Zeus, the early years?
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Zeus, the early years?
Can any one tell me if any of the Ancient writers wrote of a time between Zeus as a wailing Godling and when he freed his siblings and together they confronted their father Kronos and the other Titans? There is a phrase something like; 'and when he had gained his manhood he went to confront his father' or words to that effect.
What was Zeus doing during that span of time and were there any tales of what Zeus did while he was preparing to face his father and free his siblings?
What was Zeus doing during that span of time and were there any tales of what Zeus did while he was preparing to face his father and free his siblings?
Herakles- Newbie
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Join date : 2013-03-21
Age : 75
Location : Glendale, Arizona USA
Re: Zeus, the early years?
Orphics say that Rhea entrusted Zeus to the Cave of Night, the greatest goddess of the universe, from whom Zeus acquired the logos for reordering the world, until the dictate of Fate/Necessity brought about the rightful time for Zeus to take back the throne of the cosmos. This is a divine mysterion, and Zeus is God, not mortal or bound by mortal time, nor subject to 'aging', so the 'aging' of the God is metaphorical. By mortal timing, perhaps Zeus dwelt with Night for aeons upon aeons, or perhaps less than the blink of an eye.
Nobody does cosmogony quite like the Orphics — it's the foundation of our religion, after all.
Nobody does cosmogony quite like the Orphics — it's the foundation of our religion, after all.
Re: Zeus, the early years?
There are after all those cute stories about Zeus getting milk from the goat Amalthea to drink when his mother Rhea could not be around to breastfead him anymore and of the Kaberois making noise to hinder Cronos to hear the wailing of Zeus and there are the stories of his loves of Metis and later Leto before he got together with Hera - who he was said to be honey-mooning with for 300 years as well. Then again most of these stories are more or less 'myths' or little hymns to the great god. The way humans have always been making up stories about the prominent ones. (Other religions carry those as well, there are a whole bunch 'non-biblical' stories about Jesus as a kid, painting clay dowes with water reflecting the sunset and saving a playmate from a lion in a very Herakles-like way.) However I can imagine Zeus just waited until he had the perfect plan and the timing was right for his 'D-day'.
Linda- Full Member
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Join date : 2013-04-17
Location : Stockholm, Sweden
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