Phoebe: Titaness of prophecy, intellect, and the moon.
Tethys: Titaness of the sea, freshwater, and mother of rivers.
Other Characters:
Atlas: Son of Clymene and Iapetus. Lesser Titan of Might and Strength.
Brontes, Steropes, Arges (Cyclopes): The Cyclopes are one-eyed giants known for their craftsmanship. They are the children of Gaia and Ouranos, and represent various aspects of natural forces.
Cottus, Briareos, Gyges (Hecatoncheires): The Hecatoncheires are 3 monstrous giants with a hundred arms and fifty heads. They are the children of Gaia and Ouranos, and represent chaotic and destructive forces.
Clymene: Daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Wife of Iapetus. Mother of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius. One of the Oceanids.
Demeter: Middle daughter of Cronos and Rhea. Adept at magic related to the weather.
Epimetheus: Son of Clymene and Iapetus. Twin to Prometheus. Lesser Titan of Hindsight.
Hades: Eldest son of Cronos and Rhea. Lived all his life in Cronos' stomach.
Hera: Youngest daughter of Cronos and Rhea. A magical prodigy under the tutelage of Rhea.
Hestia: Eldest daughter of Cronos and Rhea. The disinterested child.
Menoetius: Son of Clymene and Iapetus. Lesser Titan of Destruction and Rage.
Metis: An Oceanid, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Lesser Titan of Wisdom.
Poseidon: Middle son of Cronos and Rhea. He has lived all his life in Cronos' stomach with Hades.
Prometheus: Son of Clymene and Iapetus. Twin to Epimetheus. Titan of Foresight.
The Sisters of Fate: Also known as the Moirai or Fates; these three powerful deities are in charge of the Tapestry of Fate. The Tapestry controls the destinies of gods and mortals alike. They are Clothos (the Spinner), Lachesis (the Measurer), and Atropos (the Cutter). They weave the threads of life, measure its span, and cut the threads to determine when it would end.
Zeus: Youngest son of Cronos and Rhea. Trained By Gaia since birth with the goal of defeating Cronos.
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Prologue: Rhea's Secret
"The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one."
-- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (2000). Copyright © Margaret Atwood. Published by Nan A. Talese (an imprint of Doubleday).
On the planet Earth, there were many nations, but none were so famed as the land of ancient Greece. Within the confines of its borders were majestic beings and an extraordinary mountain known as Mount Olympus. On this mountain was the home of the Titans, and within the majestic halls of Olympus, Cronos, the ruling Olympian King, and Rhea, his queen, lived as husband and wife.
Despite the actions of Ouranos, which led to what some called the Curse of Ouranos, weighing on the throne, Cronos saw no imminent threat to his rule.
His Titan brethren continued to kneel before him, showering him with honor as their leader. After all, he was the very son who had deposed their despotically oppressive father.
When it came to the public nature of the Titan King and Queen, Rhea and Cronos shared moments of passion, their bond seemingly unbreakable. There were many nights of passionate lovemaking. Cronos always gave his wife his most loving efforts.
Rhea, however, longed for the day she could be rid of her husband. She knew Olympus deserved a far more worthy king than the Titan who sat upon its throne. To those ends, Rhea had given her youngest son to the care of Gaia.
While Cronos remained blind to the potential danger, since he was obsessed with keeping his throne, Rhea kept her gaze firmly set on the doom of the Titan King. The deepest recesses of her heart were where she held her most sacred truths, and it was within that consecrated portion of her sul, she knew that the Curse of Ouranos would not go unanswered.
Cronos
would
be deposed by his most worthy son, whether he acknowledged that verity or not. For that alone, Rhea understood in the marrow of her bones that this offspring would be her most cherished child, Zeus.
Cronos existed in his larger form, and because of this enlarged stature, he stood in a blistering tremendousness. While some might not consider him the most conventionally attractive being as he had a bald head, hard eyes, stubble on his chin, and hairy chest, he was one of the mightiest Titans to ever be born.
His power had grown so immense that he was lost in his exaltation of it. Because of his wayward focus, the Titan King was blissfully unaware of Rhea's machinations.
He ruled over the heavens with that very might. His Titan brethren, ever unquestioning his authority, bowed before him and ignored his actions. Only Cronos' daughters, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera were free from kneeling before their father as well as witnessing any atrocities he committed. While he held no romantic love for them as some divine fathers had for their daughters, Cronos adored his little girls.
He raised them to be faithful and loyal to him. This admiration might have been born from the knowledge that Cronos had been told long ago that only a son could overthrow him. Since Hestia, Demeter, and Hera were girls, they were no threat to him.
For their good behavior, he knew that a reward would be in order. Perhaps, one day, he might even allow them to marry an uncle or even a cousin of their choosing, so that they might go off and find a fulfilling happiness that had always eluded the youngest son of Ouranos and Gaia.
For all of these factors and more, many considered Cronos' rule to be a golden age.
Change bred change, but under Cronos' reign, it was harmonious. Soon, humans would be born. The titan sons of Iapetus were creators like Chaos in that they helped expand the Realm of Greece. They made animals for the land, sky, and sea.
These sons, called Prometheus and Epimetheus, had been hard at work on these lesser beings of mortals, who would exist to worship the Titans.
Almost all believed that Cronos' reign would be unending, but the Curse of Ouranos would come to call.
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Chapter 1: Zeus' Training
"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
-- William Shakespeare,
Twelfth Night
(1602), Act 2, Scene 5. Copyright © public domain.
It had been fifty years since Zeus had been slipped away from Olympus by Rhea and brought to Gaia. His power had been developing since that day.
Gaia fostered him, teaching him very nearly since his arrival. That was not entirely true. She did not start the lessons until she felt he was old enough to understand. That had taken a tremendous amount of patience from the Earth Primordial. She had seen the power he had at his command; she knew without a doubt that he would be effective in the arts of violence.
Thankfully, it was the earthly bedrock who had been bequeathed its enduring forbearance from the Primordial Queen, so she was up to the task of waiting for his body to mature.
Though he was fifty years old, he appeared to be in the latter years of his adolescence, just before reaching his true adulthood. If Gaia had a firm grasp about how the divine beings matured (and she should since she spawned the twelve Titans), it was entirely plausible that her grandson would soon be coming into his physical and magical maturity in the coming decades.
She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the boom of thunder.
A violent, pulsing thunderstorm was forming around Gaia's Island. Zeus lifted his hand and a lightning bolt flew as if to strike him. The energy pulsed down to him, but the crackling flash did not harm him. It came to him to show its reverence for his divine aura.
He captured the part of the storm that had come his way and threw that very same energy back at the sky. When that happened, the storm died before it could begin.
"Very good," Gaia said, clapping her hands.
While on her island, Gaia assumed a smaller form of an eight-foot-tall adult female made of greenery. She was still made up of the earth, trees, and rocks, but in her more compact form, even Zeus could see that the primordial earth goddess was breathtakingly beautiful.
