When it came time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself, then she left the child to be raised by nymphs. To concel her act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as the baby to
Rhea concealed the birth of Zeus in a cave on Mount Dicte in Crete and gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. This he swallowed in the belief that it was Zeus. Subsequently Cronus was vanquished by Zeus and was forced to disgorge the swallowed children.
Cronos is said to have devoured all his children by Rhea, but when she was on the point of giving birth to Zeus, she, by the advice of her parents, went to Lyctus in Crete.
Rhea. Rhea was the wife of Cronus. Cronus made it a practice to swallow their children. To avoid this, Rhea tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, saving her son Zeus.
Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky), who then fertilized her. From that union the first Titans were born — six males: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus, and six females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys.
After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into a snake and raped her. She had Persephone with Zeus.
Intriguingly, Hera is not only Zeus's wife but also his sister. Their union began with Zeus employing a clever ploy—he transformed into an injured bird to elicit Hera's compassion and affection. After earning her trust in bird form, he was later able to become a man again, and ask for her hand in marriage.
Myth Hera was a daughter of the Titans Kronos and Rhea; she was swallowed at birth by her father with her brothers Poseidon and Pluto, and sisters Hestia and Demeter, but rescued by Zeus who had been hidden from the same fate.
Cronus learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own children, just as he had overthrown his father. As a result, although he sired the gods Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon by Rhea, he devoured them all as soon as they were born to prevent the prophecy.
Hera is the goddess of family. By divorcing Zeus she would be breaking her own family further apart, therefore creating rifts between her children and the other gods and demigods. By refusing to divorce zeus, she is setting an example: she is the queen of the gods, and he the King.
Amalthaea, in Greek (originally Cretan) mythology, the foster mother of Zeus, king of the gods. She is sometimes represented as the goat that suckled the infant god in a cave in Crete, sometimes as a nymph who fed him the milk of a goat.
Extensive research suggests he might have fathered an impressive 92 different children, which is quite a feat, even for the king of Greek gods.
Zeus averts this disaster by yielding to Demeter's request for the return of her daughter, thus honoring the mother-daughter bond. This, however, is not enough, so he sends their mother Rhea to persuade her.
In fear of a prophecy that he would in turn be overthrown by his own son, Kronos swallowed each of his children as they were born. Rhea managed to save the youngest, Zeus, by hiding him away on the island of Krete (Crete), and fed Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Idaean Cave
In antiquity it was a place of worship because it was believed to be the cave where the titan Rhea hid the infant Zeus, to protect him from his father Cronus, who intended to swallow him like others of his progeny. It is one of a number of caves believed to have been the birthplace or hiding place of Zeus.
But Rhea, his wife, saved the infant Zeus by substituting a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes for Cronus to swallow and hiding Zeus in a cave on Crete.
1. In Greek mythology, Zeus is replaced by a rock when his father Cronus attempts to eat him. Zeus' mother, Rhea, had heard a prophecy that one of her children would overthrow Cronus. To prevent this prophecy from coming true, Cronus devoured each of Rhea's children as they were born.
The Fate of Atlas
Instead of being banished to Tartarus, Zeus enslaved Atlas to holding up the earth on his shoulders for all eternity.
After being born, Poseidon was swallowed by his father Cronus because of a prophesy that said Cronus' children would someday overthrow him. Poseidon was eventually saved by his younger brother Zeus.
As the story goes, Zeus had an affair with a mortal woman. From that union, Hercules was born. Because Hercules was half mortal, Zeus was concerned this son have more powers. He thought his goddess wife Hera could breastfeed Hercules along with their children so that Hercules could gain some powers through breast milk.
The standard telling goes that the mythical hero Heracles, as an infant, breastfed from an unsuspecting Hera, the goddess of marriage and Zeus's wife, who threw him away, causing a little bit of her milk to splash and create the galaxy with all its stars.
Aside from his seven wives, relationships with immortals included Dione and Maia. Among mortals were Semele, Io, Europa and Leda (for more details, see below) and the young Ganymede (although he was mortal, Zeus granted him eternal youth and immortality).
After the failed marriage with Metis, Zeus fell in love with his most beautiful sister, Hera. Their wedding was extravagant, with the earth-goddess Gaia giving the married couple golden apples as a wedding present.
Zeus also turned himself into a serpent and raped Rhea, which resulted in the birth of Persephone. Afterwards, Rhea became Demeter. Persephone was born so deformed that Rhea ran away from her frightened, and did not breastfeed Persephone. Zeus then mates with Persephone, who gives birth to Dionysus.
After courting Hera to no avail, Zeus resorted to trickery by changing into a disheveled cuckoo. Hera took pity on the bird, holding it to her breast to keep it warm. Zeus then reverted to his normal form, and took advantage of Hera's surprise by raping her. Hera then married Zeus as a way to hide her shame.