Transcription
Cronus, the primordial deities, are the first generation of gods and goddesses. One of these deities was called Gaia, which was Mother Earth, and another one was called Uranus, which was Father Sky. They gave birth to the second generation of gods called the 12 Titans.
The youngest of these Titans was Cronus, usually depicted with a sickle and considered the patron of the harvest. But Gaia and Uranus had even more children: the 300-handed Hecatoncheires and the one-eyed Cyclopes. Uranus, however, hated them and hid them in Tartarus, a deep abyss that was used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked.
This angered Gaia, their mother, who tried to make an alliance with her 12 children to castrate Uranus. She created a great stone sickle and gathered together all of the Titans, but nobody wanted to do it except for Cronus. Cronus ambushed his own father and castrated him. He then threw his testicles and the sickle into the ocean, which became Corfu, the Greek island famous for having a sickle-like shape.
After Uranus was dethroned, Cronus and his older sister Rhea took the throne of the world as king and queen. The period in which Cronus ruled was called the Golden Age, as the people of the time had no need for laws, rules, or work.
Gaia and Uranus, however, had prophesied that Cronus was going to be overthrown by one of his sons, just like he did with Uranus. This gave him paranoia, and although he created them with Rhea, he devoured all five of his children as soon as they were born. But one survived.
Rhea secretly gave birth to a sixth child called Zeus, and she wanted to get revenge for Cronus's acts against his father and children. Rhea gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed, thinking that it was his son.
Zeus, the sky and thunder god, also known as the king of gods, was secretly raised. When he grew up, he used an edict given to him by Gaia to force Cronus to disgorge the contents of his stomach in reverse order: first the stone, and then his two brothers and three sisters, which were Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter.
After freeing his siblings, Zeus released the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes, who forged for him his Thunderbolts, Poseidon's trident, and Hades's Helm of Darkness. A vast war called the Titanomachy broke out between Zeus with his siblings and the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes against Cronus and the other 12 Titans. Zeus and his siblings fought from Mount Olympus, and the Titans fought from Mount Othrys. For this reason, Zeus and his siblings were called the Olympians. The Olympians won, and many of the Titans were confined to Tartarus.
He married Hera, his sister, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares and Hephaestus. Zeus, however, was infamous for his many affairs with other goddesses, from which Athena, Hermes, Dionysus, Apollo, and Artemis were born.
Hera is the goddess of marriage, women, and family. Being the wife and sister of Zeus, she's the queen of gods. She was one of the most jealous and vengeful gods, punishing women who laid with her husband and the children that came from it as well. When she discovered that Leto, one of Zeus's lovers, was pregnant with Apollo and Artemis, she tried to stop the birth of both of them. She convinced the nature spirits to prevent them from being born, but Poseidon, brother of both Hera and Zeus, gave pity to Leto and guided her to the floating island of Delos, where she could give birth. She showed her anger towards Hercules too, another illegitimate child of Zeus. She sent serpents to kill him, but the newborn crushed them with his bare hands. She later drove him to madness, making him kill his wife and children, the event that then sent him on his 12 Labors.
Poseidon is the god of the sea and presides over storms, earthquakes, and horses. He was a horrifying and avenging god, and he was honored even when he wasn't the patron deity of the city. When Zeus's son Minos asked for Poseidon's help in order to certify his claim on the throne of Crete, he offered Minos a splendid white bull with the understanding that he was to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon. Later, the Cretans were so impressed with the bull and the divine sign itself that Minos was declared king of Crete. But wishing to keep the beautiful animal for himself, Minos instead sacrificed an ordinary bull to Poseidon instead of the agreed-upon one. Poseidon, enraged, caused Minos' wife to fall in love with the bull. Their coupling produced the Minotaur, a half-bull, half-human creature who fed on human flesh.
Athena is the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and handicraft. She was born from Zeus's forehead without a mother. Zeus's wife was so angry at him for having given birth to a child on his own that she conceived and bore Hephaestus by herself. Athena went into a competition for the patronage of the city against Poseidon. They each had to give the Athenians one gift, and Cecrops, the king of Athens, would determine which gift was better. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident, and a saltwater spring sprang up. This gave the Athenians access to trade and water. Athena offered the first domesticated olive tree, which brought wood, oil, and food. Athena won and became Athens's patron deity. Afterwards, Poseidon was so angry over his defeat that he sent one of his sons, Halirrhothius, to cut down the tree. But as he swung his axe, he missed his aim, and it fell on himself, killing him. Athena also transformed Medusa into a hideous monster with serpents for hair, whose gaze would turn any mortal to stone, after she discovered that Poseidon raped Medusa in Athena's temple, desecrating it.
