We think of Zeus as the mightiest god of Greece, accompanied by his servants Force, Might and Victory,—the Cloud-gatherer, the Rain-giver, the Thunderer, the Lightning-hurler, the Sender of Prodigies, the Guider of Stars, the Ruler of other gods and men, whom even Poseidon the Earth-shaker must obey. The very name reverberates with majesty, power, dominion.

But the beginnings of this vast deity were in darkness and danger.

True, the reign of his father Kronos was that Golden Age when, in the fresh morning of the world, “Heat and Cold were not yet at strife, the Seasons had not begun their mystic dance, and one mild and equable climate stretched from pole to pole; when the trees bore fruit and the vine her purple clusters all the year, and honey-dew dripped from the laurel and juniper which are now so bitter; when flowers of every hue filled the air with perpetual fragrance, the lion gambolled with the kid, and the unfanged serpent was as harmless as the dove”; when over-curious Pandora not yet having released her boxful of ills, men had neither care nor sickness nor old age, but, after centuries of blissful calm, faded like flowers and became kindly spirit-guardians of their successors.

Yet amid this charming serenity Kronos could never forget the curse of his father Uranus whom he had overthrown, and the prophecy that he himself should in his turn be cast down by his own children.

“Wherefore being resolved to defeat that prophecy, he swallowed each child his wife Rhea brought forth, as soon as it was born. When Rhea had thus lost five babes,—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon—and knew herself about to bear yet another, she made her prayer to Uranus her ancient sire, imploring counsel and aid.

“But only a faint, vast murmur thrilled through the sky:

“'My voice is but the voice of winds and tides, no more than winds and tides can I avail. Pray thou to thy puissant Mother: in me, dispossessed of godhead, is no succor more.'”

So the Titaness betook her to Earth, and the mighty Mother gave her counsel how to outwit grim Kronos. And Rhea fled through the swift, dark night to a secret thicket upon a hill of Arcadia. There was born a mighty babe, whom she called Zeus. At her prayer Mother Earth smote the mountain, and there gushed forth a bounding stream, in which she laved the infant. Then she gave him to the nymph Neda who bore him swiftly across the sea to Crete, hiding him in a cave upon a dense and wooded mountain named Ida.

She entrusted the child to Adrastea and Ida, nymphs of the mountain, to be reared in secret. But Rhea took a huge stone and wrapped it in swathes, and brought it to Kronos, then sovereign of the gods, saying: “Behold, I have borne my lord another son.”

“Naught said he, but snatched the stone and greedily swallowed it, nothing doubting that it was the new-born child. Thus his wife deceived him, for all his cunning.”

Rhea might not so much as see her babe, lest Kronos should spy her from his throne on high; but the child throve, laid in a golden winnowing-fan for a good omen, tended by the gentle nymphs, and nourished on the wild honey they gathered for him and on the milk of a mountain goat. Around him danced the fierce Curetes, Earth-born warriors, who performed their war-dances, rattling and clashing their weapons whenever the infant cried, lest Kronos should overhear him.

“So the child Zeus increased daily in beauty and stature, nor was it long before he gave proof of his godhead in wondrous wise. Two years his goat foster-mother suckled him: snow-white she was, with jet black horns and hooves, the most beauteous of her kind, and her name was Amalthea. Then, on a day, while the young god played with her after his wont, he grasped one of her curved horns as she made pretence of butting, and broke it clean off.

“Tears stood in the creature’s eyes, and she looked reproachfully on her fosterling. But the little god ran to her and threw his arms about her shaggy neck, bidding her be comforted, for he would make amends; with that he laid his right hand on the goat’s head, and immediately a new horn sprouted full-grown. And he took up the horn he had broken, and gave it to the nymphs, saying, ‘Kindly nurses, in recompense of your care, Zeus gives you Amalthea’s Horn which shall be to you a horn of plenty. As for her, when I come into my kingdom, I will be mindful of my foster-mother; she shall not die but be changed into one of the bright signs of Heaven.’ Thus Zeus promised, and fulfilled his word in the aftertime, for faithful and true are the promises of the Immortals. But when the nymphs had taken the Horn of Amalthea, behold they found it brimful of all manner of luscious fruits, of the finest wheat flour, and sweet butter, and golden honeycomb. They shook all out, laughing in delight, and one cried: ‘Here were a feast for the gods, had we but wine thereto!’ No sooner said she this than the Horn bubbled over with ruby wine; for this was the magic in it, that it never grew empty, and yielded its possessors whatsoever food or drink they desired.

“Now when Earth saw that Zeus was come to the prime of his mighty youth, she sent to him one of the daughters of Oceanus named Metis, which is, being interpreted, ‘Counsel.’ And Metis came and stood before him in the Idaean Mount and said: ‘I have an errand unto thee, O king that shalt be hereafter.’

