The Ancestry of Greek Gods
By herself Gaia gave birth to Uranos (the sky), "so that he might surround her and cover her completely and be a secure home for the blessed fods forever", and then to the Mountains and Pontos (the sea). She coupled with Uranos to produce the first divinities: twelve mighty Titans (six male and six female); three Cyclopes, called Brontes ("Thunder"). Steropes ("Lightening") and Arges ("Bright"); and three monsters with a hundred hands each, the Hekatonchires, called Cottus, Briareus and Gyes. Uranos was appaled by his children and locked them in his bowels of the world, but in revenge Gaia persuaded the youngest Titan, Kronos, to castrate his father and seize power. The blod from Uranos' wound spawned fgiants, nymphs and the Furies, while his severed genitals fell into the sea and turned to white foam, from which was born Aphrodite, the goddess of desire and sexuality.
The Titans populated the world with demi-gods by coupling with nymphs or each other: the offspring of Hyperion and his siter Theia, for example, where Helios (the sun), Selene (the moon) and Eos (the dawn). Another Titan, Iapetus, married the Oceanid Clymene, who produced four children of whom the most famous were Prometheus, and Atlas, who after the defeat of the Titans, was condemned by Zeus to hold up the heavens at the western extremity of the world: the Atlantic is named after him. Their brothers were Menoetius and Epimetheus ("Afterthought"), husband of Pandora. Naïve and rash, Epimetheus was the antithesis of Prometheus. Kronos had several children by Rhea, but he was afraid of being overthrown by them, and swallowed each baby as it was born. However, when Rhea gave birth to Zeus, she deceived her husband by clothing and stone like a baby, which he swalloed instead of the real child. Hidden from his father, Zeus grew up and planned his revenge. He was victorious in great battle against the Titans, the Titanomachy, after strengthening his position by a trick. Metis, the daughter of the Titan Okeanos (Ocean), served Kronos a drink which made him regurgitate Zeus's brothers and sisters (Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter and Hestia), who joined forces with Zeus. He was supported by the Cyclopes and the Hekatonchires, whom Kronos had kept imprisoned, but Zeus had freed.
After the fall of the Titans, Zeus was challenged by monstrous giants who had sprung from the blood of Uranos. In the ensuing Battle of the Giants, the Gigantomachy, Zeus lef the gods to victory and was extablished as supreme controller of the heavens and earth. He declared that Olympus, the highest mountain in the world, would be a home for the victorious gods and goddesses.
creation 
the hero
goddesses
gods
tricksters
afterlife