Work Text:
Everyone knows about the gods. Everyone knows that more often than not, the gods throw a temper tantrum. Which is exactly how I ended up here. Chained to a rock with eagles eating my liver while it regenerates for all of eternity.
The reason why I ended up here is a bit of a long story and like most things, it started with Zeus.
As we all know in the beginning there was nothing. Only Chaos. Nobody knows how but eventually two children were born. Night and Erebus. Erebus then created Love, who in turn created Light and Day. It wasn't long before Earth and the Heavens were created. They were called Gaia and Ouranos.
Now, my dear reader, Gaia and Ouranos were in love. So every night Ouranos would travel down to the earth to lay with his beloved Gaia. So it wasn't surprising when Gaia and Ouranos created children. Although they were much closer to monsters than children. Three of their children, called the Hecatoncheires, had a hundred hands and fifty heads each. Three more of them, the Cyclopes, only had one eye in the middle of their heads. The last of Gaia and Ouranos’ children were called the Titans.
Gaia was not happy with Ouranos because he hid the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclops deep within her as he was scared of their power and believed they would quickly overpower him and take his throne.
For many years the Titans lived on the earth, quite literally under their fathers shadow. It wasn't until the boldest of them, Cronus, decided he’d had enough of his father and laid in wait for Ouranos to come visit Gaia and wounded him terribly with a scythe Gaia had made especially for taking down Ouranos.
Cronus castrated Ouranos, tossing his testicals over the ocean and from Ouranos’ blood came the Furies and the Giants. The Giants were quickly driven off the earth but the Furies stayed. For as long as there is sin in the world they cannot be banished.
From that point on for who knows how long, Cronus was lord of the universe, with his sister, Rhea, as his queen.
Cronus was given a prophecy from the Moirai (or the fates) that one of his children was destined to dethrone him. This greatly concerned Cronus for he did not wish to lose his throne. So, when he heard that Rhea was pregnant he knew he had to act fast. Once Rhea bore his first child, Hestia, he took her from Rhea’s arms and swallowed her whole. The next four times Rhea gave birth, Cronus would swallow each of his children.
Eventually Rhea got tired of her children being taken from her so the next time she was about to give birth she hid away in a cave and stationed the Hecatoncheires in front of it to bang their swords against their shields to mask her screaming. Once the baby was born, who she named Zeus, she gave him to the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida who raised him away from Cronus.
Gaia gave Rhea a rock the shape of a baby to give to Cronus who swallowed it, mistaking it for the infant Zeus.
What kind of parent is Cronus if he mistakes his child for a rock of all things?
Once Zeus was old enough he went out to search for Cronus and with the help of Gaia he forced Cronus to throw up all five of his siblings, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon. Who had been secretly growing in their fathers stomach.
What followed after was a dreadful war that shook the earth as the Titans and the Gods fought.
Zeus enlisted the help of the Hecatonchieres who fought for him with their weapons of thunder and lightning.
I had sided with Zeus in the war, despite my father Iapatus fighting with the Titans.
It was no surprise that with me on Zeus’ side that he won considering I’m the only Titan with any sense.
Zeus banished most of the Titans to Tartarus, a deep abyss so far under the earth it would take nine days to fall down there. My brother, Atlas was not condemned to Tartarus but was instead forced to bear the weight of the sky, forced to hold up the sleeping body of Ouranos for all of eternity.
With the Gods in charge of the earth Zeus was crowned king of the gods with his sister Hera as Queen. The three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades split the world between them. Zeus took the skies, Poseidon the ocean and Hades the Underworld.