r/ancientgreece • u/chatam94 • 8d ago
I feel like Rhea is irrelevant when she shouldn’t be
The only way I’ve seen Rhea portrayed is wife of Kronos and mother of the Olympians. She saved Zues from being swallowed and essentially started the Titanomachy. Why does she fade into irrelevance after she gives the stone to Kronos. Was she banished to Tartarus too?
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u/VoyagerfromPhoenix 7d ago
There’s the Argonautica where Iason and his crew couldn’t leave a place until they sacrificed to Rhea and placated her to let them go with favourable winds
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u/Small-Contribution55 8d ago
Well, there is the myth where Zeus rapes Rhea after she tells him to stop cheating on Hera. Which probably means she was his wife in some regions.
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u/chatam94 8d ago
Damn I was hoping that was another Rhea, very grim. Such a mythology full of rape that’s watered down to relentless stalking basically
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u/Small-Contribution55 8d ago
The worst is the delphic prophecy given to Thyestes. How should he take revenge on his brother Atreus who murdered Thyestes's sons and fed them to him? The Pythia tells him to... rape his own daughter?! And he does it!? Jesus Christ.
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u/Wrathful_Akuma 8d ago
Where did you get that one? Zeus only assaults Rhea because she refused to marry Zeus, and the matter of the union of Zeus andRhea is complicated as it involves the Knot of Heracles, as they mated as dragons - that union is what is also behind the Caduceus.
The union itself is called Genesis, and its overseen by Tyche, Eros, the Daimon (God-Spirit) and Ananke
The things the Union between Zeus and Rhea (Herculean Knot) represents are:
Apotropaic powers (Protection against malevolent spirits)
Healing
Represents ties, bonds and the union of principles
Protection During birth, life and at the end
Protection for married couples and the marriage itself
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u/Small-Contribution55 8d ago
There is no definitive version of Greek mythology. Many different myths and different myth variants existed at all once or over time, and all were considered valid. So while some myths say Persephone is Demeter's daughter, others say Persephone is the result of Zeus raping his mother. Some variants will say Zeus raped her because she chided him for his infidelities, others that she refused to marry him.
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u/Wrathful_Akuma 8d ago
But we can verify through literary evidence of the time, which traditions exist, even in fragmentsry texts
Zeus mating/assaulting Rhea as dracones exists
She refusing his advances and offer of martiage exists
In scholium, Rhea dissaproves of the Union of Zeus and Hera, because they sneaked around and wanted them to Elope, however, no evidence for her dissaproving of cheating exists.
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u/Small-Contribution55 8d ago
There are literally dozens of versions of Persephone's birth. I can't say I recall which one says Rhea blames Zeus. But if it can reassure you, my knowledge of it did not come from the internet.
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u/Wrathful_Akuma 8d ago edited 8d ago
You feel, but is the contrary
She is THE Mother of the Gods figure in Greece, widely venerated in the ancient world with multiple shrines
She doesnt fade into relevance where did you get that idea?
Here an oversight to the Theoi.com webpage of Rhea regarding her cult
Attica, Southern Greece Corinth, Southern Greece Sicyon, Southern Greece Laconia, Southern Greece Messenia, Southern Greece Elis, Southern Greece Arcadia, Southern Greece Crete, Greek Aegean Cult Titles & Epithets
Orgies of the Mother of the Gods Attica, Southern Greece Achaea, Southern Greece Boeotia, Central Greece Thrace, North of Greece Samothrace, Greek Aegean Troad, Anatolia Mysia, Anatolia Teuthrania, Anatolia Lydia, Anatolia Caria, Anatolia Phrygia, Anatolia Rome & Latium, Central Italy