Rhea married her younger brother Cronus, and together they had six children: Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus. Rhea’s other siblings included the Cyclopes (Brontes, Arges, and Steropes) and the Hecatoncheires (Kottos, Briareos and Gyges). Their union brought forth not only Rhea, but the other Titans as well: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Thea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronus. Rhea was the daughter of Gaia, the primordial goddess of the Earth, and Uranus, the primordial god of the skies. As Cybele, Rhea was also associated with Attis, an ill-fated youth sometimes represented as her consort, and the hermaphroditic Agdistis. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Public DomainĪt the heart of Rhea’s (or Cybele’s) retinue were the Curetes of Corybantes, ecstatic priests who worshipped her with tambourines, cymbals, and drums. Depicted as Cybele, Rhea is shown in a cart pulled by a pair of lions. The Triumph of Cybele by Pinturicchio (ca. In Greece, the oak tree was also sacred to Rhea. She was often shown with lions sitting beside her throne or even riding a chariot pulled by lions. Also like Cybele, Rhea held lions as sacred. Like Cybele, Rhea was generally represented as wearing a tall crown or veil and seated on a throne. From relatively early on, she was closely identified with the Phrygian mother goddess Cybele as a result, the attributes of the two goddesses became largely indistinguishable (indeed, for most of Greek and Roman history, Rhea and Cybele were regarded as one and the same). Rhea was a mother goddess, beloved for her nurturing compassion. She was also frequently identified with the goddesses Cybele (or Cybebe), Agdistis, and Meter Theon (“Mother of the Gods”). There were several alternate forms of Rhea’s name in the ancient world, including Rheia, Rheē, and Rheiē. Other epithets, such as Dindymēnē, Sipylēnē, and Idaia, linked Rhea to sites that were sacred to her. Many of Rhea’s epithets and cult titles related to her maternal role, including mētēr (“mother”), mētēr theōn (“mother of the gods”), mētēr megalē (“great mother”), and mētēr oreiē (“mountain mother”). Alternatively, Rhea’s name may be Semitic in origin, with possible connections to the root meaning “friend” (Ugaritic rᶜ, Hebrew rᶜh) or “graze” (Akkadian reɔu(m), Hebrew rᶜh). Modern scholars have also suggested possible connections with the Greek words rheia or rhea (“easily”), era (“earth”), and oros (“mountain”). Rhea or Rheia)-and the one endorsed by Plato in Cratylus-claimed that “Rhea” was a feminine form of the ancient Greek verb rheō, meaning “flow,” “discharge,” or “stream.” In art and literature, she was often conflated with Cybele, an Anatolian mother goddess whose cult was imported to the Greek world in the fourth century BCE.Ī standard folk etymology of the name “Rhea” (Greek Ῥέα or Ῥεία, translit. Rhea was also held in high regard by the Orphics, who believed that she had conceived the goddess Persephone with her son Zeus. She was especially popular on the island of Crete, where the infant Zeus was said to have come of age. Hailed as “Mother of the Gods,” Rhea was revered across the Hellenic world. Rhea gave birth to the Olympian deities and, through her cunning, helped them overthrow Cronus and establish a new cosmic order. Along with the other Titans, Rhea was imprisoned in Tartarus by her tyrannical father she was eventually liberated by her brother Cronus, whom she married. Rhea, the daughter of Gaia and Uranus, was a Greek Titan and the mother of the Olympians.
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