Rhea (mythology)

• 1. Titanic Origins And Lineage

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  The earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus gave birth to Rhea as one of their twelve or thirteen Titan children. She grew up alongside her siblings, including Oceanus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Coeus, Themis, Theia, Phoebe, Tethys, Mnemosyne, and Cronus. In some versions, she was also a half-sister to Aphrodite, Typhon, Python, Pontus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto. When Cronus overthrew his father Uranus with help from Gaia, he freed his imprisoned siblings and took Rhea as his wife. Together they became rulers after defeating Ophion and Eurynome, who had previously ruled snowy Mount Olympus. Rhea was skilled in wrestling and battled Eurynome specifically during this struggle.

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• 2. The Great Deception Of Crete

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  Rhea hid her youngest son Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida on the island of Crete to save him from being swallowed by Cronus. Cronus had been swallowing all his children as soon as they were born because Gaia and Uranus told him that one of his own would overthrow him. To trick her husband, Rhea gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he promptly swallowed. Her attendants, the warrior-like Kouretes and Dactyls, acted as bodyguards for the infant Zeus, helping to conceal his whereabouts from his father. In some accounts, a golden dog guarded a goat which offered its udder and gave nourishment to the infant Zeus. Later on, Zeus changed the goat into an immortal among the stars while the golden dog that guarded the sacred spot in Crete was stolen by Pandareus. An obscure version attested only on the east frieze of a temple at Lagina shows the goddess of crossroads Hecate assisting Rhea in saving Zeus from his father.

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• 3. Motherhood In The Olympian Era

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  Following Zeus's ascension, Rhea withdrew from spotlight as she was no longer queen of gods but remained an ally of her children and their families. She attended the birth of her grandson Apollo along with many other goddesses, though Hera and Eileithyia were notably absent. Rhea was said to be a goddess who eased childbirth for women. After Demeter reunited with her daughter Persephone, Zeus sent Rhea to persuade Demeter to return to Olympus and rejoin the gods. Rhea raised another one of her grandsons, Dionysus, after the fiery death of his mother, the mortal princess Semele. Later on she went on to heal Dionysus's raging madness which had been inflicted on him by the jealous Hera, causing him to wander around aimlessly for some time. Rhea gave Dionysus the amethyst which was thought to prevent drunkenness. Sometimes she joined Dionysus and his Maenads in their frenzy dances. According to Bacchylides, it was Rhea herself who restored Pelops to life after his father Tantalus cut him down.

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• 4. Etymological Roots And Meaning

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  Some ancient etymologists derived the name Rhea from words meaning ground or earth through metathesis. Other roots have been suggested by modern scholarship but Hjalmar Frisk considers a convincing etymology to be lacking. A different tradition embodied in Plato's Cratylus and in Chrysippus connected the word with flow or discharge. Alternatively, the name Rhea may be connected with words for the pomegranate. The name Rhea may ultimately derive from a Pre-Greek or Minoan source. An alternative etymological hypothesis suggests that re as cloud or sky could be a foundational element in the ancient Illyric or pre-Albanian vocabulary. Given that Uranus is the sky god in Greek mythology and Rhea is his daughter, it's plausible to hypothesize that her name might have roots linked to cloud or sky in the ancient Balkanic language. Therefore Rhea as a daughter of Uranus could be etymologically connected to this root implying daughter of the sky or cloud-born fitting her mythological role as a primordial sky goddess or divine mother associated with celestial elements.

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• 5. Cult Practices On Mount Ida

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  Rhea had no strong local cult or identifiable activity under her control originally but was worshiped on the island of Crete identified in mythology as the site of Zeus's infancy and upbringing. Her cults employed rhythmic raucous chants and dances accompanied by the tympanon a wide handheld drum to provoke religious ecstasy. Her priests impersonated her mythical attendants the Curetes and Dactyls with a clashing of bronze shields and cymbals. The center of the worship of Rhea was however on Crete where Mount Ida was said to be the birthplace of Zeus. Reportedly there was a House of Rhea in Knossos at the place where even to this day men point out foundations of a house of Rhea and a cypress grove which has been consecrated to her from ancient times. Upon Mount Ida there was a cave sacred to Rhea full of bees. In it as storytellers say Rhea gave birth to Zeus; it is a sacred place and no one is to go near it whether god or mortal. At the appointed time each year a great blaze is seen to come out of the cave. Their story goes on to say that this happens whenever the blood from the birth of Zeus begins to boil up. The sacred bees that were the nurses of Zeus occupy this cave.

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• 6. Syncretism With Cybele And Ops

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  Rhea only appears in Greek art from the fourth century BC when her iconography draws on that of Cybele so the two are often indistinguishable. Both can be shown wearing a crown either a Mural crown or a Polos seated on a throne flanked by lions riding a lion and on a chariot drawn by two lions. In Roman religion her counterpart Cybele was Magna Mater deorum Idaea who was brought to Rome and was identified as an ancestral Trojan deity. On a functional level Rhea was thought equivalent to Roman Ops or Opis. Some Greeks regarded Cybele as their own Rhea who had deserted her original home on Mount Ida in Crete and fled to the wilds of Phrygia to escape Cronus. The tympanon's use in Rhea's rites may have been the source for its use in Cybele's. Upon the Mother depend the winds the ocean the whole earth beneath the snowy seat of Olympus; whenever she leaves the mountains and climbs to the great vault of heaven Zeus himself the son of Cronus makes way and all the other immortal gods likewise make way for the dread goddess according to the seer Mopsus telling Jason in Argonautica.

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• 7. Artistic Depictions And Iconography

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  Statues of Rhea were standing in sanctuaries of other gods and in other places such as a statue of Parian marble by Damophon in Messene. Her temple in Akriai Lakedaimon was said to be her oldest sanctuary in the Peloponnese. Well worth seeing here at Akriai Lakedaimon are a temple and marble image of the Meter Theon Mother of the Gods. The people of Akriai say that this is the oldest sanctuary of this goddess in the Peloponnesus. A temple of no great size at Olympia in the Doric style they have called down to the present day Metroion Temple of the Mother keeping its ancient name. No image lies in it of the Meter Theon Mother of the Gods but there stand in it statues of Roman emperors. In Sparta there was furthermore a sanctuary to Meter Megale Great Mother. Pausanias mentioned temples dedicated to Rhea under the name Meter Theon in Anagyros in Attika, Megalopolis in Arkadia, on the Acropolis of Ancient Corinth, and in the district of Keramaikos in Athens where the statue was made by Pheidias.

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