Rhea (mythology)

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Rhea (mythology)

This page is about the Greek mythological figure. For the bird, see Rhea (bird)
Rhea (bird)

The rheas are species of Flightless bird ratite birds in the genus Rhea, native to South America. There are two existing species: the Greater Rhea and the Darwin's Rhea....
.

Rhea (; ancient Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
) was the Titaness

Titan (mythology)

Gaia (mythology)

Gaia Gaia is a Greek primordial gods and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess....
, the earth, in classical Greek

Classical Greece

Classical Greece was a culture that was highly advanced and which heavilly influenced the cultures of Ancient Rome and much of the Western World....
mythology.

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Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
) was the Titaness

Titan (mythology)

Gaia (mythology)

Gaia Gaia is a Greek primordial gods and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess....
, the earth, in classical Greek

Classical Greece

Classical Greece was a culture that was highly advanced and which heavilly influenced the cultures of Ancient Rome and much of the Western World....
mythology. She was known as "the mother of gods." In earlier traditions, she was strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele

Cybele

Cybele , was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother. As with Greek Gaia , or her Minoan civilization equivalent Rhea , Cybele embodies the fertile Earth, a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals ....
, the Great Goddess

Great Goddess

Great Goddess refers to the concept of an almighty goddess, or to the concept of a mother goddess, including:*Great Goddess, anglicized form of the Latin Magna Dea...
, and later seen by the classical Greeks as the mother of the Olympian gods and goddesses

Twelve Olympians

The Twelve Olympians or younger gods, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal Greek Godss of the Greek pantheon , residing atop Mount Olympus, having supplanted the Titan or older gods in the greek mythogical narrative....
, though never dwelling permanently among them on Mount Olympus. In Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes, also known as Apollonius Rhodius , early 3rd century BCE - after 246 BCE, was a librarian at the Library of Alexandria....
' Argonautica, the fusion of Rhea and Phrygian Cybele is complete. "Upon the Mother depend the winds, the ocean, the whole earth beneath and the snowy seat of Olympus; whenever she leaves the mountains and climbs to the great vault of heaven, Zeus himself, the son of Kronos

Cronus

Cronus or Kronos, , was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titan , divine descendants of Gaia , the earth, and Uranus , the sky....
, makes way, and all the other immortal gods likewise make way for the dread goddess," the seer Mopsus

Mopsus

In Greek mythology, Mopsus or Mopsos was the name of two famous seers....
tells Jason in Argonautica; Jason climbed to the sanctuary high on Mount Dindymon

Dindymon

In Greek mythology, Dindymon was a mountain in eastern Phrygia, later part of Galatia, that was later called Agdistis, sacred to the "mountain mother", Cybele, whom the Hellenes knew as Rhea....
to offer sacrifice and libations to placate the goddess, so that the Argonauts might continue on their way. For her temenos
Temenos

Temenos is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to basileus and anax, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary, holy grove or holy precinct: The Pythian Games race-course is called a temenos, the sacred valley of the Nile is the ?e????? p??? t??e??? ?????da, the...
they wrought an image of the goddess, a xoanon
Xoanon

A xoanon was an Archaic period in Greece wooden cult image of Ancient Greece. Classical Greeks associated such cult objects, whether aniconic or effigy, with the legendary Daedalus....
, from a vine-stump. There "they called upon the mother of Dindymon, mistress of all, the dweller in Phrygia, and with her Titias

Dactyl (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Dactyls were the archaic race of small phallus male beings associated with the Mother Goddess, whether as Cybele or Rhea ....
and Kyllenos

Dactyl (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Dactyls were the archaic race of small phallus male beings associated with the Mother Goddess, whether as Cybele or Rhea ....
who alone of the many Cretan Daktyls of Ida

Dactyl (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Dactyls were the archaic race of small phallus male beings associated with the Mother Goddess, whether as Cybele or Rhea ....
are called 'guiders of destiny' and 'those who sit beside the Idaean Mother'." They leapt and danced in their armour: "For this reason the Phrygians still worship Rheia with tambourines and drums".

If Rhea is indeed Greek, most ancient etymologists derived '??a by metathesis

Metathesis

Metathesis may refer to the following:* Metathesis , in phonology, a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word** Quantitative metathesis, a situation in which two vowel sounds follow directly one after the other and a transposition of vowel length takes place...
from ??a "ground", but a tradition embodied in Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
connected the word with ?e??, "flow".