“And Zeus said: ‘Is it a foe’s errand, or a friend’s? Who sent thee hither, and who art thou?’

“And she said: ‘Metis is my name, a daughter of Oceanus the old, and my errand is from Earth, the All-Mother. She bids thee take this herb I bring and go straight to Kronos in his golden house on high; tell him not who or whence thou art, but cause him to swallow the herb unweeting, and it shall work mischief to him and good to thee. Delay not, for the hour is at hand when Kronos must pay full measure for the outrage he did his sire, as it is ordained.’

“‘Tell me,’ said Zeus, ‘how knows Earth that such an hour is at hand, and by whom is the vengeance ordained?’

“Metis answered: ‘There are Three Sisters, daughters of Primeval Night, Grey Virgins, older than Time, who sit forever in the shades of underground, spinning threads of divers colors from their golden distaffs; and the threads are the lives of gods and men. As the sisters twine them, sad-hued or bright, so is the lot of each living soul, mortal or immortal; there is none among the gods, nor shall be, that may escape the lot spun for him, nor avail to turn those spinners from their task. Hasting not, resting not, without knowledge, without pity, the Three Fates work on. But as they twirl the spindles, they sing the Song of the Morrow; and Earth, she only, understands that song; hence it is she knows what is coming upon Kronos.’

“Then Zeus arose and went up to the heavenly palace halls; there he found Kronos feasting, and quaffing honey-colored nectar, wine of the gods. Kronos asked him who he was, and Zeus answered: ‘I am Prometheus, son of Iapetus thy brother, who greets thee well by me.’ Then Kronos bade him welcome, and they drank and caroused together. But when they had well drunk, Zeus put the herb of Earth into his father’s cup, unmarked of him.

“And Kronos no sooner swallowed it than a marvel past thought befell; for he disgorged from his giant maw first the stone Rhea gave him (which stone was ever afterwards preserved as a pious memorial at Delphi) and then her two sons and daughters three, no longer babes but full-grown.

“Forthwith Zeus made himself known to his brethren, and the young gods seized their father and bound him in chains. But ancient Kronos cried for aid to his Titan kindred, with a voice like the tempest’s roar; and they came swiftly in their might; and the young gods could not stand before them, but fled out of heaven to the cloudy top of Mount Olympus, that great peak robed in eternal snows.”

There they abode as in a citadel, and thence it is that Zeus and the family of Zeus are called “the Olympians” to this day.

The Titans occupied Mt. Othrys to the south, and the broad plains of Thessaly in between show even yet the shattered rocks and rent surface from the struggle which ensued.

“For now there was war in heaven; ten years the Elder Gods fought against the Olympians and neither side could win the mastery. But one amongst the Titans would not fight against Zeus; for being endued with wisdom and foresight about all gods, he perceived that the day of Kronos must shortly have an end and his sceptre pass to another. This was Prometheus, whom Asia, daughter of Oceanus, bore to Iapetus, son of Earth. Fain would he have dissuaded his father and brother from taking arms in a lost cause, and for the sake of one who, himself a usurper, must now reap as he had sown; but they would not heed, trusting in their own giant strength.

“At last Zeus sought counsel of Mother Earth and she spake this oracle unto him out of the cave that is in rocky Pytho—'He that will conquer in this strife, let him set free the captives in Tartarus.' For Earth had long borne Kronos a grudge, because he would not release the Hundred-handed and the Cyclopes from that abyss of darkness; therefore she willingly revealed to Zeus the secret of victory. But naught knew he of those giants or their fate, nor so much as the name of Tartarus, which none among the heaven-dwelling gods will utter for very loathing; so the saying of Earth was dark to him, and he was much disheartened. Then Prometheus, knowing what had befallen, came to Zeus on Olympus and said: ‘Son of Kronos, though fight I may not against my kin, fight against thee I will not, for that were idle folly, seeing the Fates will have thee Lord of all. Let there be peace between me and thee, and I will interpret the oracle Earth has given thee.’

“And Zeus heard him gladly, and said: ‘For this good turn, count me thy debtor and fast friend evermore.’

“Then straightway they two fared through the Underworld to the gates of unplumbed Tartarus, where by the Titan’s aid Zeus slew the snake Campé, their grisly warder, and delivered the captives.”

And amazed was the leader of the younger gods at the sight of these monstrous first children of Earth. For each of the three Hundred-handed, Briareus, Cottus and Gyges, had moving ever from his shoulders a hundred arms, not brooking approach, while above this threatening display rose fifty heads. As for the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes and Arges, they resembled the Titans, save that each had a single round eye in the centre of his forehead. They had shown from birth such overbearing spirit and terrific strength, tossing whole hills with their forests about like balls, that even Uranus had feared them and thrust them into Tartarus ere they were grown.

