Who Was The Eldest Of The Twelve Great Olympian Gods?

While there were many deities, spirits and minions known to the ancient Greek religious world, usually twelve were touted above the rest. The ranking of which gods and goddesses should be in the top twelve Olympians was frequently contested, but certain gods always made the cut. Ten Olympians without fail made the list: Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Ares and Aphrodite. Fighting over the last two coveted slots on the roster of the great Twelve were four more well-known deities: Hades, Hephaestus, Dionysus and Hestia—who among them received a place in the Twelve depended on the location, preference and motivation of the myth-teller. These fourteen powerful and respected deities are difficult to rank based on sheer might and influence, but many of the ancient sources claim that, if the question is who is the eldest among them, one of the fourteen can be easily singled out for being the first to be brought into creation. Curiously, the eldest among the fourteen is not necessarily the strongest, nor the tallest, or even the most magically destructive. The eldest of the fourteen mentioned above, according to many sources, is not even a male deity.

As the original Olympians had children, several of the Twelve can easily be crossed out. Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes and Dionysus were the offspring of the original Titan-born Olympians. The second generation came from the original six Olympians, listed in order of birth—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus, all of which were born to the Titan couple, Kronos and Rhea. Before settling down to father this first generation of Olympian gods, the Titan Kronos had been involved in a gruesome crime which led to the birth of the eldest deity among the Twelve.

For the birth of the eldest, we have to go back all the way to the reign of the primordial deities, Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Heaven). They were the parents of the Titans, as well as the Cyclopes and the monstrous-looking Hecatoncheires. Ouranos feared his children, especially the latter two groups, and began imprisoning his offspring in the earth without Gaia’s consent or approval. Gaia, suffering abuse and witnessing the mistreatment of her children, plotted with the Titan Kronos to punish Ouranos. She gave Kronos a specially-made weapon that could harm the primordial god of the heavens. With this blade in hand, Kronos waited in ambush for an intimate time when the god of the heavens would soon press down on the primordial earth goddess.

Ouranos, unfortunately, soon felt the temptation and went to Gaia. Yet, instead of love or release, the god would only find Kronos with a sickle. Pulling Ouranos’ delicate bits with one hand, and swinging the blade with the other, Kronos castrated his father and tossed what he had severed into the sea. At the spot where the mutilated member hit the water, foam bubbled up to cover the waves, and out of that froth came the eldest of the Twelve Olympian deities—Aphrodite.

Of course, Aphrodite’s origin was disputed even in ancient times, and even though the tale of her emerging from the gruesomely-produced seafoam was the most commonly told explanation of her birth, the poet Homer instead proposed a less-popular theory that she was a daughter of Zeus and Dione. Even if this were the case, a goddess would curiously still be the eldest among the Twelve, for, with Aphrodite out of the way, the goddess Hestia would be the next eldest.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Social media crop Venus painted by William Blake Richmond (1842–1921), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1999, 2008.
• https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html 
• http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekTexts&query=Hom.%20Il.%205.370&getid=1

According To Hesiod, The Love-God Eros Was One Of The Oldest Divine Beings

In his epic poem, Theogony, the 8th-century BCE Greek poet, Hesiod, strove not only to tell myths about the gods, but to also trace the lineages and genealogy of the divine beings.  In the beginning, claimed Hesiod, there existed a great Chasm from which sprang the primordial deities. The first personified entity that emerged from the Chasm was Gaia (Earth). Similarly, Nyx (Night) and the less-personified Erebos (a realm of darkness) also appeared out of the Chasm. This small cast of Chasm-spawned deities might have been the only gods that the ancient Greek world would have known had not one more being flown out of the Chasm to prod the shy primordial deities into the act of procreation. To fulfill this purpose, the mysterious Chasm created Eros, who brought feelings of attraction and love to the divine world—emotions that would forever change the Greek gods and humanity.

Upon the arrival of this erotic deity and his powerful aphrodisiac side effects, the primordial gods inevitably began to feel quite interested in each other.  There was no fighting his influence as, according to Hesiod, Eros was “the dissolver of flesh, who overcomes the reason and purpose in the breasts of all gods and all men” (Theogony, line 120). After falling prey to Eros’ machinations, the gods Nyx and Erebos hooked up to have children. Gaia, too, felt the mood enough to create her own lover, Ouranos (Heaven). Gaia and Ouranos would in turn bring about the Titans, among which the couple of Kronos and Rhea would become the parents to most of the Olympian gods. In turn, the Olympian pantheon, led by ever-lusty Zeus, who would go on to create more gods, demigods and mythical creatures—so on and so forth, all thanks to the power of primordial Eros.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (4th century BCE image of Eros on pottery exhibited in the Blanton Museum of Art - Austin, Texas, USA, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1999, 2008.
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D104 
• https://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Eros.html 
• https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Eros.html

Zeus Gained His Power Over Lightning From Thankful Cyclopes

New generations overthrowing the old was a repeated theme in ancient Greek mythology. The first ruling couple of ancient Greek myth was Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Heaven). To this pair was born the Titans, the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handed Ones). The last two of these groups were so powerful that Ouranos had them imprisoned in the earth out of fear, doing so without Gaia’s permission or consent. As payback for the imprisonment of her sons and other abuses, Gaia plotted with the Titans and helped them successfully removed Ouranos from power by giving the arch-Titan, Kronos, a sickle that he used to emasculate his father. Once in power, however, Kronos did not release the Cyclopes or the Hecatoncheires. Also—like father like son—when Kronos began having children with his fellow Titan, Rhea, he feared his offspring’s power so much that he, too, wanted them imprisoned. Instead of locking them inside the earth, Kronos swallowed the newborn godlings, who happened to be many of the main members of the future Olympian pantheon.

