Unpopular but Important Greek Gods
When people are talking about the Greek gods, everyone would
immediately think about great deities Zeus and other popular Olympian
gods. However, before these well-known gods were other groups of Gods
which many people are commonly unaware of. Like any other deities in
Greek mythology, they also have the same immortal characteristics and
special capabilities. However, their participation in the Iliad and the
Odyssey were just minimal, which in effect have lesser popularity than
other heroes and deities. The world of Greek mythology is filled with
many characters ranging from Gods, Goddesses, heroes and even mythical
creatures. Although most of the attention is focused on the stories of
the deities, the credits for the good flow of the stories were to the
mythical creatures. Greek mythology contains stories of Gods, mortals
and the mythical creatures interacting with each other. The Titan gods
are among the groups that have less popularity but have interesting
stories to share.
The Titan gods and goddesses reigned over Greece during the time of
the Golden Age. According to Greek myths, twelve Titan gods primarily
ruled over Greece. The thirteenth god appeared on the literary addition
of Bibliotheke. In the ancient world of the Greek gods, the Titans are
known to be the offspring of Uranus and Gaia. Among the siblings, Cronus,
the youngest of the group overthrew his father and ruled over the land.
Other sons and daughters gave birth to other Titan gods including
Epimetheus, Atlas, Menoetius and Prometheus all of which came from the
side of Iapetus.
The Titans were defeated and was then replaced by the twelve Olympian
Gods. With Zeus as the leader of the Olympians, they defeated the Titans
on the battle known as the War of the Titans. The gods of Mount Olympus
sent the defeated Titans to Tartarus, which is considered the lowest
point of the underworld. The twelve Titans include of four pairs of god
couples and pairs such as Hyperion and Theia, Phoebe and Coeus, Cronus
and Rhea and Oceanus and Tethys. The remaining four Titan gods are
Iapetus, Crius, Mnemosyne and Themis. The thirteenth was a replicate of
Theia and was named as Dione. Among the twelve Titan gods, Chronus was
believed to be the most cunning and have enough power to overthrow
Uranus. Chronus expressed intense hatred to his father, which later
resulted to his imprisonment to the innards of the Earth. Chronus was
able to escape with the aid of the Cyclopses and other mythical
creatures he met during imprisonment. He took revenge to his father by
castrating him and then he took Rhea to be his wife. The offspring of
Chronus and Rhea are what composed of the new generation of deities
including the supreme Zeus.
Although the Titans were defeated by the gods and goddesses of Mount
Olympus, they still play the major role of giving birth to the Olympian
Gods. The Titans were not religiously honoured after the Classical Age
of Greece but they have been an important part of the development of the
Greek culture. |
