The gate of the year

Relief from the West side of the Artemis Temple at Corfu, dating to about 590 B.C., now in the Archaeological Museum of Corfu, Kerkyra, Greece. The scene represents Zeus’s fight, with a lightning in his hand, against his father Cronus. The latter, together with the other children of Uranus and Gaia (the Sky and the Earth), belonged to the generation of the Titans, the wild and primordial divinities, personifying the disorder that preceded the establishment of Zeus’s lordship. Cronus devoured his own offspring, because he had knew, from a prophecy, that one of his sons should have been stronger than himself and should overthrow his dominion. However, Cronus’s wife, Rhea, concealed the last born, Zeus, in a cave on the island of Crete and deceived her husband making him swallow a stone instead of the baby. Zeus, when he was grown up, defeated his father and compelled him to vomit all the children he had devoured, who became the generation of the Olympian gods. Subsequently, Zeus, with the help of his brothers and sisters, fought against the Titans, Cronus’s brothers, “terrible and mighty, with defiant strength” (Hesiod, Theogony, 670). He overthrew his enemies and confined them in the Tartarus, the deep abyss under the earth.

[Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




Wild Men

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Relief from the West side of the Artemis Temple at Corfu, dating to about 590 B.C., now in the Archaeological Museum of Corfu, Kerkyra, Greece. The scene represents Zeus’s fight, with a lightning in his hand, against his father Cronus. The latter, together with the other children of Uranus and Gaia (the Sky and the Earth), belonged to the generation of the Titans, the wild and primordial divinities, personifying the disorder that preceded the establishment of Zeus’s lordship. Cronus devoured his own offspring, because he had knew, from a prophecy, that one of his sons should have been stronger than himself and should overthrow his dominion. However, Cronus’s wife, Rhea, concealed the last born, Zeus, in a cave on the island of Crete and deceived her husband making him swallow a stone instead of the baby. Zeus, when he was grown up, defeated his father and compelled him to vomit all the children he had devoured, who became the generation of the Olympian gods. Subsequently, Zeus, with the help of his brothers and sisters, fought against the Titans, Cronus’s brothers, “terrible and mighty, with defiant strength” (Hesiod, Theogony, 670). He overthrew his enemies and confined them in the Tartarus, the deep abyss under the earth. [Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/]