The ancient Greeks had a polytheistic religion and a pantheon of gods. They didn't just have many gods, they had a lot of gods. Gods that ruled over many different aspects of human endeavor and the natural world. These gods had a mythology that bound them up together in a very dysfunctional and often disturbing family tree. You're probably familiar with some of them, but others are more obscure. Learn more about the Greek gods and their mythology. on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Listen now to the Up First podcast from NPR. I've been working on doing some episodes on the religion and gods of several different ancient civilizations including the Egyptians, Babylonians, Norse, Romans, and Greeks. And I figured I'd start by focusing on the Greeks because alongside with the Romans, most people are familiar with them and there are many references to the Greek gods in Western culture.
There's no way that I can go through every single Greek god. So what I hope to achieve in this episode is to go over the major gods and their mythology. Given the sheer number of gods, that means that I'm going to be leaving some of them out. I should also provide fair warning that many of the stories of the gods, while being totally mythological, are pretty disturbing. The stories of the Greek gods are a cross between a soap opera and a horror movie.
There are some adult themes in these stories, and while I'll try to soften the language, the mythology is what it is. So with that, we have to start with the primordial deities. These were the first gods that existed at the beginning of the cosmos, and it started with an entity known as chaos. Chaos was the void or formless state from which everything emerged.
Chaos, like most of the other primordial deities, was a personification of an abstraction and wasn't worshipped like other gods. From chaos sprang the other primordial gods. The first was Gaia. who was Earth, the first solid entity and the mother of many other gods. The third primordial god was Tartarus, the deep abyss, which was both a place and a deity. Fourth was Eros, the primordial force of attraction, not to be confused with the Olympian god named Eros, which had the same name.
Fifth was Erebus, the personification of darkness, followed by Nix, the personification of night. From this family tree, I am going to focus on the descendants of Gaia, from which the most interesting and important gods come. Gaia by herself, with no father, because gods can do that, gave birth to Uranus, the personification of the sky, Pontus, the personification of the sea, and Aurea, the personification of the mountains.
Uranus was not only her son, but also became her husband. And I warn you, this was going to be like a disturbing soap opera. Together, they created the second generation of Greek gods, which were known as the Titans. as well as some other deformed offspring that they literally threw into the cellar. There were 12 titans that were the offspring of Gaia and Uranus.
The leader of the Titans and the youngest of the bunch was Cronus, the god of time. The next was Rhea, the Titaness of Fertility, who later became the wife of Cronus. The third was Oceanus, the titan of the world encircling river. Fourth was Tethys, the titaness of freshwater who became the wife of Oceanus. Fifth was Hyperion, the titan of light.
Number six was Thea, the tightness of sight and vision, and the wife of Hyperion. The children of Hyperion and Thea were Helios, god of the sun, Selene, goddess of the moon, and Eos, god of the dawn. The seventh titan was Coias, the titan of intellect, and the eighth was Phoebe, the titaness of prophecy and the wife of Coias. The children of Coias and Phoebe were Leto and Asteria. Leto became the mother of Apollo and Artemis.
The ninth was Iapetus, the Titan of Morality. The tenth was Themis, the Titaness of Divine Law and Order. Eleventh was Nemezine, the Titaness of Memory. And the final Titan was Creus, the Titan associated with constellations. Collectively, the 12 Titans were known as the Titanomachy. I also mentioned that Uranus and Gaia had some children that they threw into the cellar.
They had three Cyclopses, which were giant one-eyed craftsmen, and they also had three Hecatonchires. The Hecatonchires were three giant beings in Greek mythology with 100 hands and 50 heads. known for their immense strength. Evidently, when Gaia and Uranus were making children, they ordered way too many hands and heads and not enough torsos.
Uranus so hated the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopses that he had them thrown into the abyss, Tartarus. The twelve titans overthrew the primordial gods when Cronus led a rebellion against his father Uranus.
With Gaia's help, Cronus ambushed Uranus and castrated him with a sickle Gaia made with a substance called adamant, seizing power and establishing the rule of the Titans. After Cronus castrated Uranus, the severed genitals fell into the sea, creating a white foam from which Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was born. Meanwhile, from Uranus's spilled blood, Gaia gave birth to the Furies, the Giants, and the Melee, who were the nymphs of the Ash Trees.
Uranus, however, before he went away, gave a prophecy to Cronus that he too would be overthrown by one of his own children. The Golden Age of the Greek gods refers to the period of Titan rule under Cronus, following his overthrow of Uranus. It was considered an era of peace, prosperity, and abundance, where humans lived in harmony with nature, free from toil, suffering, or aging.
According to Greek mythology, mortals did not need to farm or work as the earth provided everything they needed and there were no wars or conflicts. Cronus married his sister Rhea. Together they had five children, Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Because Cronus feared his children usurping him, immediately after each child was born, he ate them.
Which, to be fair, would technically solve that problem. Why Rhea continued to have children after the father ate the first one is not explained in mythology, but having more children she did. After five children being eaten, she sought out the help of her mother Gaia. Together, they devised a plan to get back at Cronus for what he did to his father and to his children. She gave birth to a sixth child.
