In the Beginning…
In the beginning, all was nothingness. Some say the nothingness was noisy chaos,
and others suggest that all was silent. Although no one could say how or when, the
nothingness became light, and day was followed by night. Then came love. With love,
Mother Earth (Gaea) and Father Heaven (Uranus) came into being. Because of their
love, they had many children. They had two kinds of children: Titan children and
monster children. The Titan children were enormous, strong, and beautiful. The
monster children were ugly and frightening.

Uranus disliked his monster children and locked them underground in the darkest
part of the earth. However, Gaea was heartbroken and asked her youngest son,
Cronus, who was one of the Titans, to rescue them. He agreed. To thank him for his
help, Mother Earth gave her son Cronus and his sister Rhea, who was also a Titan, rule
of heaven and earth.

Cronus and Rhea married each other and had six children. Each time Rhea
presented Cronus with a child, however, he swallowed it. Rhea was horrified. When
her sixth child was born, she wrapped a rock in a blanket instead of the baby and
presented it to Cronus. He swallowed the rock, believing it to be the baby. Rhea then
sent her sixth child, Zeus, to the island of Crete to be raised. Once Zeus had grown up,
he and Rhea fought against Cronus to make him vomit the five swallowed children,
now fully grown.

Zeus divided the world among himself, his brothers (Hades and Poseidon), and his
sisters (Hestia, Demeter, and Hera). Thus began the final generation of rule by the
Olympians.

myth family tree.JPG