Rhea was wife to Kronos

Cronus

Cronus or Kronos, , was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titan , divine descendants of Gaia , the earth, and Uranus , the sky....
and mother to Demeter

Demeter

File:Demeter in horse chariot w daughter kore 83d40m wikiC Tempio Y di Selinunte sec VIa.JPGDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of cereal and fertility, the pure....
, Hades

Hades

Hades refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the god; the genitive case , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades"....
, Hera

Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
, Hestia

Hestia

In Greek mythology, virginal Hestia, daughter of Cronus and Rhea , is the goddess of the hearth, of the right ordering of domesticity and the family, who received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household....
, Poseidon

Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
, and Zeus

Zeus

Lion

The lion is a member of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. With exceptionally large males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger....
s or on a chariot

Chariot

The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC....
drawn by two lions, and is not always distinguishable from Cybele. In Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Roman mythology, or more appropriately, Latin mythology, refers to the mythology beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Rome....
, her counterpart Cybele was Magna Mater deorum Idaea and identified with Opis or Ops

Ops

Ops, more properly Opis, was a fertility deity and earth-goddess in Roman mythology of Sabine origin....
.

Kronos, Rhea's Titan

Titan (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Titans ; were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary golden age. Their role as Elder Gods was overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Twelve Olympians, effected a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks borrowed from the Ancient Near East....
brother and husband, castrated their father, Ouranos. After this, Kronos

Cronus

Cronus or Kronos, , was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titan , divine descendants of Gaia , the earth, and Uranus , the sky....
re-imprisoned the Hekatonkheires, the Gigantes

Gigantes

In Greek mythology, the Gigantes or, commonly, Giants, were a race of giants, children of Gaia or Gaea, who were fertilized by the blood of Uranus_, after being castration by his son Cronus....
and the Cyclopes

Cyclops

In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, a cyclops , is a member of a primordial race of giant , each with a single eye in the middle of its forehead....
and set the monster Kampê to guard them. He and Rhea took the throne as King and Queen of the gods. This time

Time

Time is a component of the measurement used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects....
was called the Golden Age

Golden age

The term Golden age in ancient Greece mythology and legend but can also be found in other ancient cultures . It refers either to the highest age in the Greek spectrum of Iron, Bronze, Silver and Golden ages, or to a time in the beginnings of Humanity which was perceived as an ideal state, or utopia, when mankind was pure and immortal....
.

Kronos sired several children by Rhea: Hestia

Hestia

Demeter

File:Demeter in horse chariot w daughter kore 83d40m wikiC Tempio Y di Selinunte sec VIa.JPGDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of cereal and fertility, the pure....
, Hera

Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
, Hades

Hades

Poseidon

Gaia

Gaia or Gaea most commonly refers to Gaia , the primal Greek goddess of the earth. But it may also refer to:...
and Uranus

Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third-largest and fourth most massive planet in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus the father of Kronos and grandfather of Zeus ....
that he was destined to be overcome by his own child as he had overthrown his own father. When Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
was about to be born, however, Rhea sought Ouranus and Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so that Kronos would get his retribution for his acts against Ouranos and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus

Zeus

Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
, handing Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling

Swaddling

Swaddling is an age-old practice of wrapping infants snugly in swaddling cloths, blankets or similar cloth so that movement of the Limb s is tightly restricted....
clothes, which he promptly swallowed.

Then she hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida

Mount Ida

In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida, Crete, and Mount Ida, Turkey, known as Mount Ida, Turkey in Classical times....
in Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
. According to varying versions of the story:

He was then raised by Gaia
Gaia (mythology)

Gaia Gaia is a Greek primordial gods and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess....
,
He was suckled by a goat named Amalthea
Amalthea (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Amalthea or Amaltheia is the most often mentioned among foster-mothers of Zeus. Her name in Greek is clearly an epithet, signifying the presence of an earlier nurturing goddess, whom the Hellenes, whose myths we know, knew to be located in Crete, where Minoan civilizations may have called her a version of "Dikte"...
, while a company of Kouretes
Korybantes

