Rhea, in Greek religion, ancient goddess, probably pre-Hellenic in origin, who was worshipped sporadically throughout the Greek world. She was associated with fruitfulness and had affinities with Gaea (Earth) and the Great Mother of the Gods (also called Cybele). A daughter of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea, she married her brother Cronus, who, warned that one of his children would be fated to overthrow him, swallowed his children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon soon after they were born. 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.
Rhea
Greek goddess
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ZeusBut 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. There he was nursed by the nymph (or female goat) Amalthaea and guarded by the Curetes (young warriors),… -
Cronus…for his consort his sister Rhea; she bore by him Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, all of whom he swallowed because his own parents had warned that he would be overthrown by his own child. When Zeus was born, however, Rhea hid him in Crete and tricked Cronus into… -
Great Mother of the Gods
Great Mother of the Gods , ancient Oriental and Greco-Roman deity, known by a variety of local names; the name Cybele or Cybebe predominates in Greek and Roman literature from about the 5th centurybc onward. Her full official Roman name was Mater Deum Magna… -
MythMyth, a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief. It is distinguished from symbolic behaviour (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (temples, icons). Myths are… -
DemeterDemeter, in Greek religion, daughter of the deities Cronus and Rhea, sister and consort of Zeus (the king of the gods), and goddess of agriculture. Her name indicates that she is a mother. Demeter is rarely mentioned by Homer, nor is she included among the Olympian gods, but the roots of her legend…