But this time she fled to the Isle of Crete, where she gave birth to Zeus away from Cronus. When Cronus came looking for the baby to eat, Rhea gave him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. The stone became known as the Amphalos. Cronus asked Rhea to nurse the child one last time before he was to eat it, and she pressed the stone against her breast, trying to fool him. The milk that came out became the Milky Way.
Having successfully deceived Cronus and Cronus not knowing the difference between a rock and a child, Zeus was raised in secret. Zeus was hidden away, raised by nymphs and protected by the Coretis, warrior figures who clashed with their weapons to drown out his cries. In some versions of the story, the nymph Amalthea, either as a goat or a caretaker, nursed him and a divine eagle would bring him nectar and ambrosia.
Gaia, still resentful of Cronus for imprisoning her monstrous children in some versions of the story, supported Zeus' survival, seeing him as a tool to end the Titan's rule. Once fully grown, Zeus returned to challenge Cronus. His first move was to liberate his swallowed siblings who remained alive but trapped inside their father's stomach.
I'm not an expert on the physiology of the Greek gods, but I'm guessing having five living children in your stomach for that long would eventually cause problems. To do this, Zeus needed help. In some versions of the story, he partnered with Metis, his first wife and the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, who provided him with a special potion. In other versions of the story, Gaia or Rhea supplied him the mixture.
Either way, Zeus tricked Cronus into drinking it, perhaps disguised as wine, causing him to vomit violently. First, Cronus spewed up the stone, which landed at Delphi and became a sacred relic. And then came the siblings in reverse order of their swallowing, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. Now freed, these gods, both grateful and vengeful, joined Zeus, forming the nucleus of the Olympian Rebellion.
They declared war on Kronos and the Titans. Of Zeus's regurgitated siblings, Poseidon became the god of the sea, earthquakes, and horses. Demeter became the goddess of agriculture and the harvest. Hera became the queen of the gods and the goddess of marriage and childbirth and later became Zeus's wife. Hestia became the goddess of the hearth and home and Hades became the god of the underworld and the dead.
Zeus and his siblings, minus Hades, who really had no concern for such events, recruited several more gods to challenge Cronus. And here I should note that Zeus really got around. While he was married to Hera, he did not limit himself to her. He had children with many other goddesses, even mortals, many of whom would be punished by a jealous Hera.
The gods he recruited for his rebellion came from his primary children. The other gods he recruited for the Olympian rebellion were the aforementioned Aphrodite, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, whom he sired without a wife after eating the head of Metis, Artemis, goddess of the hunt, her brother Apollo, god of the sun, his child with Hera, Ares, the god of war and violence,
Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmithing and the son of Hera and Zeus, and finally Hermes, the messenger of the gods and the son of Zeus and the nymph Maya. These gods became known as the Olympians, named after their base on Mount Olympus, the highest peak in Greece. Kronos rallied most of the Titans to defend their reign, basing themselves on Mount Othrys in central Greece.
Zeus, however, had a trick up his sleeve. Zeus descended into Tartarus, where Cronus had imprisoned Gaia's monstrous offspring from Uranus. He freed the three Cyclopses and the three Hector Tonqueries in exchange for their loyalty. The Cyclopses then forged weapons, Zeus' thunderbolt, Poseidon's trident, and Hades' helm of invisibility. The heck, the Tonqueries, the 100-handed, 50-headed giants, provided their raw power and would prove decisive.
The war of the Olympians versus the Titans lasted 10 years, a cosmic clash that shook the universe. The Greek poet Hesiod described it vividly by saying, quote, and the heavens trembled. After ten grueling years, the Olympians gained the upper hand. The Hectatoncheri's relentless bombardment, and Zeus's lightning barrage broke the Titan's resistance.
Cronus, once the sickle-wielding usurper, was overpowered himself and defeated alongside his loyal siblings. The victorious Olympians then cast Cronus and the rebellious Titans into Tartarus. The same abyss... where the Cyclopses and the Hectatoncheres had been held. In a poetic twist, Zeus appointed the Hectatoncheres as their eternal guards, ensuring there would be no escape.
Some titans, like Oceanus or Rhea, faced lighter fates or remained free due to neutrality or family ties. With Cronus disposed, Zeus divided the cosmos amongst his brothers by drawing lots. Zeus took the sky, becoming king of the gods, Poseidon claimed the sea, and Hades ruled the underworld. If this seems really complicated, it kinda is.
And it actually gets much more complicated than this once you get into some of the lesser gods and other deities. You've probably noticed that the Greek mythology is kind of messed up and disturbing with a fair amount of cannibalism and incest. Yet these stories were the basis for the entire Greek religion and Greek civilization. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel.
The associate producers are Austin Okun and Cameron Kiefer. Today's review comes from listener Jamie Pfeffer over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, Tremendous. I adore everything everywhere and I learn something every podcast. Even if the topic is something that I know reasonably well, I still benefit because Gary prepares thoroughly and he always has an original perspective. Well, thanks, Jamie.
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