The Korybantes were the crested dancers who worshiped the Phrygian goddess Cybele with drumming and dancing. They are also called the Kurbantes in Phrygia, and Corybants in an older English language transcription....
, soldiers, or smaller gods danced, shouted and clapped their hands to make noise so that Kronos would not hear the baby's cry,
He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea
Adamanthea

A nymph in Greek mythology, Adamanthea helped raise the infant Zeus to hide him from his father, Cronus. Reacting to a prophecy from his mother Gaia that his own offspring would overthrow his supreme position in the pantheon, Cronus swallowed all of his children immediately after birth....
, who fed him goat milk. Since Kronos ruled over the earth, the heavens, and the sea and swallowed all of the children of Rhea, Adamanthea hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea, and sky and thus, invisible to his father. Later Rhea married and had two children with the god Olympous.

Zeus forced the Titan

Titan (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Titans ; were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary golden age. Their role as Elder Gods was overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Twelve Olympians, effected a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks borrowed from the Ancient Near East....
Kronos to disgorge the other children in reverse order of swallowing: first the stone, which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, then the rest. In some versions, Metis

Metis (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Metis was of the Titan generation and, like several primordial figures, an Oceanid, in the sense that M?tis was born of Oceanus and Tethys , of an earlier age than Zeus and his siblings....
gave Kronos an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Kronos' stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Kronos, the Gigantes

Gigantes

Cyclops

In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, a cyclops , is a member of a primordial race of giant , each with a single eye in the middle of its forehead....
, who gave him thunder and lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
and his siblings, together with the Gigantes, Hecatonkheires, and Cyclopes, overthrew

Titanomachy

In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy, or War of the Titans , was the ten-year series of battles fought between the two races of deities long before the existence of mankind: the Titan , fighting from Mount Othrys, or Mount Etna and the Twelve Olympians, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus ....
Kronos and the other Titans. Similarly, in later myths, Zeus would swallow Metis

Metis (mythology)

Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena is the shrewd companion of Hero and the goddess of Hero endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens, which built the Parthenon to worship her....
, but she was born unharmed, out of a wound made in his head by one of the other gods.

In Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
, Rhea is the mother of the gods, though not a universal mother like Cybele

Cybele

Phrygia

In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the Southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges, changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont....
n Great Mother

Mother goddess

A mother goddess is a term used to refer to any goddess associated with motherhood, fertility, creation or the bountiful embodiment of the Earth....
, with whom she was later identified. The original seat of her worship was in Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
. There, according to myth, she saved the new-born Zeus, her sixth child, from being devoured by Kronos, by substituting a stone for the infant god and entrusting him to the care of her attendants the Curetes

Curetes

The term Curetes may refer to:*The dancing attendants of Rhea , also known as Korybantes.*An early Ancient Greece tribe: Curetes ....
. These attendants afterwards became the bodyguard of Zeus and the priests of Rhea, and performed ceremonies in her honor. In historic times, the resemblances between Rhea and the Asiatic Great Mother, Phrygian Cybele

Cybele

Great Goddess

Great Goddess refers to the concept of an almighty goddess, or to the concept of a mother goddess, including:*Great Goddess, anglicized form of the Latin Magna Dea...
, were so noticeable that the Greeks accounted for them by regarding the latter as their own Rhea, who had deserted her original home in Crete and fled to the mountain wilds of Asia Minor to escape the persecution of Kronos. A reverse view was held by, and it is probably true that cultural contacts with the mainland brought to Crete the worship of the Asiatic Great Mother, who became the Cretan Rhea.

Most often Rhea's symbol is a pair of lion

Lion

Chariot

The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC....
and were seen often, rampant, one on either side of the gateway

Gate

A gate is a point of entry to a space enclosed by walls, or an opening in a fence. Gates may prevent or control entry or exit, or they may be merely decorative....
s through the walls to many cities in the ancient world. The one at Mycenae

Mycenae

Mycenae , is an archaeology in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 6 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north....
is most characteristic, with the lions placed on either side of a pillar that symbolizes the goddess.

The second largest moon

Rhea (moon)

'Rhea' is the second-largest natural satellite of Saturn and the List of natural satellites by diameter in the Solar System. It was discovered in 1672 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini....
of the planet Saturn

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant....
is named after her.

Rhea (mythology)

Argive genealogy in Greek mythology