Who Is Rhea (Rheia)?
Mother goddess who saved Zeus with a stone
Rhea is a Titan goddess in Greek mythology and the wife of Cronus. She is the mother of the future Olympian gods: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus.
Born to Gaia and Ouranos, she later married Cronus. But every time she gave birth, her husband swallowed the child. In deep grief, Rhea asked her parents, Gaia and Ouranos, for help. Following their advice, she secretly gave birth to her youngest, Zeus, on Crete, and handed Cronus a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in place of the baby. In this way she saved Zeus's life.
In later times she was sometimes identified with Cybele, the great mother goddess of Asia Minor.
Episodes featuring this character5
NEWEpisode 1
The Universe Began with a CrackChaos and the Creation (Theogony)
On fog-wrapped Mount Helicon, Hesiod, a starving shepherd, gets roasted by the sharp-tongued Muses, then handed a laurel staff and a divine voice. A single "Gap" opens in the white void. Darkness and Night are born, then the light Hesiod's own song calls up, then Earth and the starry Sky. Twelve children stir deep inside Earth, and only the youngest glares through the ceiling at his father with golden eyes.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 2
Mother Forged a Blade. Who Will Take It?Cronus and Uranus
Ouranos, the starry Sky, has shoved his children deep inside the Earth. Their mother Gaia, groaning under the weight, forges a great gray sickle of adamant from her own body and asks which of them will take it up. The older brothers and sisters stay silent. Only the youngest and slightest of them, Cronus, steps forward.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 3
Love Was Born From a Wound in the SkyThe Birth of Aphrodite
From the drops that fell from the sky come warriors and nymphs, and from the sea foam steps Aphrodite, goddess of love. At the same dawn of the world, Night—joined with no one—gives birth to Death, Sleep, and even Affection.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 5
He Swallowed Five. Not This One.Cronus and Rhea
Cronus overthrew his father to become king, but one prophecy haunts him, so he swallows each of his five newborn children one after another. Grieving and carrying a sixth child, their mother Rhea asks Earth and Sky for help. Holding close the stone Earth gave her, she crosses the night sea, resolved that this time she will protect her child.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 6
The King of Gods Was Saved by a StoneThe Birth of Zeus and the Stone of Kronos
On a misty mountain, the Muses sing a hungry shepherd the tale of "the night a mother told her only lie." To save her youngest, Zeus, from Cronus, the boy-king who swallows his children, Rhea hands him a stone wrapped in swaddling cloth. Raised in a cave deep within the earth, Zeus overthrows his father with his grandmother Gaia's cunning and his own strength. He frees his five siblings from the light, reunites with his mother, and receives thunder from the uncles he unchains.
20 pages