The War in Heaven

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The War in Heaven

• adapted from Barbara Drake

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• Cronus remembered his fathers warning that he
  would be overthrown by his own children.
• So he ate his three daughters, Hestia, Demeter,
  and Hera, and his two sons, Poseidon and Hades!

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• Cronuss wife Rhea was very upset about her
• children being eaten. So when she gave birth to
• another son, named Zeus, she went to the island
  of
• Crete and hid him in a secret cave on Mount Ida.

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Rhea gave Cronus a rock wrapped in a blanket and
told him it was Zeus. He swallowed it without
even looking to make sure it was his son.
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Young Zeus grew up on the island of Crete, but he
could never go to the palace or his father might
kill him.
One day, Rhea sent a messenger to Zeus to show
him how to make a strong poison from herbs.
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Zeus went to Cronus's palace and hid there until
he could get a chance to put the poison into
Cronus's wine cup. The poison made Cronus throw
up his first five children.
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Zeus and his brothers, Poseidon and Hades,
attacked Cronus, who shouted for his brothers,
the Titans. Soon they began a battle that lasted
years.
The young Gods were led by Zeus.
The Titans were led by Atlas.
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The Titans chased the younger gods up Mount
Olympus and it looked like they would win. Then
Gaia spoke to her grandson, Zeus. She said, You
have freed your mother's firstborn children, but
until you free mine, you will not be victorious.
But Zeus did not understand what Gaia meant, so
the war continued.
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Prometheus, son of one of the Titans, wanted the
war to end, so he went to Zeus and explained
Gaias words. If you free the hundred-handed
monsters and Cyclopes that Uranus buried, they
will fight on your side.
So Zeus freed the other children of Gaia and
Uranus.
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The monsters fought the Titans and the Cyclopes
made armor and weapons for Zeus and his brothers.
They made Hades a helmet that made him
invisible, made Poseidon a trident (a
three-pointed spear), and gave Zeus the most
powerful weapon of all his thunderbolts.
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With these weapons and allies, the younger gods
quickly won the war. Some of the Titans were
thrown into the underworld, some escaped and were
never seen again, and Atlas was made to stand at
the western edge of the world, holding up the
heavens. Because of his help, Prometheus was
saved.