How the World and Mankind Were Created   In the beginning there was only Chaos. Then came Night (Darkness), Love, Light, and Day The first creatures to appear were the children of Mother Earth(Gaea) and Father Heaven(Ouranos)

Creation, cont’d The children were personified monsters with incredible strength: Earthquake Volcano Hurricane  Monsters with 100 hands, 50 heads. Then came the Cyclops Lastly, the Titans

Next Came the Titans   Father Heaven did not care for his children, so he imprisoned them in the earth (Gaea’s womb). He left, however, the Cyclopes and Titans to roam free. Mother Earth was enraged at the maltreatment of her children, so she convinced one Titan named Cronus to help her free the other children. He wounded his father, and the Giants, the fourth race of man sprang up from the blood.

Titans, cont’d Cronus (Saturn) became the new lord of the universe, with his sister-queen Rhea (Ops). They had six children together. Finally, one of their sons, Zeus, rebelled against his father.

Cronus, a Titan

Cronus Cronus had learned that one day one of his children would dethrone him, so as each child was born, he simply swallowed them whole. But, when Zeus was born, Rhea gave Cronus a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Rhea secretly took Zeus to Crete where he was raised by a she-goat.

Zeus Later, when Zeus was older, he forced his father to disgorge his brothers and sisters( Demeter, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, and Hestia)   A terrible war followed between Zeus and his brothers and sisters and Cronus and the Titans.

Zeus Zeus won, but only because he had help-he released the imprisoned monsters and the Titan Prometheus helped too. He had the gift of foresight, so he wisely switched sides. Zeus punished all of the Titans Atlas Even so, Zeus still had to fight one more time. The earth gave birth to Typhon, but Zeus had a weapon; he used his thunderbolts to overthrow Typhon.  

Do not copy down Atlas must “bear on his back forever/ The cruel strength of the crushing world/ And the vault of the sky. Upon his shoulders the great pillar/ That holds apart the earth and heaven, A load not easy to be borne.