Saturday, October 3, 2015

Zeus's rise to power

We were talking about the story of Zeus and how he defeated Cronos in class, so I thought I'd share the story, Cronos overthrew his parents for power, and soon got a prophecy that his son would do it to him as well. Once he heard that, he decided to eat all of his children. However, Zeus's mother Rhea hid the baby in Crete and gave Cronos a rock to eat instead of her baby. It worked. Zeus was raised on a mountain by a goat. Once he was grown, Gaia gave him a magic tool and Zeus uses it to split Cronos's stomach open to save his brothers and sisters. He does, and together they defeat Kronos.(some say imprisoned).

On a related note, Zeus being raised by a goat reminded me of Jason who was also sent away to hide and he was raised by a centaur.

1 comment:

Jac said...

Zeus is actually similar to Oedipus, too. Both Zeus and Oedipus are involved in some sort of terrible prophecy. Their parents try to avoid their destruction caused by their child, but their attempt at killing their sons is thwarted. Both Zeus and Oedipus grow up and complete their prophecy of taking their fathers powerful position of ruler/king. Also, both Zeus and Oedipus are sent to mountains as babies, where they are spared from death. It is interesting to see how Zeus parallels so much to various other Greco-Roman myths, social norms, cultural practices.