Prologue: Rhea’s Secret

“The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn’t one.”

-- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (2000). Copyright © Margaret Atwood. Published by Nan A. Talese (an imprint of Doubleday).

On the planet Earth, there were many nations, but none were so famed as the land of ancient Greece. Within the confines of its borders were majestic beings and an extraordinary mountain known as Mount Olympus. On this mountain was the home of the Titans, and within the majestic halls of Olympus, Cronos, the ruling Olympian King, and Rhea, his queen, lived as husband and wife.

Despite the actions of Ouranos, which led to what some called the Curse of Ouranos, weighing on the throne, Cronos saw no imminent threat to his rule.

His Titan brethren continued to kneel before him, showering him with honor as their leader. After all, he was the very son who had deposed their despotically oppressive father.

When it came to the public nature of the Titan King and Queen, Rhea and Cronos shared moments of passion, their bond seemingly unbreakable. There were many nights of passionate lovemaking. Cronos always gave his wife his most loving efforts.

Rhea, however, longed for the day she could be rid of her husband. She knew Olympus deserved a far more worthy king than the Titan who sat upon its throne. To those ends, Rhea had given her youngest son to the care of Gaia.

While Cronos remained blind to the potential danger, since he was obsessed with keeping his throne, Rhea kept her gaze firmly set on the doom of the Titan King. The deepest recesses of her heart were where she held her most sacred truths, and it was within that consecrated portion of her sul, she knew that the Curse of Ouranos would not go unanswered.

Cronos would be deposed by his most worthy son, whether he acknowledged that verity or not. For that alone, Rhea understood in the marrow of her bones that this offspring would be her most cherished child, Zeus.

Cronos existed in his larger form, and because of this enlarged stature, he stood in a blistering tremendousness. While some might not consider him the most conventionally attractive being as he had a bald head, hard eyes, stubble on his chin, and hairy chest, he was one of the mightiest Titans to ever be born.

His power had grown so immense that he was lost in his exaltation of it. Because of his wayward focus, the Titan King was blissfully unaware of Rhea’s machinations.

He ruled over the heavens with that very might. His Titan brethren, ever unquestioning his authority, bowed before him and ignored his actions. Only Cronos’ daughters, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera were free from kneeling before their father as well as witnessing any atrocities he committed. While he held no romantic love for them as some divine fathers had for their daughters, Cronos adored his little girls.

He raised them to be faithful and loyal to him. This admiration might have been born from the knowledge that Cronos had been told long ago that only a son could overthrow him. Since Hestia, Demeter, and Hera were girls, they were no threat to him.

For their good behavior, he knew that a reward would be in order. Perhaps, one day, he might even allow them to marry an uncle or even a cousin of their choosing, so that they might go off and find a fulfilling happiness that had always eluded the youngest son of Ouranos and Gaia.

For all of these factors and more, many considered Cronos’ rule to be a golden age.

Change bred change, but under Cronos’ reign, it was harmonious. Soon, humans would be born. The titan sons of Iapetus were creators like Chaos in that they helped expand the Realm of Greece. They made animals for the land, sky, and sea.

These sons, called Prometheus and Epimetheus, had been hard at work on these lesser beings of mortals, who would exist to worship the Titans.

Almost all believed that Cronos’ reign would be unending, but the Curse of Ouranos would come to call.