Zeus rejoiced at these mighty allies. But fell fighters as they were, their greatest aid was not in their strength but their skill. For the Cyclopes made themselves a smithy in the glowing heart of Mt. Ætna, and there they wrought such gifts for their deliverers as only they could fashion. To Poseidon they gave his trident with prongs of adamant; and to Hades a cap of darkness whose wearer was invisible to gods and men; while for Zeus himself they forged the kingliest weapons of all: the thunderbolts and the blasting, zig-zagged lightning.

Then Zeus set before them all the nectar and ambrosia of the gods, and addressed them:

“Hear me, illustrious children of Earth and Heaven, that I may speak what my spirit within my breast prompts me to speak. For a very long time have we been fighting for the mastery, the Titan gods and we who are sprung from Kronos. Now show your invincible might against the Titans, in gratitude for your deliverance to the light from bondage in murky gloom.”

The blameless Cottus answered: “Excellent Lord, we are aware that thy wisdom is most high, and thy mind, and that thou hast been to the immortals an averter of destruction. Wherefore we will now protect thy dominion in fell conflict, fighting stoutly against the Titans.”

And all the gods applauded, female as well as male, and they rushed to combat. The Titans on their side were no less eager, and as the battle joined, the boundless sea re-echoed terribly, and earth resounded, and broad heavens groaned as it shook, and vast Olympus swayed on its base, and even to murky Tartarus came the hollow sound of feet and battle-strokes. And as the two sides came together, their great war-cry reached to the starry heaven above.

Now Zeus loosed his fury, and the bolts with thunder and lightning shot so fast and fiercely from his mighty hand that earth crashed in conflagration, and the forests crackled with fire; ocean’s streams began to boil, while the vapor encircled the Titans, and the incessant, dazzling flashes bereft their eyes of sight, gods as they were.

Fearful heat spread everywhere, and it seemed as if earth and heaven were clashing together and falling into ruins. At the same time the winds spread abroad smoke and battle-cry and crash of missiles, as the Hundred-handed, insatiable in war, advanced, hurling three hundred vast rocks at a time against the enemy.

Before this combination of terrors even the Titans could not stand. They were dashed from their battlements and fell like shooting stars nine days and nights to earth, then on down for nine days and nights more to Tartarus. Here were they bound and cast into that dismal abyss, behind a triple brazen wall built by Poseidon, around which Night is poured in three rows. And the Hundred-handed were set to guard them.

Kronos and a few others escaped to the North, and there made head for a time, sheltered against Zeus’s thunderbolts in caverns of the hills. But there came to the Olympians two mighty twin Shapes, Force and Might, followed by their sister, beauteous-ankled Victory (from whose shoulders waved great eagle’s wings)—all children of Styx; and those two illustrious ones announced to Zeus that henceforth they were his servants, and that their sister, Victory, would ever follow them.

So with these ministers, Zeus went forth once more; and the remainder of the Titans fled westward beyond the utmost limits of earth. But huge Atlas, brother of Prometheus, was overtaken, and him Zeus stationed on the very verge of the earth, before the clear-voiced Hesperides, sentencing him to bear forever on his shoulders the weight of the vast sky.

Having thus achieved the victory, Zeus gave to Hades dominion over the Underworld, to Poseidon the Sea, and took himself the realm of the Æther and the Earth, rewarding all those who had assisted him, and especially honoring Styx, mother of Force, Might and Victory, so that thenceforth the most sacred and inviolable oath for an immortal was to swear by Styx.

Mother Earth was far from pleased at this outcome. Her imprisoned first-born children had been released only to have her other beautiful Titan sons and daughters take their places in Tartarus. In revenge she brought forth a brood of Giants to war with the young gods. These were huge and invincible creatures with ghastly faces and long, thick, matted hair hanging from their heads and chins; instead of feet they had scaly dragon’s tails. Their birth-place was in Phlegra or Pallene. The most redoubtable among them were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus. The latter was immortal so long as he fought on the same part of the earth on which he was born, and he soon distinguished himself by carrying off the cattle of the Sun and Moon.

With these and their brethren—Enceladus, Pallas, Clytius, Polybotes, Hippolytus and others—were joined Otus and Ephialtes, children of Poseidon, who, says Homer, grew nine inches every month, and who when they were only nine years old had captured war-god Mars himself and held him prisoner more than a year.

Now the oracle revealed to the gods that the giants could be destroyed only in combat with a mortal. Gæa (Earth) had learned this, and sought by means of magic herbs to make her offspring invulnerable also to mortals.

But Zeus anticipated her: he forbade the Dawn, the Moon and the Sun to shine, cut off the medicinal herbs with which Earth had plastered her offspring, and sent Athena to summon Heracles to take part in the combat.

