Humans

You were created by the gods and are one of the reasons that they have lasted this long without any interference from me. Together, you are a force of change that has come as close as any mortal species has to rivalling the force of the gods. I am curious how you will use that power; if you will follow in my sons’ footsteps and let it lead you to self-destruction, or if you’ll use it more like my grandson.

This will be my last post; I have told you everything that I had planned to tell you. Even if you don’t believe my version of the beginning of the world and only believe someone else’s, it’s of no concern to me. I just hope that you learn from my story, even if you don’t believe the history.

 

Earth.

Family tree

I have basically finished my story but rereading my previous entries I realised I never fully explained my family. Our family is very large and confusing. A diagram (I believe you call it a “family tree”) will be more effective at explaining our blood ties than words will.

Compared to mortal family trees, this one is very complicated and even the diagram might not make you less confused. You will find it here.

For modern mortals like you the idea of brothers and sisters “getting together” is against your basic societal morals. But at the start there was no one else. Everyone was, at the very least, cousins. Before you judge us you should remember that if we didn’t reproduce with each other then there would be nothing here. Life, as you know it, wouldn’t exist.

 

Earth.

Fighting for power... again

My youngest child, Typhoeus, got it into his head that he could defeat Zeus and be the new king of mortals and immortals. Typhoeus is not a son of Heaven but is Tartarus’ son. He was strong, but Zeus had the support of the other gods and some of my other children had given him weapons, like the thunder and lightning bolt. Typhoeus didn’t stand a chance.

This isn’t a very realistic painting of him; he actually has a hundred snake heads. That would be hard to draw though and cameras never existed back then so this is the best I can show you. This was drawn on a vase in 550-540BCE and it shows Zeus (on the left) about to strike my son (right).

After he was defeated he was flung into Tartarus. If he wasn’t immortal he would have been killed, and so would my other children. Now, after a lot of time thinking about it, I’m not sure if that would have been so bad.

 

Earth.

The second great war

Zeus was better than his father and grandfather when it came to sharing his power. He was still ruling them, but with some power moving around, the world was almost constantly changing and producing new things. I never felt the need to interfere with his ruling, but that doesn’t mean that we never clashed.

The Giants were some of the last children I had with Heaven (with his blood actually), and I cared for them. We were always close, and when they started fighting against my god grandchildren I tried to help them. I knew they couldn’t defeat Zeus and his human hero, Heracles, so when they were defeated I offered to keep them secure.  The Gods managed to kill some of my Giants and when they were defeated Zeus buried them under volcanos.

This shows my grandson Poseidon about to kill my son, the giant Polybotes. I’m behind Poseidon begging him not to kill him. I don’t look like this. This painter has severely personified … anthropomorphised … I don’t know which is the right word, me. I didn’t really beg Poseidon, but I did try to convince him not to kill my son.
 

Earth.

Prophecies

Okay, back to the story.

Once Zeus grew up he was even stronger than Kronos. This might have had something to do with Heaven treating him like his son (one he actually liked and wanted). Heaven blessed him to be stronger than Kronos and the other Titans, and once Zeus was old enough he managed to overthrow Kronos and free his siblings from my sons’ belly.

Luckily, during the time Zeus spent with me, I also had the opportunity to talk to him and tell him why Kronos ate his siblings and tried to eat him. I made sure that he wouldn’t follow in his father’s footsteps. I told him to free my children that Kronos had locked away – the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers – and that with only their help he could defeat Kronos and the Titans. The Cyclopes crafted him a weapon (his classic thunder/lightning bolt) and the Hundred-Handers helped him in the fight.

Once they were defeated, Zeus threw the Titans into Tartarus, where they still are today.

There is rarely such a thing as a real prophecy and if the prophecy is real it’s usually too cryptic to understand what it means anyway. Hearing the “prophecy” is usually the only reason that it comes true – you try to avoid it and your actions in avoiding it make it happen (usually with the help of the prophet or someone who liked the sound of that future). Heaven told Kronos that Zeus would overpower him. Kronos ate all his children to make sure that none of them could but, in doing this, he grieved their mother who finally had enough and hid her last child. This child grew up with his grandfather telling him that he was destined to overthrow his father, and he did.

 

Earth.

Like father like son

Rhea grieved terribly for her lost children. Before Zeus was born she begged Heaven and me to keep him safe. Heaven jumped at the opportunity to get Kronos back and I had another chance to make things change once again.

Rhea went to Lyktos (it was the biggest city in ancient Crete) to give birth to Zeus in private and then she gave him to me. She put him in a secret cave in the Aegean mountain so I could take care of him and he could be reared safely in Crete. She then gave Kronos a rock wrapped in babycloth to eat and he didn’t even notice. I guess that just goes to show how little he cared for his baby gods. He couldn't tell them apart from a rock.

If you are unfamiliar with Greek geography the Aegean mountains were a mountain range that went under the sea. Some of the mountains were large enough to become islands of their own and Crete is one of the largest of these islands.

 

Land is one of the slower-changing elements of our world, but even so maps have changed drastically in a few thousand years. Knowledge shapes your view of the world as much as the actual, physical rocks do. But then, the land also shapes your knowledge. How do you know what's on the other side of the mountain if you have no way of getting there? How do you know that you'll discover new land if that part of the ocean is completely unexplored? And why do you think that you'll find something interesting if you go somewhere new?

 

I understand hope and I feel it myself... but why do you waste such short mortal lives on "maybe finding something"?

 

Earth.

It worked!... sort of

Once Kronos took over life started to move on again. Night started to have her own offspring. She had quite a few so I’ll leave that for another post (our family might get a bit confusing and I'm not sure how to put it all into words).

Kronos got together with his sister Rhea and started to have his own kids. But he wanted a prophecy about his ruling and that's when things started to go wrong.

I told him that his future son, Zeus, would be as powerful as he was. I had hoped that he would be a better father than my Heaven had been. That he would try to minimise any conflict and neglect towards his children (which he probably learned from his own relationship with his father).

But Kronos then went to his father to hear his prophecy. Heaven was still angry with him and told him that the powerful son that I foresaw would overtake him. Kronos wanted to remain the only one to rule, so he ate his kids as soon as Rhea gave birth to them.

It was the same thing that had happened before… he was like his father.

 

The world needs to change or you’ll go mad. For the world to change you need new beings (I’m not sure if “people” applies to immortals) to hold the power. Things had to change, but everything was stagnant once again.

Earth.