Hephaestus is the god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, fire, sculpture, and volcanoes. He was cast off Mount Olympus by his mother Hera because of his lameness, and he landed on the ocean. He made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus and of many heroes like Achilles and Hercules. Hephaestus also created Pandora and her famous box, which she opened, causing curses to be released upon mankind. He was one of the Olympians to have returned to Olympus after being exiled. He gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical golden throne, which when she sat on it, did not allow her to stand up again. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he refused, saying, "I have no mother." He demanded to be married to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and passion, in order to release Hera, and his mother fulfilled the request.
Aphrodite is the goddess of love, lust, beauty, pleasure, and passion. She was born from Uranus's genitals when they fell into the ocean after Cronus cut them. Aphrodite generously rewarded those who honored her but also punished those who disrespected her, often quite brutally. Though married to Hephaestus, Aphrodite had an affair with Ares, the god of war. Eventually, Hephaestus discovered Aphrodite's affair and planned a trap. While Aphrodite and Ares lay together in bed, Hephaestus ensnared them in an unbreakable chainlink net and dragged them to Mount Olympus to shame them in front of the other gods. The other gods laughed at them, and it was only due to the intervention of Poseidon that they were released.
Ares is the god of war and courage. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust. In contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship, Ares plays a relatively limited role in Greek mythology, but his numerous love affairs and abundant offspring are often alluded to.
Apollo is the god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. He was born from the union of Zeus and Leto. Hera, Zeus's wife, tried to stop Leto from giving birth to this illegitimate child, but she failed. He is considered to be the most beautiful god. He is the patron deity of Delphi and the prophetic deity of the famous Delphic Oracle. His oracles were often consulted for guidance in various matters. He was in general seen as the god who affords help and wards off evil. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo. Apollo delivered people from epidemics, yet he was also a god who could bring deadly plagues with his arrows. He is an important pastoral deity and was the patron of herdsmen and shepherds.
Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She's the twin sister of Apollo and one of the three major virgin goddesses alongside Athena and Hestia. She guarded her virginity jealously, and when a young hunter saw her bathing naked, he was transformed into a deer by the angry goddess and was then devoured by his own hunting dogs, who did not recognize their master. Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the ancient Greek deities.
Dionysus is the god of wine, parties, and theater. He is another illegitimate child of Zeus. Many festivals were celebrated to worship him with mass drinking and orgies.
Hermes is the messenger god and the patron of thieves, travelers, and merchants. He is able to move quickly and freely between the worlds of the mortal and the divine, aided by his winged sandals. He's a conductor of souls into the afterlife. He was another illegitimate child of Zeus, and he's regarded as the divine trickster, as he often pulled pranks and stole from the other deities. Hermes always takes with him a golden rod as a mark of his authority, and he's usually depicted wearing a winged helmet. He rescued Dionysus many times.
Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops. Through her brother Zeus, she became the mother of Persephone, a fertility goddess. Hades, the god of the dead, loved Persephone and appeared from the ground to drag her down to the underworld. Demeter searched everywhere to find her missing daughter until she was informed that Hades had taken her to the underworld. In response, Demeter neglected her duties as goddess of agriculture, plunging the earth into a deadly famine where nothing would grow, causing mortals to die. Zeus ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother to save the world. However, since Persephone had eaten food from the underworld, she could not stay with Demeter forever but had to divide the year between her mother and Hades. This explained the seasonal cycle, as Demeter does not let plants grow in the winter while Persephone is gone.
Hades is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, where the spirits of the dead reside. He was portrayed as passive and never portrayed negatively. His role was often to maintain relative balance. He strictly forbade his subjects to leave his domain and would become quite enraged when anyone tried to leave or if someone tried to steal the souls from his realm. He rarely left the underworld and didn't care about what happened above him. The only way to enter the underworld was to get passage from ferryman Charon, who helped souls cross the River Styx if they paid him. For that reason, when Greeks died, most of the time coins were buried with them and placed on their eyes. If someone couldn't afford to pay Charon, he would have to wait for eternity on the shores of the Styx. Once the Styx was passed, the souls found Cerberus, a three-headed dog that was the guardian of the underworld's gates. After that, the soul was judged by the three judges, who decided where it should go. They could choose between Elysium, the Asphodel Meadows, and Tartarus. Elysium is basically heaven, and it's where the souls of heroes, demigods, and especially good mortals were sent. The Asphodel Meadows was a place for ordinary people who did not achieve anything particular in life, good or bad. Tartarus is basically hell; it's where the Titans and other criminals who upset the gods reside. Everyone in Tartarus is tortured for eternity.
Hestia is the goddess of the hearth, the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and cooking, and of homes in general. She's one of the three virgin goddesses alongside Athena and Artemis. She has a very limited mythology. I'll be making similar videos, subscribe to see them.