Rhea (mythology) in the context of "Cronus"

Zeus (/zjuːs/, Ancient Greek: Ζεύς) is the chief deity of the Greek pantheon. He is a sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus.

Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Eileithyia, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, by whom the Iliad states that he fathered Aphrodite. According to the Theogony, Zeus's first wife was Metis, by whom he had Athena. Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many divine and heroic offspring, including Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses.

In ancient Greek religion, Hera (/ˈhɛrə, ˈhɪərə/; Ancient Greek: Ἥρα, romanized: Hḗrā; Ἥρη, Hḗrē in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Olympus, sister and wife of Zeus, and daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. One of her defining characteristics in myth is her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with any who offended her, especially Zeus's numerous adulterous lovers and illegitimate offspring.

Her iconography usually presents her as a dignified, matronly figure, upright or enthroned, crowned with a polos or diadem, sometimes veiled as a married woman. She is the patron goddess of lawful marriage. She presides over weddings, blesses and legalises marital unions, and protects women from harm during childbirth. Her sacred animals include the cow, cuckoo, and peacock. She is sometimes shown holding a pomegranate as an emblem of immortality. Her Roman counterpart is Juno.

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter (/dɪˈmiːtər/; Attic: Δημήτηρ Dēmḗtēr [dɛːmɛ́ːtɛːr]; Doric: Δαμάτηρ Dāmā́tēr) is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although Demeter is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld. She is also called Deo (Δηώ Dēṓ).

In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Like her other siblings except Zeus, she was swallowed by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus. Through Zeus, she became the mother of Persephone, a fertility goddess and resurrection deity. One of the most notable Homeric Hymns, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, tells the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades and Demeter's search for her. When Hades, the King of the Underworld, wished to make Persephone his wife, he abducted her from a field while she was picking flowers, with Zeus's leave. Demeter searched everywhere to find her missing daughter to no avail until she was informed that Hades had taken her to the Underworld. In response, Demeter neglected her duties as goddess of agriculture, plunging the earth into a deadly famine where nothing would grow, causing mortals to die. Zeus ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother to avert the disaster. However, because Persephone had eaten food from the Underworld, she could not stay with Demeter forever, but had to divide the year between her mother and her husband, explaining the seasonal cycle as Demeter does not let plants grow while Persephone is gone.

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Hestia (/ˈhɛstiə, ˈhɛstʃə/; Ancient Greek: Ἑστία, lit. 'hearth, fireplace, altar') is the virgin goddess of the hearth and the home. In myth, she is the firstborn child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and one of the Twelve Olympians.

In Greek mythology, newborn Hestia, along with four of her five siblings, was devoured by her father Cronus, who feared being overthrown by one of his offspring. Zeus, the youngest child, escaped with his mother's help, and made his father disgorge all his siblings. Cronus was supplanted by this new generation of deities; and Hestia thus became one of the Olympian gods, the new rulers of the cosmos, alongside her brothers and sisters. In spite of her status, she has little prominence in Greek mythology. Like Athena and Artemis, Hestia elected never to marry and remained an eternal virgin goddess instead, forever tending to the hearth of Olympus.

Hades (/ˈheɪdiːz/; Ancient Greek: ᾍδης, romanized: Hā́idēs, Attic Greek: [háːi̯dεːs], later [háːdeːs]), in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and riches and the King of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated, overthrew, and replaced their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed joint sovereignty over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth, which was long the domain of Gaia, available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bidentand wearing his helm with Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side.

Roman-era mythographers eventually equated the Etruscan god Aita,and the Roman gods Dis Pater and Orcus, with Hades, and merged all these figures into Pluto, a Latinisation of Plouton (Ancient Greek: Πλούτων, romanized: Ploútōn), itself a euphemistic title (meaning "the rich one") often given to Hades.

In Greek mythology, the Titans (Ancient Greek: Τιτᾶνες, Tītânes; singular: Τιτάν, Tītā́n) were the deities that preceded the Olympians. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial deities Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). The six male Titans were Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus, and the six female Titans (called the Titanesses; Ancient Greek: Τιτανίδες, Tītānídes; singular: Τιτανίς, Tītānís) were Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys.

After Cronus married his sister Rhea, she bore the first generation of Olympians: the six siblings Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades, and Hestia. Certain other children of the Titans, such as Prometheus, Atlas, Helios, and Leto, are sometimes also called Titans.

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Pluto (Ancient Greek: Πλούτων, romanized: Ploútōn, Latin: Plūto or Plūton), also known as Dis Pater or Orcus, was the god of the dead and the king of the underworld. The name was originally an epithet or theonym for Hades in ancient Greek religion and mythology, although Pluto was more associated with wealth and never used as a synonym for the underworld itself, representing a more positive concept of the god who presides over the afterlife. He was the eldest son of Saturn (Cronus) and Ops (Rhea), as well as the brother of Jupiter (Zeus) and Neptune (Poseidon). Pluto later married Proserpina (Persephone) and shared many of Hades' attributes, such as the bident, the cap of invisibility, and the three-headed guard dog Cerberus.

While Pluto is commonly considered the Roman equivalent of Hades, the name Plouton was already used by the Greeks to designate Hades and was later adopted by the Romans for their god of the underworld, Dis Pater, which often means "Rich Father" and is perhaps a direct translation of Plouton. Pluto was also identified with the obscure god Orcus, name that the Romans adopted from the Etruscans and which, like Hades, was both for the god of the underworld and for the underworld as a place. On the other hand, Ploutōn was frequently conflated with Ploûtos, the Greek god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground and because, as a chthonic god, Pluto ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds needed for a bountiful harvest.