The Titanomachy
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The Reign of Cronus
In the age before the Olympians, the Titan Cronus ruled supreme over the cosmos. He had seized power from his own father, Ouranos, castrating him with an adamantine sickle at the urging of his mother Gaia. But power won through violence carries with it a terrible curse: the prophecy that Cronus himself would be overthrown by his own offspring.
The Devouring
Consumed by fear of the prophecy, Cronus devoured each of his children the moment they were born. One by one, the gods who would become the great Olympians vanished into the darkness of their father's belly: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. The Titaness Rhea, their mother, watched in horror as child after child disappeared.
The Birth of Zeus
When Rhea was pregnant with her sixth child, she could bear no more grief. She traveled to Crete, to the hidden cave of Dicte on Mount Ida, where she gave birth to Zeus in secret. In place of the infant, she wrapped a great stone in swaddling clothes and presented it to Cronus, who swallowed it without suspicion.
The Liberation
When Zeus reached maturity, he returned to challenge his father. With the aid of the Titaness Metis, who prepared an emetic potion, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge his siblings. First came the great stone, which Zeus later set at Delphi as an eternal monument. Then, one by one, his brothers and sisters emerged: Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, fully grown and burning with righteous anger.
The Ten-Year War
The war that followed was unlike anything the universe had ever witnessed. The Olympians established their stronghold on Mount Olympus, while the Titans rallied under Cronus on Mount Othrys. For ten years the two sides clashed, their battles shaking the very foundations of the earth.
The Divine Weapons
Zeus descended to Tartarus and freed the Hundred-Handed Ones and the Cyclopes. The Cyclopes forged terrible weapons for the Olympians: the thunderbolt for Zeus, the trident for Poseidon, and the helm of invisibility for Hades.
The Cataclysm
The final battle was cataclysmic. Zeus unleashed his thunderbolts in an endless barrage, Poseidon shook the earth and sea, and Hades struck terror into the hearts of the Titans with his unseen presence. The boundless sea roared terribly around, the great earth rumbled, and broad heaven groaned, shaken.
The New Order
Victorious, the three brothers divided the cosmos by lot. Zeus received the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld. The defeated Titans were cast into Tartarus, guarded eternally by the Hundred-Handed Ones. A new age had begun.
Thus concludes the tale