Myth "Birth of Zeus": summary, meaning

The ancient gods, to whom numerous works of antiquity and later eras are dedicated, when they speak about them, seem beautiful and stately, mature and wise experience. However, the mythology of ancient Greece describes the birth and childhood of many of them. For the people who worshiped them in the distant past, the gods did not always appear in the familiar image. Thus, the myth "The Birth of Zeus" tells of the birth of a great thunderer, who became the head of the immortal inhabitants of Mount Olympus. The image of a young lord of lightning and thunder occupies an equally significant place in the ancient heritage, as his adult hypostasis.

The Thunderer's Origin

If you look at history not as a mythological one, the ancestors of Zeus are worth searching in several cultural traditions. The origin of the name of God, according to research scientists, is Indo-European. It means "clear sky", "light", "day". Many qualities and properties of Zeus allow us to consider that its traditional image was formed under the influence of other, earlier cultures.

The most ancient of the found evidence of the worship of the Thunderer is dated to the 15th-13th centuries. BC. On clay tablets, where the life of God is described, the story of his birth and childhood is also given.

Sources

The ancient myth "The Birth of Zeus" is found in several variants and is often presented by different authors, which indicates its important role in the culture of that era. The sources of the details of the narrative for the researchers are the texts of Greek thinkers, dating back to the 8th century. BC - II century. ad. Many of the nuances of myth, originally contained in the most ancient versions of the narrative, are found in the early Christianity (II-V centuries AD) on the pages of writers' writings, trying to expose the absurdity and uselessness of pagan beliefs. After many centuries, the attempt of their careful analysis and identification of inconsistencies has led not to oblivion, but to the preservation of a large number of legends.

The myth "The Birth of Zeus" is also found on the already mentioned clay tablets. Some of the details of the cult of Zeus-child researchers discover on various monuments of the artistic culture of antiquity. These are images on ceramics, coins and so on.

The myth of the birth of Zeus: a summary

The Thunderer was the son of the titans Krohn (Kronos) and Rhea. Zeus' father feared that he was destined for the same fate as that of Uranus (Cronus oskopil his father Uranus, who returned the children to the bosom of his wife, the Earth-Gaea). Cron ordered his wife to bring him all the newborns and devoured his children. Rhea, pregnant with Zeus, decided to outwit her husband.

Uranus and Gaia advised her to hide in Crete. There, in the cave, Rhea gave birth to the future thunderer. Zeus was left in Crete. Behind him looked after the nymphs Idea and Adrastea. They watered the baby with Amalfean goat's milk and fed honey that the bees brought to them. At the cave stood the kurts, demigods and defenders of the newborn. They loudly beat their swords at the shields every time Zeus began to cry, so that no one would know about his whereabouts.

Options

The myth "The Birth of Zeus" is known in several other ways. According to one of them, Rhea produced the great god in the Lictus region and then hid it on Mount Dikte. According to another version, Zeus was born on the mountain Likeye.

In order for Kronos not to look for the youngest son, Ray brought him a stone wrapped in diapers. Titan did not expect cheating from his wife and did not understand what happened. When Zeus grew up, it was time to fulfill the prophecy.

Olympians

After a while, Zeus became a handsome and strong man. He wanted to take revenge on his father for the suffering of his mother, brothers and sisters. For ten years he fought with Crohn, but in the end he won. Zeus made him belch his brothers and sisters. Out of the womb of the titan came Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. As myths "Birth of Zeus" tell, Olympus became a favorite place of stay of young gods. Since then, in honor of the mountain, they have been called Olympic.

Kronos and other titans were overthrown and imprisoned in Tartarus. Hera became the wife of Zeus, the patroness of wives and women in childbirth. Demeter began to command fields, harvest and fertility, and Hestia - the home. Aidu took possession of the underground kingdom of the dead, and Poseidon - oceans, seas and rivers. Zeus stood at the head of the Olympian gods.

Value

Like all the stories that fill the myths of ancient Greece, the birth of Zeus is interesting to researchers not only from an artistic point of view. The narrative of the appearance of the Thunderer on the light and childhood helps to better understand the semantic load of the image of God, his role in the cult of the ancient era. The myth "The Birth of Zeus", in addition, adds a certain material necessary for understanding the origin of the Greek ritual traditions. It can be seen traces of the influence of other cultures, the effects of interaction of several different ethnic groups.

The myth of the birth of Zeus, a summary of which is given in the article, thus represents a source of knowledge about ancient culture. A careful reading of it will help to learn much about the mythological and ritual traditions of Ancient Greece, shed light on the interaction of different motives and plots of origin. In this sense, the childhood and youth of the gods becomes an integral and important part in the process of interpreting their images, understanding the essence of ritual worship and veneration.