaia
was furious that they imprisoned the Titans and they took control so Gaia brought forth the
Gigantes, which were giants who had multiple arms and snakes for legs. There was a prophecy
that said the gods needed to defeat the Gigantes with the help of a mortal, so they chose Heracles
to help them. The provocation of war started when the giant Alcyoneus stole Helios cattle.
Alcyoneus, along with the other giant Porphyrion were the most powerful. Alcyoneus was
defeated by the being dragged out of his native land, which made him immortal, and being shot
by Heracles. Porphyrion attacked Heracles and Hera, then Zeus made him enamoured by Hera,
so he then tried to rape her. But Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt and Heracles shot him down
with an arrow. Other giants were defeated by the other gods, like Eurytus was defeated by
Dionysus and his thyrsus, and Polybotes was defeated by Poseidon. The gods once again
emerged victorious.
The Titanomachy was more important, but the Gigantomachy
was quite important too. Otherwise, the other stories of heroes and the gods intervening in their
quests like Theseus or Perseus and small stories of how things were created like Arachne or Echo
were made from these.