The first part of the book talks about Greek Mythology. According to Greek mythology the gods created the earth and the gods that we know of (ex. Zeus) is actually the third generation of gods! The first generation just comes from no where...kind of like the Christan God. Among the first gods was Mother Earth, Gaia. She had a son who was the god of the sky named, Uranus. She then mated with her son (ew!) and had a few children who Uranus didn't want so he shoved them back into Gaia (rude much?) And actually, they had already had a few children but they were monsters and cyclopes. I guess Uranus didn't want anymore monsters? Well one of her sons decided to help Gaia release all the children trapped in her womb.
Out of crazy violence, the children were free because of Cronos, Gaia's smartest son. He actually chopped off some very important parts of his father's and threw it into the sea. This is where things get super crazy! The blood of Uranus mixed with the ocean and created Furies and Giants along with Aphrodite! For those who don't know, Aphrodite is the goddess of love...odd right? She was born of such a violent crime, yet she is goddess of love? What ever.Cronos mates with his sister Rhea (once again, ew).I should note that Cronos and Rhea were titans but their siblings were gods. I have found that a lot of the gods were born from incest...which I just find disturbing but if you think about it, how else were they supposed to reproduce? Now, Cronos and Rhea are second generation gods, from them come the third and the Greek gods that we all have heard of at least once in our life. But, not with out some issues. Cronos was told that one of his children would take over and become the king of gods, knocking Cronos down. Cronos was not happy about this! So when his children were born he swallowed them whole. (That had to hurt) Rhea was not happy about this so she went to her parents (Gaia and Uranus) and they helped her hide her newest child (Zeus is born!). Then when Zeus is of age he chops off his fathers (Cronos) gentiles (sweet justice for what he did to Uranus??) and freed his siblings.
Among the freed siblings where Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, and Demeter. Then of course Zeus became the king of gods and bound the Titans to the underworld (I wonder if his parents were bound as well?). Zeus married a goddess by the name of Metis. He also got a prophecy that she would birth a child that would dethrone him...but he didn't swallow all his children whole, no, Zeus does things in the extreme. He swallowed his wife. (haha!) But they had a child anyways, but it came out of Zeus's head. (Mind blown!) Since this child was not birthed by Metis herself, the child was no danger to Zeus. The child was Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
The Greek gods really didn't like their own kids did they? I read all this last night and let me tell you, my mind was blown away! It was so crazy! Now, I have known a bit about the Greek gods, not much but a little. I never had a clue that they were so messed up!
I decided that while I am reading this book I want to inform all my readers of the awesomeness too! I will say, while doing a little research online about the Greek gods, I did find that some stories are different. And because it is MYTHOLOGY I am sure there are many versions of the stories.
Tomorrow I will tell you about Pandora and the great flood. Yeah, Greek Mythology had one too.
