The gods of ancient Greece are very similar to people with all their flaws and vices. The supreme power vested in the Olympians made their whims and whims especially dangerous for mortals.
Children of Chaos
Before the creation of the world, according to the Hellenes, there was only an endless silent void - Chaos. Earth-Gaia emerged from Chaos. Besides her, Chaos gave birth to Night-Nocta and Gloom-Erebus. Nocta and Erebus produced the goddess of light Hemera and Ether - air. After that, Nocta went to Tartarus - the great abyss in the bowels of the Earth. Nocta and Gemera rule on Earth, replacing each other.
In a dream, Gaia-Earth gave birth to the God of Heaven - the mighty Uranus. Uranus took Gaia as his wife, for which it is difficult to condemn him - there was simply no choice.
Children of Uranus and Gaia
The firstborns of Gaia and Uranus were the fifty-headed, hundred-armed hecatoncheires - Cott, Gyes and Briareus. Then 3 brothers were born-Cyclops (in the Russian transcription of the Cyclops), giants with one eye in the middle of the forehead - Arg, Bront and Sterop. The aesthetic sense of Uranus was offended by the peculiar appearance of the sons, and he plunged them into Tartarus.
Then the divine couple gave birth to a dozen beautiful titans and titanids, immortal and powerful. Titans and Titanides became the parents of other inhabitants of Olympus.
Crown
Gaia, as a loving mother, could not come to terms with the imprisonment of older children in the terrible Tartarus and invited the grown titans to overthrow her father and free the brothers. The youngest, Crohn, who dreamed of becoming the king of the world, Gaia armed with a sickle. Titans, except for the elder Ocean, attacked the sleeping father, and Cronus castrated weapons received from his mother. From the drops of the blood of the God of Heaven that fell to the Earth, the terrible goddesses of vengeance were born - the Erinia Alecto, Tisiphon and Megera.
Uranus predicted to the insidious offspring that he too would have to fall by the hand of his own son.
The rebel titans freed the Cyclops and Hecatoncheires and gave Cronus power over the world. However, the cunning Cronus, having won, again plunged the firstborn of the Earth and Heaven into Tartarus.
Zeus
Cronus married the titanide Rhea. He could not forget the prophecies of Crohn and therefore swallowed all his newborn children: Aida, Poseidon, Hestia, Hera and Demeter. To save the next baby, Zeus, Rhea wrapped a stone in diapers and slipped it to her illegible spouse.
Mother put Zeus in a golden cradle and hung him on a tall pine tree on the island of Crete so that Cronus would not find the child either in heaven or on earth. The infant was guarded by warriors-kurets, the sons of Gaia. Every time the baby began to cry, the warriors hit their shields with swords and began dancing with dashing exclamations to drown out the cry.
The divine goat Amalthea gave Zeus a drink with her milk, and the bees fed him with honey. Matured Zeus attacked his father, took away his power and forced his older brothers and sisters to burp.
Hera
Hera, daughter of Crohn and Rhea, became the wife of Zeus. This union can hardly be called especially happy: the amorous Zeus was constantly fond of either other goddesses, or nymphs, or even mortal women. Hera did not dare to openly scandal with her powerful spouse, but she constantly took revenge on her rivals in the most cruel ways. This is probably why the ancient Greeks considered her the patroness of matrimonial unions and responsible for childbirth.
Poseidon
Zeus gave his brother Poseidon the possession of the sea waters. Poseidon married the nymph Amphitrite, and he also did not differ in loyalty to his wife. Many of his sons terrified mortals: the monstrous Minotaur, the Cyclops Polyphemus, the robber Skiron, the strongman Antaeus.
Hades
Another brother, Hades, Zeus gave the kingdom of the dead. Hades never ascended to Olympus, to his divine relatives, and ruled the underworld together with his wife Persephone, whom he kidnapped from her mother, the goddess of fertility, Demeter. Although Hades remained faithful to his wife, it would not work to call Demeter's life happy either: the beautiful goddess was forced to spend half her life in the gloomy world of shadows. Spring and summer Persephone, by decision of the gods, spent with her mother.
Athena
The first wife of Zeus was the goddess of wisdom Metis. However, the Thunderer was predicted that the son she had born would take away the power from his father. Without further ado, Zeus followed his father's example and swallowed Metis. However, he soon had a terrible headache. When the divine blacksmith Hephaestus, at the request of the patient, cut off his head, a beautiful maiden in full military vestments emerged from there - Athena. She became the patroness of science and crafts, martial arts and navigation. Perhaps Athena was the most revered goddess in Hellas.
