Each of the Titans had a numerous offspring: Oceanus, especially,
marrying his sister Têthys, begat three thousand daughters, the Oceanic
nymphs, and as many sons: the rivers and springs passed for his
offspring. Hyperiôn and his sister Theia had for their children Hêlios,
Selênê, and Eôs; Kœos with Phœbê begat Lêtô and Asteria; the children
of Krios were Astræos, Pallas, and Persês,—from Astræos and Eôs sprang
the winds Zephyrus, Boreas, and Notus. Iapetos, marrying the Oceanic
nymph Clymenê, counted as his progeny the celebrated Promêtheus,
Epimêtheus, Menœtius, and Atlas. But the offspring of Kronos were the
most powerful and transcendent of all. He married his sister Rhea, and
had by her three daughters—Hestia, Dêmêtêr, and Hêrê—and three sons,
Hadês, Poseidôn, and Zeus, the latter at once the youngest and the
greatest.
But Kronos foreboded to himself destruction from one of his own
children, and accordingly, as soon as any of them were born, he
immediately swallowed them and retained them in his own belly. In this
manner had the first five been treated, and Rhea was on the point of
being delivered of Zeus. Grieved and indignant at the loss of her
children, she applied for counsel to her father and mother, Uranos and
Gæa, who aided her to conceal the birth of Zeus. They conveyed her by
night to Lyktus in Crête, hid the new-born child in a woody cavern
on Mount Ida, and gave to Kronos, in place of it, a stone wrapped in
swaddling clothes, which he greedily swallowed, believing it to be
his child. Thus was the safety of Zeus ensured.[9] As he grew up his
vast powers fully developed themselves: at the suggestion of Gæa, he
induced Kronos by stratagem to vomit up, first the stone which had
been given to him,—next, the five children whom he had previously
devoured. Hestia, Dêmêtêr, Hêrê, Poseidôn and Hadês, were thus allowed
to grow up along with Zeus; and the stone to which the latter owed
his preservation was placed near the temple of Delphi, where it ever
afterwards stood, as a conspicuous and venerable memorial to the
religious Greek.[10]
[9] Hesiod, Theog. 452, 487. Apollod. i. 1, 6.
[10] Hesiod, Theog. 498.—
Τὸν μὲν Ζεὺς στήριξε κατὰ χθονὸς εὐρυοδείης
Πυθοῖ ἐν ἠγαθέῃ, γυάλοις ὑπὸ Παρνησοῖο,
Σῆμ᾽ ἔμεν ἐξοπίσω, θαῦμα θνητοῖσι βροτοῖσι.
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