From Uranos and Gæa sprang the three Mœræ, or Fates, the three
Centimanes and the three Cyclôpes: these latter were cast by Uranos
into Tartarus, under the foreboding that they would rob him of his
dominion. In revenge for this maltreatment of her sons, Gæa produced of
herself the fourteen Titans, seven male and seven female: the former
were Kœos, Krios, Phorkys, Kronos, Oceanus, Hyperiôn and Iapetos;
the latter were Themis, Têthys, Mnêmosynê, Theia, Diônê, Phœbê and
Rhea.[37] They received the name of Titans because they avenged upon
Uranos the expulsion of their elder brothers. Six of the Titans, headed
by Kronos the most powerful of them all, conspiring against Uranos,
castrated and dethroned him: Oceanus alone stood aloof and took no part
in the aggression. Kronos assumed the government and fixed his seat
on Olympos; while Oceanus remained apart, master of his own divine
stream.[38] The reign of Kronos was a period of tranquillity and
happiness, as well as of extraordinary longevity and vigor.
[37] Lobeck, Ag. p. 504. Athenagor. xv. p. 64.
[38] Lobeck, Ag. p. 507. Plato, Timæus, p. 41. In the Διονύσου
τρόφοι of Æschylus, the old attendants of the god Dionysos were
said to have been cut up and boiled in a caldron, and rendered
again young, by Medeia. Pherecydês and Simonidês said that Jasôn
himself had been so dealt with. Schol. Aristoph. Equit. 1321.
Kronos and Rhea gave birth to Zeus and his brothers and sisters. The
concealment and escape of the infant Zeus, and the swallowing of the
stone by Kronos, are given in the Orphic Theogony substantially in
the same manner as by Hesiod, only in a style less simple and more
mysticized. Zeus is concealed in the cave of Nyx, the seat of Phanês
himself, along with Eidê and Adrasteia, who nurse and preserve him,
while the armed dance and sonorous instruments of the Kurêtes prevent
his infant cries from reaching the ears of Kronos. When grown up, he
lays a snare for his father, intoxicates him with honey, and having
surprised him in the depth of sleep, enchains and castrates him.[39]
Thus exalted to the supreme mastery, he swallowed and absorbed into
himself Mêtis, or Phanês, with all the preëxisting elements of things,
and then generated all things anew out of his own being and conformably
to his own divine ideas.[40] So scanty are the remains of this system,
that we find it difficult to trace individually the gods and goddesses
sprung from Zeus beyond Apollo, Dionysos, and Persephonê,—the latter
being confounded with Artemis and Hekatê.
[39] Lobeck, p. 514. Porphyry, de Antro Nympharum, c. 16. φησὶ
γὰρ παρ᾽ Ὀρφεῖ ἡ Νὺξ, τῷ Διῒ ὑποτιθεμένη τὸν διὰ τοῦ μέλιτος
δόλον,
Εὖτ᾽ ἂν δή μιν ἴδηαι ὑπὸ δρυσὶν ὑψικόμοισι
Ἔργοισιν μεθύοντα μελισσάων ἐριβόμβων,
Αὔτικά μιν δῆσον.
Ὃ καὶ πάσχει ὁ Κρόνος καὶ δεθεὶς ἐκτέμνεται, ὡς Οὐρανός.
Compare Timæus ap. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 983.
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