This savage group of Giants then attacked the Olympians, hurling great masses of rock, tree-trunks lashed together, and blazing brands against the sky. But the distance was too great for them to do much damage, so they tried to scale Heaven itself. When their trees fastened together proved too short, Otus and Ephialtes set about another attempt: upsetting Mt. Ossa they began to roll it toward Mt. Olympus, intending to pile the lofty peak of Pelion on that, and thus reach their enemies.

Then Zeus rose in his majesty. With a thunderbolt he hurled the mountain back to its former place, the Olympians all dashed down, riding on the winds, and a mighty battle followed which lasted a whole day.

Heracles drew his great death-dealing bow and slew Alcyoneus with an arrow. But as soon as he touched the earth he rose with renewed life and strength. Whereupon wise Athena counseled the hero to grasp the monster by the foot and drag him out of Pallene, his birthplace. He did so, and Alcyoneus died.

At this Porphyrion in hot rage hurled the island of Delos at Zeus and rushed upon Heracles and Hera. As the giant laid hold of the goddess’s swathing veils, she cried out for help, and the thunderbolt of Zeus and Heracles' arrow smote Porphyrion simultaneously.

As for the rest, Apollo shot out the left eye of Ephialtes, and Heracles the right. Dionysus killed Eurytus with his sacred wand, while Clytius was thrust through by Hecate or Hephæstus with glowing ironstone. Enceladus fled across the sea, but Athena seized a great triangle of rock and cast it upon him—and when trees and soil formed on this, it was called the island of Sicily.

As Virgil’s wandering hero, Æneas, sings:

Here, while from Aetna’s furnaces the flame
Bursts forth, Enceladus, ‘tis said, doth lie,
Scorched by the lightning. As his wearied frame
He shifts, Trinacria, trembling at the cry
Moans through her shores, and smoke involves the sky.

Athena, terrible in her battle-wrath, next killed and flayed Pallas and put his skin over her own body while the combat lasted,—whence comes her name of Pallas Athene. Polybotes, chased by Poseidon over the sea, came to Cos; here the sea-god tore off a piece of the island and buried him under it, where now is Nisyron.

Hermes, concealed by the helmet of Hades, killed Hippolytus, while Artemis slew Gration. So the Fates ended Agrius and Thoon with brazen clubs. The rest Zeus crushed with thunderbolts, and Heracles finished with his deadly arrows.

Then in hot wrath Earth brought forth the most terrific monster yet seen. Typhon was he called, the greatest of Earth’s children, half man and half animal: he was human to the loins and was so huge that he towered over the mountains while his head knocked against the stars. His outstretched arms reached from sunrise to sunset, and a hundred dragon heads shot from his shoulders. Instead of legs he moved on vast, rustling snaky coils; his whole body was feathered; bristly hair floated in the wind from his head and chin, and fire streamed from his eyes.

Such a monster was Typhon.

Hurling clusters of rocks up at heaven, he ran with hisses and screams, while a red mass of flame bubbled from his mouth.

When the gods saw him charge on heaven, they fled to Egypt, where they wandered about in the shapes of animals, pursued by him.

Zeus hurled thunderbolts as long as he was afar off. When he came nearer, the god’s iron sickle made him flee, and Zeus pursued him to the Caucasus that towers over Syria. There he came up with him, covered with wounds, and joined in a hand-to-hand grapple.

But Typhon held him off, wrapping his snaky limbs around him, snatched away the sickle, and cutting out the sinews of the god’s hands and feet, put him on his shoulders and carried him across the sea to Cilicia.

Here in a cavern he threw him down, put away the sinews wrapped in a bear-skin, and set as a guard over the helpless god, Delphyne, a young she-dragon, half human, half animal.

But cunning Hermes stole away the sinews and secretly replaced them in Zeus’s wrists and ankles. Then Zeus gathered himself together, and his former powers came upon him, and he rose to his seat in heaven in a car drawn by winged horses.

Again he hurled his thunderbolts upon Typhon and pursued the monstrous giant to Mt. Nysa, where the Fates outwitted the fugitive: for, persuaded by them that he would thereby get greater powers, he ate of the ephemeral poison fruits.

Then the chase became more furious. They came to Thrace where Typhon fought with whole peaks of the Hamus Mountains; and when these were hurled back on him by the Thunderer, his blood gushed out over them so that these are called the “bloody mountains” to this day.

And at last, as Typhon was compelled to flee across the Sicilian sea, Zeus threw the towering mountain of Ætna on top of him and buried him there forever. Here he lies still, turning and groaning at times, while fires blaze up from the hurled lightnings.

After that there was nobody in heaven, earth or the underworld who dared dispute the supreme dominion of Zeus.