EPISODE 23

WHICH SEES THE GREAT ZEUS BEING BORN

Previously: Hermes has just seen Cronus swallow each of his children whole and in one go, right after they were born.

On the night when Rhea gave birth to her sixth baby, Hermes was still hiding in her room behind the curtain. Loud cries rang out: the child had just been born, and he was possessed of quite a voice! As soon as he heard the baby’s wailings, Cronus had rushed to the room.

“Hand him over to me,” he demanded of his wife.

“I will do, right away, I am just getting him ready for you…” she replied, bustling over the baby. She had her back turned on Cronus, who waited impatiently for her to finish dressing the child.

“You don’t have to get him dressed, just give him to me as he is!” he raged.

Yet Rhea went on swaddling what Cronus took to be the baby. Hermes looked down to see the infant. And to his surprise, instead of a tiny face, he saw a lump of rock! In fact, the goddess had concealed the newborn under her skirts, and was bundling up a big stone in his place. In his impatience, Cronus did not even become aware of the treachery. As soon as she handed the stone to him, he swallowed it whole, in one go.

“By the way,” he asked Rhea before leaving the room, “what was this one called?”

“He is called Zeus,” replied Rhea. Upon hearing these words, Hermes leapt for joy: he had just witnessed the birth of his own father!

Rhea’s trick had worked. Immediately, the goddess slipped out into the night, carrying her baby concealed in the folds of her dress. She went to knock quietly on the door of Gaia, the Earth Mother. It was she who had suggested to her how to save the baby. Rhea kissed her baby tenderly and told him: “You shall have a king’s destiny, my son, farewell!” Then she entrusted him to Gaia’s care. The baby looked at his grandmother. It was as though he could already understand all that was happening to him. A tender smile sketched itself on Gaia’s lips. The child responded to her smile. “Let us not waste time,” she murmured. “I shall take you where you will be safe from your father’s appetite.” And she went away in the darkness, holding Zeus tight in her arms. Hermes barely had time to cling onto Gaia, and he left with her into the night. After they had crossed the ocean, they reached the top of a mountain which was on an island called Crete. Everything had to be done fast, rosy-fingered Aurora could already be seen far in the distance. Some very beautiful young women came out of a cave and surrounded Gaia:

“Oh, how cute he is!” said one.

“He looks so sweet!” added the other.

“We are going to love him so much!” murmured a third.

“Thank you, nymphs,” said Gaia. “Take care of him, and above all hide him well. His father must not find him either on earth or in heaven.” Then, having cast a last glance on her grandson Zeus, she vanished into the night.

Hermes, who had been hiding up a tree better to be able to observe, saw the nymphs go and fetch an extraordinary beast. It was a great goat, who had on her forehead a single horn, long and twisted. This goat was called Amalthea. They brought her close to the baby, and right away he began to suckle greedily. Hermes was quite overcome to be watching his father as a newborn. The nymphs built a golden cradle for the child. And in order to be sure that Cronus would find his son neither on earth nor in heaven they suspended the cradle from branches between the earth and the sky. That’s when Zeus began to cry. These baby cries could be heard far, very far into the distance… They risked being heard by Cronus! The nymphs summoned protecting spirits, who immediately began to clang their spears onto their heavy bronze shields, letting out wild cries at the same time, to cover up Zeus’ own cries. There was no longer any risk of Cronus finding his son again.

“And now close your eyes,” murmured Pausania in Hermes’ ear. “The goat Amalthea was an outstanding wet-nurse to your father: the more he drank of her milk, the more he grew. We are now going to join him again after a lapse of twenty years.” Hermes obeyed, and once he opened his eyes again he discovered a handsome young man, tall and strong, kissing one of the nymphs. It was Zeus, about to leave those who had raised him with such care. When he went to bid farewell to the goat Amalthea, who had fed him so well, Zeus offered her a magic horn. It was a horn which resembled the solitary one that the goat bore on her forehead. “Take this horn, Amalthea, my good nurse,” the young man said to her. “It will always be filled with delicious fruit, fragrant flowers, and all the good things that you’d like to eat. Thanks to this horn of abundance, you will never lack anything, just as I never lacked anything in your company.” Then Zeus joined the shepherds of Mount Ida. There, he became one of them and began his adult life.

Hermes was thrilled to have witnessed his father’s childhood. Yet he still could not understand what had given such fright to Hestia. What was there so terrible in that childhood? “You will understand later what your aunt Hestia did not dare to tell you,” said Pausania to him. “It is now high time you went back to Olympus. Your brother Hephaestus needs you. You will return to your father’s past another time—I will wait for you. Now go.”

 

To be continued…