Chereads / The Origin of the Greek World / Chapter 4 - The gods Against Zeus, The Olympian Rebellion & The Wrath of Zeus

Chapter 4 - The gods Against Zeus, The Olympian Rebellion & The Wrath of Zeus

ZEUS, the supreme lord of Greek mythology had already faced several challenges during his reign as master of the universe. He fought Giants, Titans and the mighty Typhon-a monstrous serpentine giant-the son of Gaia and Tartarus. Zeus would have never expected a rebellion to rise at the heart of Olympus.

In the early times, Zeus led the victory of the Olympian gods against the mighty Titans during the titanomachy in order to gain control of the universe and Zeus became the supreme god, reigning over the world from his throne in Mount Olympus. whenever he raised his arm and exposed his powerful lightning bolts, the other gods bowed as a sign of respect, no god had as much authority as Zeus, only the goddess Hera who was Zeus's wife, was as respected as her husband, but not even Hera herself could go against the supreme god when he wanted to be stubborn.

ZEUS, although he loved his wife was not faithful to her and he had many extra-marital relationships and for this reason, Hera and Zeus fought constantly due the Zeus's infidelity (the state of being unfaithful to a spouse). Hera, tired of being humiliated by her husband, the goddess started plotting against the lord of Olympus and the other Olympian gods were also sick and tired of Zeus's arrogance and egotism. Zeus ordered and ruled the world according to his will. And so, Under Hera's leadership they decided to come up with a coup (a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power from a government) against their sovereign.

They entered the room were Zeus slept and it was a glorious crib, the Poseidon and Apollo grabbed the gods' arms and chained him to his bed with the use of powerful gold chains made by Hephaestus-the god of fire and of craftsmen. By the time Zeus noticed what was happening, he was already immobilized. Zeus, consumed by anger, he uttered the most terrible threats, but the other gods paid no mind to him, they were more interested in figuring out who would occupy the supreme throne.

The goddess Hera, queen of Olympus and leader of the Uprising considered herself to be the obvious choice to occupy her husband's throne, but the throne had other suitors. Athena-the goddess of wisdom and warfare thought herself the most knowledgeable and dignified. Meanwhile Apollo believed that of course it was he, the Sun god who alone could bring light to this new cycle, while Poseidon claimed to be the most powerful. Hestia-the eldest and the gentlest of gods was the only one who did not run for the position. Thetis-a minor sea goddess-daughter of Nereus-god of the Aegean Sea, predicted that a civil war was about to take place at Olympus. The fight of siblings against siblings could throw the world into chaos and only the steady hand of Zeus could avoid such conflict and so Thetis and Briareus-the greatest of the Hecatoncheires- a massive creature with One Hundred (100) arms and Fifty (50) heads.

Briareus's loyalty to Zeus was unbreakable, so he went to Olympus. The gods were paralyzed in front of such a mighty and terrible creature, and so the Hecatoncheires-Briareus broke the chain that imprisoned Zeus and the supreme god unleashed a mighty thunderous sound which trembled the whole universe. The gods who participated in the coup laid down their weapons as a sign of submission which tackled part of the god's fury. Hera on the other hand was punished for leading the rebellion against Zeus, she was chained and hung in the sky and she remained in that position until she took a solemn oath promising that she would never rebel against her husband again.

As for Poseidon and Apollo, Zeus had a special punishment, the gods had to serve the trojan king Laomedon and help in the construction of the impenetrable trojan walls...