Rhea | Greek Titan

Reia (Greek: Ῥέα, transl.: Rhéa), in Greek mythology, was a titanid, daughter of Uranus and Gaia. In Roman mythology she is identified as Cybele, the Magna Mater.

The twelve titans, children of Uranus and Gaia, were Oceanus, Ceos, Creus, Hyperion, Jepetus, Theia, Reia, Themis, Mnemosyne, the crowned golden Phoebe and the beloved Thetis, and Kronos.

Sister and wife of Cronos, she begot in this order, according to Pseudo-Apolodorus, Hera (the eldest), followed by Demeter and Hestia, followed by Hades and Posidon; the next to be born, Zeus, was hidden by Reia in Crete, who gave a stone for Cronos to eat.

Hyginus lists Saturn and Ops' children as Vesta, Ceres, Juno, Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune,he also reports an alternate version of the legend, in which Saturn imprisons Orcus in Tartarus and Neptune under the sea instead of eating them.

Because she is the mother of five of the thirteen gods of Olympus, she is known as the Mother of the Gods.

She is a goddess related to fertility; this entails an erroneous relationship to the goddess Cybele; who is the original Earth Mother from Asia Minor, and belatedly adapted to Roman mythology.

Due to an oracle from Uranus, who had prophesied that Kronos would be dethroned by one of his sons, he proceeded to swallow all his children as soon as they were born. Reia decided that this would not occur with the sixth son.

So when Zeus was born, Reia hid him in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete in the care of the assistant healers later priests and, in place of her son, gave Kronos a stone wrapped in cloths. Kronos swallowed it, thinking it was his son. There are several versions about who raised Zeus.

Some report that he was raised by Gaia; others, by a nymph (Adamanteia or Cinosura); according to another version, he was nurtured by a goat (Amalthea); there is another version, that Amalthea is a nymph and owned the goat Aix who gave milk to newborn Zeus. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus dethroned his father, forced him to throw up his brothers, and took over Olympus.

Following her son Zeus' ascension to the status of king of the gods, she contested a part of the world and eventually took refuge in the mountains, where she surrounded herself with wild creatures. She is usually associated with lions or a chariot pulled by lions.

In Asia Minor, she was known as an earth goddess, and was worshipped with orgiastic rites. The name means "flow," apparently in reference to female menstruation, and "comfort," perhaps in reference to easy deliveries.