Chapter Text
When darkness lay thick upon the waters, Gaia, Mother of All, sat upon the bosom of Hydros. Her gaze fixed on the endless void, and within it she beheld the flickering of new lights: the sun gods, blinking into life, rubbing bright hands over young eyes.
And she smiled, stirred by longing, and she thought to herself to make life of her own
From her body she brought forth her son Ouranos, the third layer of heaven, her firstborn, her joy. Then she shaped mighty Ourea, mountains and the gods that watched them. And towering trees with beautiful maids to tend to them who became the Dryads. For her sport, crafted beings of many arms and many heads. She fused together a single giant eye, the Cyclopes. Again from her flesh were born maidens of beauty: nurturing Tethys and gentle Rhea.
Yet Gaia was not sole in her creation. For before her Hydros had birthed Thalassa and Oceanus, Phorcys and Doris.
Phanes, gleaming with wisdom, begot Coeus and Themis.
Ananke, She Who Is Without Beginning, bore Iapetus and the Moirai, Adrasteia, Ida, Melissa, and Mnemosyne.
From Aether, son of Erebus, sprang bright Phoebe.
And in the deep folds of Time, Chronos, the Father of Years, brought forth Cronos, the Devourer.
In those days, the gods made creatures called Man, who would live no longer than one hundred years. And as mortal men were born small and weak, so too did the gods choose to be born anew as babes, lest they fall into the pride of their first works.
Then came the first sacred union, between Tethys, child of Gaia, and Oceanus, born of Hydros, and from their joining flowed countless rivers and nymphs.
But joy turned to sorrow, for Abzu, filled with hatred, rose against the gods. Yet he was cast down, and Cronos, with cunning, drank deep of his essence.
In her grief, mighty Tiamat rebelled, and a second war shook the heavens. She too fell, and from her sundered body was wrought the second heaven, a vast ocean above the firmament.
Then Cronos, drunk on stolen might, turned cruel. For the primordials he could not touch, but their children, born small and tender, he could devour with ease.
Hestia, firstborn of Ananke, bright as ash and soft as fire, was taken from her mother's breast and swallowed whole.
Golden Demeter, daughter of Rhea, fell.
Lovely Hera, daughter of Hymenaios, fell.
Dark Hades, son of Tartarus, fell.
Earth shaking Poseidon, son of Oceanus, fell.Crius, filled with dread, stole his son Zeus away and gave him into Rhea’s keeping. And Rhea, with the aid of the sisters Adrasteia, Ida, and Melissa, fled into the deep dark. They hid the child beneath the veil of Nyx and Erebus, where the light does not dare to go.
Cronos came, hearing the faint wail of the hidden babe. Swiftly did Rhea take a stone, wrap it in swaddling cloth, and gave it into his greedy hands. Cronos, unknowing, swallowed it down.
Under shadow and song, Zeus grew mighty. Aided by metis and Hecate, daughter of Night, he brewed a poison. Rhea administered it to Cronus with his ambrosia. With it he struck down Cronos, and out from the god’s gullet sprang the gods he had swallowed, whole and undiminished.
Thus was Cronos chained within Tartarus' black walls, and Zeus crowned as King of Heaven, to reign over gods and men alike.