DEMETER'S GREEK MYTHOLOGY PAGE:

THE GREEK TITANS

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Atlas; Ceto; Clymene; Dione; Echidna; Epimetheus; Hyperion; Iapetus; Kronos; Leto; Metis; Oceanus; Ophion; Ouranos; Pallas; Phoebe; Phoreys; Prometheus; Rhea; Tethys.

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ATLAS: the son of Iapetus and Clymene, and brother of Prometheus and Epimetheus. Upon the defeat of the Titans in their war with the Olympians, Atlas was condemned to beat the heavens upon his shoulders. Hence his name, which means "bearer," or "endurer." Another tradition relates that when he refused to give shelter to PERSEUS, the latter, by means of the GORGON'S head, change him into Mt.Atlas, upon which the vault of the heavens rests.

CETO: daughter of Oceanus and Gaia, and by Phorcys the mother of the Phorcydes.

CLYMENE: daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. By Iapetus, she became the mother of Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus.

DIONE: an ancient goddess or Titaness who, according to one tradition, was the mohter of Aphrodite by Zeus. Actually, her name is a feminine form of Zeus (Dios).

ECHIDNA: daughter of Ceto, with the head of a beauiful nymph and the body of a serpent. By Typon she became the mohter of, amoung other monsters, Cerberus, the Lernean Hydra, the Chimaera and the Sphinx.

EPIMETHEUS: son of Iapetus and Clymene, and brother of Atlas and Prometheus. His only claim to fame is that he accepted Pandora as his wife despite Prometheus's warning to beware of any gifts from Zeus, and thereby brought ills and sorrows to the world.

HYPERION: one of the Titans, son of Ouranos and Gaia, and father of Helios, Selene and Eos.

IAPETUS: one of the Titans. By Clymene, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, he became the father of Atlas, Prometheus and >Epimetheus.

KRONOS(Cronus): youngest of the Titans, sons of Ouranos and Gaia. Ournaos, jealous of his sons, thrust them deep down beneath the earth. Gaia, in resentment at this because Ouranos had caused her to bear so many children, produced a sickle of steel with which she incited to the Titans to castrate their father. Non dared to do this except Kronos, who stealthily accomplished the deed while Ouranos slept. Thereupon Kronos assumed the rule, later destined in turn to be unseated by his son Zeus. The reign of Kronos was sometimes regarded as the Golden Age. Mating with his sister RHEA, he became by her the father of the thrid generation of gods, the deities Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidion and Zeus. Kronos too was fearful of his children, and evoured each oneimmediately at birth. When the youngest child, Zeus, was born, howerer, Rhea decieved Kronos by presenting him with a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which Kronos promptly swallowed. Zeus who had been hidden, grew to maturity and, overpowering his father, made him disgorge the children whom he has swallowed. With the aid of his borthers, his sisters and his other partisans amoung the gods, Zeus over powered and dethroned Kronos and became king of gods and men.

LETO: daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus.

METIS: personification of "counsel, wisdom," daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and widest of the deities. She was the first consort of Zeus, but he swallowed her when he was advised by Ouranos and Gaia that she would bear a child greater then he in wisdom and strength. Zeus has impregnated her, ans so he later gave birth to Athena, who sprang from his head, fully grown and fully armed.

OCEANUS: Greek deity fo the great ocean encircling the earth. He was one of the Titans, the son of Ouranos(Sky) and Gaia(Earth), and husband of Tethys, by whom he was the father of the Oceanids, or ocean- nymphs, and the various rivers and river-gods.

OPHION: "the serpent," one of the Titans. In one tradition Ophion and his consort Eurynome, "the wide- ruling," reigned over Olympus until they were dethroned by the younger generations of gods.

OURANOS(Uranus): personification of the sky, and son and mate of Gaia, the earth. Their children were the Hekatoncheires, the Cyclopes, the Furies and the Titans. He was jealous of his future power of his children and confined them in Tartarus. At the instigation of Gaia, the Titan Kronos castrated his father Ouranos and dethroned him.

PHALLA: one of the Greek Titans, and by Styx the father of Zelus, Bia, and Nike. Also an appellation of the goddess Athena, who according to some accounts was the daughter of Pallas. In this version, she killed him when he attempted to violate her, and his skin became the Aegis.

PHOEBE: one of the femail Titans, adn by her brother Coeus, mother of Leto, who in turn because by Zeus the mother of Apollo and Artemis. The latter are also accorded the appellations Phoebus and Phoebe.

PHORCYS: son of Oceanus and Gaia. By his sister Ceto he became the father of the Phorcydes.

PROMETHEUS: son of the Titan Iapetos and the Oceanid Clymene. His name is taken to signify "forethought." He taught mankind the useful arts and crafts, and particularly the user of fire, which had been jealously guarded by Zeus. Prometheus stole fire from Olympus, hiding it in the hollow fennel-reed, and brought it down to man. For this Zeus cast him out from Olympus and had him fastened to a rock on the Caucasus, where by day and eagel(or a valture) fed on his liver, which grew again during the night. After many of thousands of years, the eagle was killed by Hercules, and Prometheus was set free. According to Aeschylus, Prometheus's mother is Themis. She had revealed to him her prophecy concerning the son of Thetis, adn it is this secret which Pormetheus holds out to Zeus as the price of his freedom. According to some traditions Promethus had been the crator of man, whome he formed out of earth and water.

RHEA: one of the early Greek eath and mohter goddesses, daughter of >Ouranos and Gaia and mate of Kronos, by whom she became mother of Hera, Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Posedion and Zeus. Kronos, jealous of the future power of his children, devoured each one at birth. When Zeus, the youngest, was born, Rhea decieved Kronos by presenting him with a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed. She then spirited the infant Zeus away to the Dictaean Cave in Crete, where he was brought up by the Kouretes. As the ancient mother-goddess at Crete, Rhea was identified throughout Calssical times with the great mother goddesses of the ancient Near East, and was also known as Rhea Cybele and Magna Mater("great mother" of the gods) and was worshipped with orgiastic rites. Like the anicent Near Eastern fertility-goddesses, she is represented upon a lion and with the crescent moon and star of Ishtar.

TETHYS: daughter of Ouranos and Gaia, and wife of Oceanus, by whome she became the mother of the sea-nymphs, the Oceanides.