Zeus and Hera

In the great throne room where the stars sailed over every corner of the world, a terrible roar struck like a thunder.

Cronus, the Titan lord of time, wielded his scythe and gave a mighty blow that ripped through the heart of his father Oranos, the Heaven.

"Your reign is now mine, Father," Cronus laughed as he stood towering over his dying sire. Oranos spit out golden blood regretted his love for this treacherous son, and thus the dying Oranos had prophesied saying, "You murder me now, and steal my throne, but one of your own sons will dethrone you, for crime begets crime."

The sky trembled and the earth shook as if to give the terrible curse its effect. Cronus grimaced at the god's prophecy. He knew deep in his heart of heart that what his father said would come to pass. In a fit of rage, Cronus swung his scythe one last time and ended the life of the old god.

Once Cronus possessed the throne, he married his sister Rhea, goddess of earth and became king of the Titans.

So Cronus was very careful. One by one, he swallowed his children as they were born. First—Hestia, Demeter, and Hera; then two other children Hades and Poseidon. One by one, he swallowed them.

Rhea was furious and heartbroken, but she was powerless against him. She was determined that he should not eat her next child who she felt sure would be a son.

When she was ready to birth a new heir, Rhea crept down the slope of Olympus to a dark place to have her baby. It was indeed a son, and she named him Zeus.

The goddess hung golden cradle from the branches of an olive tree, and put him to sleep there. Then she went back to the top of the mountain. She took a rock and wrapped it in swaddling clothes and held it to her breast, humming a lullaby. Cronus came into the room, snorting. He bellowed out of his great lungs.

"Give the child to me!" the Titan lord said.

"No!" Rhea protested, trying to turn away and pressing the bundle closer to her breast still. "He is mine, you will not have him. I won't allow you to kill our offspring anymore!"

Cronus roared, "All my children are harbinger of doom to me! Better to destroy them before they take roots and dethrone their father. Now give me the child or I shall swallow you too, wife!"

He then snatched the bundle from her, and swallowed it, clothes and all. Cronus then turned away as Rhea pretended to sob in grief.

Later, the goddess stole down the mountainside to the swinging golden cradle, and took her son down into the field of Mount Dikte in Crete. There the child was raised in secrecy where he was nursed by nymphs on the milk of the goat Amaltheia and guarded by the warrior Curetes who drowned out the sound of his crying with their shield-clashing battle-dance. Rhae promised them that their sheep would never be eaten by wolves and their fields would always yield wonderful harvest. Then she left her baby.

Here Zeus grew to be a beautiful young boy. He was swift in both mind and body, and Cronus, his father, knew nothing about him. Finally, however, Rhae became lonely for him and brought Zeus back to the court of the gods, introducing him to Cronus as a new cupbearer. Cronus was pleased because the boy was beautiful.

Rhae had told Zeus about the fates of his siblings, and as the youngest, he wanted to free them all.

One night, Rhea and Zeus decided to prepare a special drink. They mixed mustard and salt with the nectar.

Next morning, after a mighty swallow, Cronus vomited up first a stone, and then Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon —who, being gods, were still undigested, still alive and all grown. They thanked Zeus, and immediately chose him to be their leader.

Cronus was enraged by the theme and a mighty battle clashed between the gods and the Titans. Cronus was joined by the his army, his half-brothers, huge, twisted, dark creatures taller than mountains, whom he kept pent up until there were fighting to be done. They attacked the young gods furiously.

But Zeus had allies too. During his time living with the nymphs, he learned many things about the Titans and their kinsmen. He had gone to darker caverns —caves under caves under caves, deep in the mountainside —formed by the first bubbles of the cooling earth.

Here, Cronus, thousands of centuries before had pent up other monsters, the one-eyed Cyclopes, and the Hundred-handed Ones. Zeus unshackled these ugly cousins and led them against the Titans.

