With Uranus overthrown, Cronus, the youngest Titan, took control. He ruled during a so-called Golden Age—a time of peace and abundance. But like his father, he feared his own children. A prophecy warned him that one of them would overthrow him, so he devoured each child at birth.
His wife, Rhea, heartbroken and determined to save her youngest, tricked Cronus. She gave him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of the infant Zeus, whom she hid in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete.
The Rebellion of Zeus
Once grown, Zeus forced Cronus to regurgitate his siblings—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon—and together, they waged war against the Titans.
This war, the Titanomachy, lasted ten years, with the Olympians eventually gaining the upper hand. They were aided by:
The Cyclopes, who forged Zeus’s thunderbolt
The Hecatoncheires, who hurled mountains
Gaia, who advised Zeus
The Olympians triumphed, and Zeus cast the defeated Titans into Tartarus, guarded by the Hecatoncheires. Atlas, one of the Titans, was given a special punishment: to hold up the heavens for eternity.
Zeus and his siblings became the new rulers of the cosmos, establishing the Olympian order.
