How the Olympians Came to Be

Booklet Notes pages 69-70

I. Beginnings

    A. Chaos - darkness, disorganized elements, nothingness

    B. From Chaos came --

        1. Mother Earth - Gaea (Terra)

        2. Area beneath the earth - Tartarus

        3. Darkness - Erebus

        4. Night - Nyx

        5. Love and attraction - Eros

    C. Children of ...

        1. Erebus and Nyx

            a. Heavenly light - Ether

            b. Earthly light - Day

        2. Nyx

            a. Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis, etc.

        3. Gaea

            a. Seas - Pontus

            b. Mountains

            c. Father Sky - Uranus

II. First Lord of the Universe - Uranus

    A. Marriage between Uranus and Gaea

    B. First children - 12 Titans (6 Titans and 6 Titanesses)

        1. Cronus (Saturn)

            a. Youngest Titan, head of the Titans

            b. Married Rhea and father of the six original Olympian gods

        2. Rhea (Ops)

            a. Married Cronus and mother of the six original Olympian gods

        3. Oceanus - stream encircling the world

            a. Married the Titaness Tethys

            b. Father of the rivers and 3000 ocean nymphs

        4. Hyperion - the sun

            a. Father of the sun, moon, and dawn

        5. Mnemosyne - memory

            a. Mother of the nine Muses

        6. Themis - justice and order

            a. Mother of the Fates and the seasons

        7. Iapetus

            a. Father of Prometheus (gave fire to man), Epimetheus (husband of Pandora) and Atlas (held the heavens on his shoulders)

        8. Coeus

        9. Crius

        10. Phoebe

        11. Thea

    C. Second children - 3 Cyclopes

        1. One-eyed monsters

        2. Represented Thunder, Lightning, and Thunderbolt

    D. Last children - Hecatonchires (Centimani)

        1. Monsters with 50 heads and 100 arms

III.  End of Uranus' Rule

    A. He banishes his ugly children to Tartarus which upsets Gaea

    B. Gaea receives help from her youngest son, Cronus

    C. Cronus takes a sickle from his mother and removes Uranus from power

    D. Results of the father - son battle

        1. Cronus becomes the new lord of the universe

        2. He does not fulfill the promise to release his monstrous brothers

    E. From the blood of Uranus' wounds comes ...

        1. Three goddesses who avenge unpunished crimes - Furies

        2. From sea foam, the goddess of love and beauty - Aphrodite (Venus)

IV. Cronus Rules the Universe

    A. He marries his sister Rhea and has children

    B. Because of a warning from his father that one of his own children would remove him from power, Cronus swallowed his children as they are born

        1. Hestia (Vesta)

        2. Demeter (Ceres)

        3. Hades (Pluto)

        4. Poseidon (Neptune)

        5. Hera (Juno)

    C. When she is ready to give birth to her 6th child, Rhea gets help from Gaea

        1. Her son is hidden in a cave on the island of Crete

        2. Rhea gives Cronus a rock wrapped in a blanket to swallow

        3. Her son's name is Zeus (Jupiter, Jove)

    D. Rhea misses her son, so after he grows up, Zeus in brought back to the gods' palace as the cupbearer

        1. Zeus mixes a special drink (including honey, mustard, and nectar)

        2. Cronus vomits up his other children and the rock

        3. A battle begins between the Titans led by Cronus and the Olympians led by Zeus

V. The Battle for Power

    A. Zeus frees the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires from Tartarus for help

    B. People on earth are affected

        1. They heard thunder

        2. They saw mountains shatter

        3. They experienced earthquakes and tidal waves

    C. The Titans finally pushed the Olympians up Mount Olympus, Zeus' selected home

        1. It was actually a trap set by Zeus

        2. The Hecatonchires threw boulders down onto the Titans who ran away

    D. The Olympians defeat the Titans

        1. Cronus and the Titans are bound in the Underworld / Tartarus

        2. Gaea is upset by Zeus' actions

            a. She sends two monsters to attack Zeus - Typhon and Echidna

            b. Using thunderbolts, Zeus buries them under a mountain

VI. Zeus as Lord of the Universe

    A. He establishes his palace on Mount Olympus

    B. The Original 6 Olympians

        1. Zeus (Jupiter, Jove)

        2. Hera (Juno)

        3. Poseidon (Neptune)

        4. Hades (Pluto)

        5. Demeter (Ceres)

        6. Hestia (Vesta)

    C. Other Olympians - Children of Zeus

        1. Daughter of Zeus and Metis (Zeus' 1st wife)

            a. Athena (Minerva)

        2. Sons of Zeus and Hera (Zeus' wife)

            a. Ares (Mars)

            b. Hephaestus (Vulcan)

        3. Son of Zeus and Maia

            a. Hermes (Mercury)

        4. Twin children of Zeus and Leto

            a. Apollo (Apollo)

            b. Artemis (Diana)

        5. Son of Zeus and Semele (a mortal woman)

            a. Dionysus (Bacchus)

        6. Daughter of Zeus and Demeter

            a. Persephone (Proserpina)  (queen of the Underworld)