There was a great rushing and tumult in the skies. The people on earth heard mighty thunder, and saw mountains shatter. The earth quaked and tidal waves rolled as the gods fought. The Titans were stronger and older with Cronus as their crafty leader. He attacked fiercely, driving the young gods before him. But Zeus had laid a trap. Half-way up the slope of Olympus, he whistled for his cousins, the Hundred-handed Ones, who had been lying in ambush. They took up huge boulders, a hundred each, and hurled them downhill at the Titans. The goat-god Pan was shouting a mighty shout that the Titans thought the mountain itself was falling on them. They broke ranks and fled. Later Pan said that it was his shout that made the Titans flee. And his name gave birth to the word 'panic'.

Now the young gods climbed to Olympus, took over the palace, and Zeus became their king. His throne was guarded by four winged spirits, two male and two female, named Kratos , Zelos , Nike and Bia. They represented strength, rivalry, victory, and force respectively. Kratos and Bia were the law-enforcers and were tasked with jobs such as the apprehension and imprisonment of the Titans. Nike drove Zeus' chariot and often accompanied him in miniature form.

Now what Zeus lacked was a queen.

It was said that every now and then, despite his mother Rhea's rule, the young king of Olympus gave mischevious kisses to his sister Hera.

He was still her brother and she thought no harm, until the respect for their common blood gave way, and the sister feared his passion. Hera rejected him, but Zeus was arrogant and young and had a lust for her great beauty. He then preyed on her empathy for animals and other beings, created a thunderstorm and transformed himself into a little cuckoo.

As a cuckoo, Zeus pretended to be in distress outside her window one morning. Hera, feeling pity towards the bird and brought it inside and held it to her breast to warm it. Zeus then transformed back into himself and took advantage of her. Hera, ashamed of being exploited, agreed to the marriage with Zeus.

All of nature burst into bloom for their wedding and many gifts were exchanged.

So Zeus married his sister, Hera —a family habit.

As a wedding present Gaia created for Hera the famed garden of the golden apples near Mount Atlas. The Hesperides and the Dragon Ladon were set to guard there by her, and Atlas' daughters tended the garden and kept picking the golden apples from the trees for her.

Zeus loved Hera passionately for three hundred years, but then they began to quarrel. He loved Hera, but he also loved Greece and often snuck down to Earth in disguise to marry and bear children with the mortals. He wanted many children to inherit his greatness and become great heroes and rulers of Greece. Hera's jealousy towards all of Zeus' lovers and children caused her to continuously torment them and Zeus was powerless to stop his wife. Hera was always aware of Zeus' trickery and kept very close watch over him and his excursions to Earth. He angered her by his infidelities, she enraged him with her jealousy. She was the sky-goddess much as her husband the sky-god. Hera was the queen of the gods and always found it easy to outwit Zeus who was busy with many things.

It wasn't long that Hera persuaded the other gods into a plot against her husband. She drugged his drink, they surrounded him as he slept, and bound him with rawhide thongs. He raged and roared and swore to destroy them all, but they had stolen his thunderbolt, and he could not break the magical bonds.

But his faithful cousin, the Hundred-handed Briareus, who had helped him in the war, was working as his gardener. He heard the crying of his king from the palace window, looked in, and saw Zeus bound to the couch. He reached through with his hundred long arms, and unbound the hundred knots.

Zeus jumped from the couch and went after his thunderbolt. The terrified plotters fell to their knees, weeping and pleading. He seized Hera and hung her in the sky, binding her with golden chains. And the others did not dare to rescue her, although her voice was like the wind sobbing. But her weeping kept Zeus awake. In the morning, he said he would free her if she swore by the river Styx never to rebel again. She did, and Zeus promised to mend his ways too. Still, they kept watching each other.

Zeus was lord of the sky once again, but his wife also bore him three other gods: Ares, the god of war, Hephaestus, the smith-god, forger of weapons, and Eris, goddess of chaos and discord, who shrieks beside Ares in his battle chariot. The rest of Zeus's children were born out of wedlock. Three of them entered the Pantheon later.