Rhea, like Gaia before her, did not appreciate what was happening to her children, and it was when she was about to give birth to baby Zeus that she finally had enough. She swaddled a rock in baby clothing and handed the stone over to Kronos, who promptly ate it without any investigation. Meanwhile, Rhea slipped off to sympathetic Gaia, and they arranged for little Zeus to be raised secretly in Crete. Once Zeus came of age, he began building a coalition to take down his father. At this point, however, Zeus was apparently only godly in terms of strength, with little-to-no divine smiting ability, so the fledgling god’s first steps were taken in the form of espionage and sabotage. He successfully arranged for a substance to be fed to Kronos which resulted in the Titan regurgitating all of the children of Rhea that he had eaten. For his next step, Zeus tracked down his long-imprisoned uncles, the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. These beings Zeus freed from their prisons in exchange for promises of help in the upcoming confrontation between the Olympian gods and the Titans.

The hundred-handed Hecatoncheires may have been unsurpassed warriors, but it was the Cyclopes that gave Zeus his particularly iconic advantage. According to the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, the thankful Cyclopes were the ones who “gave Zeus his thunder and forged his thunderbolt” (Theogony, lines 139-145). With his Olympian siblings freed, the recruitment of the monstrous Hecatoncheires, and the acquisition of his famous Cyclopes-forged lightning weaponry, Zeus was able to topple Kronos and supplant the Titans in a ten-year mythological conflict known as the Titanomachy.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Athena/Minerva, Zeus/Jupiter and other gods, painted by René-Antoine Houasse (1645–1710), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1999, 2008.
• https://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Ouranos.html 
• https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Hekatonkheires.html 
• https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Titanes.html#Titanomakhia 
• https://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanisRhea.html  
• https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Zeus.html  

Hesiod’s Poetic Encounter With The Muses On Mount Helicon

Hesiod, an 8th-century BCE Greek contemporary of Homer, left for posterity several tidbits of personal information about his own life, which he wove into his timeless poetic works. Therefore, we know that Hesiod’s father originally came from the Aeolian city of Cyme, but that he sailed across the Aegean to settle in the town of Ascra, just to the east of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, Greece. Ascra was likely where Hesiod was born, and he grew up on a farm that his father built there. Hesiod spent much of his early life tending to his family’s farm, which was seemingly devoted to raising sheep on the mountainside. Therefore, Hesiod spent his youthful years shepherding his father’s livestock. The future poet had a brother named Perses, who ideally could have shared the duties of the day, but Hesiod described this sibling as a foolish and troublesome individual with a poor work ethic. All in all, life in Ascra was apparently a bittersweet experience for Hesiod. On a positive note, he found ample beauty and inspiration on the slopes of Mount Helicon. Yet, in his poem, Works and Days, he vented about his “miserable village, Ascra,” which he unflatteringly described as “bad in weather, foul in summer, good at no time” (line 640).

Despite Hesiod’s struggle to appreciate his hometown of Ascra, he had no lack of admiration towards Mount Helicon. While spending time on the mountainside with his lambs, Hesiod could feel close to the gods, particularly to Zeus, to whom an altar was built on the mountain, and to the Muses, who apparently saw Mount Helicon as an alternative home when they needed a break from the other gods on Mount Olympus.  The Muses, claimed Hesiod, could often be found there bathing in the mountain’s streams, or singing and dancing on the slopes. With both devout Hesiod and the generous Muses sharing the same mountain space, it was inevitable that a divine encounter would occur, one that would greatly influence Greek religion and literature.

As Hesiod tells it, he was nothing but a simple shepherd, with no talent in oratory, poetry or writing until he had a fateful encounter on Mount Helicon. One day, claimed Hesiod, nine Muses named Clio, Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Urania and Calliope appeared before him and offered Hesiod the gift of poetry. On this alleged encounter, Hesiod wrote, “they breathed into me wondrous voice, so that I should celebrate things of the future and things that were aforetime. And they told me to sing of the family of blessed ones who are for ever, and first and last always to sing of themselves” (Theogony, line 31). In addition to giving the poet honeyed words, a silver tongue, and a penchant for verse, the Muses also taught Hesiod about the gods—starting, of course, with themselves—and as a graduation present for his successful crash course on everything divine, they also gave the fledgling poet a staff, which he wielded proudly.

Such was the way Hesiod claimed to have become a poet. Of course, readers interpret it in different ways. Skeptics might say he learned indirectly from the muses, studying from poets who passed through Boeotia, and then reflected on and improved upon these lyrical innovations while shepherding on the slopes of the inspiring Mount Helicon. Those who are religiously inclined, however, may infer that Hesiod truly had some sort of spiritual epiphany while he was out in the wilderness and that it inspired his poetry. Whatever the case, it makes a good and entertaining story, which, in the end, was one of Hesiod’s goals.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Hesiod and the Muse painted by Gustave Moreau  (1826–1898), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1999, 2008.
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+30&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130 
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+WD+632&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0132 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hesiod