The Titans

ouranide: "children of Ouranos" & Gaia

The Ouranides, literally "children of Ouranos", were the many Titan children descended from Ouranos and Gaia. The myth goes that Gaia bore six monstrous children. First were the Kyclopes, three immortal giants that were like gods in every way except for their single massive eye, masters of thunder and lightning. But second came The Hundred-Handers, the dreaded Hekatonkheires, three terrible giants of storm and disaster. With their hundred hands they whipped up the clouds and at the shake of their fifty massive heads sent storm winds swirling. Fearing the terrifying power of his six giant sons, Ouranos shoved them back down into Gaia's womb hoping naively that their monstrous children wouldn't be birthed a second time.

But Gaia bore more children, twelve smaller and younger Titans that were not so terrible as their older brothers. In pain, unable to birth her children and burdened by the weight of her giant children, she pleaded to her youngest, Kronos, to defeat his father so her children could be freed. Kronos agreed and Gaia produced from the depths of the earth a sickle made from her sacred ores.

When Ouranos came to lay with Gaia once more, Sky stretching over Earth, Kronos' brothers were lying in wait at the four corners of the world to snatch the Sky and hold him fast: Koios in the North, Krios in the South, Iapetos in the West, and Hyperion in the East, and Kronos wielding his sickle in the center. With a swift swipe he castrated his father, spattering blood on Gaia and sent the testes flying into the ocean, and thus ending Ouranos' rule and freeing the Kyclopes and Hekatonkheires. Where the blood hit the Earth grew a race of giants, while golden Aphrodite arose fully-formed from the seafoam in the ocean, the last of the Sky's children.

Kronos became the next King of the Gods wielding that powerful sickle gifted to him by the Earth herself, and took the goddess Rhea for his wife. He and his twelve Titan siblings ruled the Golden Age of Men, an age of unparalleled bounty and prosperity in which men died as if falling asleep. But Ouranos, howling in pain and bitterness issued a prophecy to his usurping son that he too one day would be overthrown by his children, and Kronos, in fear of his father's fated words, succumbed to the same tyranny and devoured his children.

Kronos | Κρονος

After overthrowing Ouranos, Kronos coupled with his sister-counterpart, Rhea, one of the Mother-of-All goddesses and a goddess of fertility and generation. Together they bore the six elder Olympians: Hestia, Hera, Demeter, Haides, Poseidon, and Zeus. 

But remembering Ouranos' prophecy, Kronos refused to have any heirs and each time Rhea bore him a child and presented it in fresh swaddling cloths he quickly swallowed them whole. Finally, Rhea gave birth to Zeus, and disguised a stone in the baby's swaddling cloth, hoping to deceive Kronos. Kronos swallowed the stone without a thought and ruled peacefully with the knowledge that he had no heirs to ever overthrow him. Meanwhile, the baby Zeus grew into a full-fledged god tucked safely and peacefully away on the island of Crete. Zeus would go on to challenge his father and free his siblings, each emerging from Kronos' belly fully grown and unharmed. First of which was the great stone Rhea had fooled Kronos with, said to be the stone Omphalos at the temple in Delphi.

In worship, Kronos was honored on the Kronia, an annual festival said to honor The Golden Age when Kronos was in power and every man was considered equal. The enslaved people of Ancient Greece were given a large feast with the rest of the household (enslaved and enslavers alike) and wild and unparalleled freedom for the night. Kronos also holds some old agricultural associations, some of which are honored with the feasting on the Kronia, but by later times Demeter's cultus had absorbed most agricultural functions.

Rhea | Ρεια

Throughout ancient history Rhea was known as a great Mother goddess, Mother-to-All: and was called upon during childbirth through her connection with the waters of life (milk, the womb, and blood). Tradition also identifies her with Kybele, The Mountain Mother, often depicted alongside lions, and whose cult practices still echo in modern dance traditions across the Mediterranean. Her quintessential myth is of the birth of her six children who were devoured by Kronos, and her assistance to help Zeus overthrow him and usher in the new age of gods. She appears occasionally in other myths to do with childbirth, such as the birth of Apollon. Her only surviving festival, the Galaxia, an agricultural festival, emphasizes this motherly connection. 

The Four Pillars

Kronos' four brothers who helped him defeat his father and release the Kyclopes and Hekatonkheires. They waited for Ouranos at the four corners of the world and held the Sky fast. Since the earth was thought to be flat the gods became the Four Pillars holding up the Sky/Heaven from crashing down to Earth, a job later famously passed down to Atlas who bore all four pillars and the weight of the Sky.

• Koios | Κοιος - Pole of Heaven | Northern Pillar
  Married his sister-counterpart Phoibe | Φοιβη, the goddess of shining intellect who also held prophetic powers (as did many of her sisters). She bore Leto, mother to the divine Olympian twins Artemis and Apollon (the latter sharing in both her prophetic powers and her name as an epithet), and Asteria, mother to the great Titan goddess Hekate.

• Krios | Κρειος - Southern Pillar

• Iapetos | Ιαπετος - Western Pillar
  Father of Atlas who later took on the weight of all four pillars; and Prometheus, god of insight who stole the flame from Olympus.

• Hyperion | Ὑπεριων - God of (Heavenly) Light | Eastern Pillar
  Married his sister-counterpart Theia | Θεια, a goddess of sight/prophecy and the aither of the blue skies. Together they had three shining children: Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon), and Eos (the Dawn).

Okeanos | Ωκεανος and Tethys | Τηθυς

Okeanos was the god of the freshwater river that was said to encircle the earth and from which is the source of all clouds, rivers, and streams. In Homer's cosmology he and his wife Tethys, a goddess of nursing since she provides the life-giving waters, were said to be the first gods from whom all others descended. However, Hesiod lists the two as children of Ouranos and Gaia. From the pair came the thousands of fish, sea creatures, and Oceanids (water-nymphs) who reside in the River Okeanos, which is technically every fresh-water river and stream you could come across.

Themis | Θεμις

Themis is the goddess of divine law and order, and through her coupling with Zeus as his second wife she birthed children that maintain that order: the Horai (Seasons), Moirai (Fates), Dike (Justice), and Eirene (Peace). Keeping this in mind it makes sense that she inherited the oracular seat in Delphi from her mother Gaia, the seat Apollo maintained after her forevermore.  

Mnemosyne | Μνημοσυνη 

Mnemosyne is the goddess of Memory, which in Ancient Greek thought was tied with language, history, and the oral tradition. By Zeus she gave birth to the Mousai (Muses), goddesses of the many arts, history, and astronomy. Poets traditionally would begin their songs with praise to the Muses, asking for their blessings of inspiration, and of course, that their song be remembered. Ancient Greece preserved their cultural memory through oral-storytelling, and indeed it is vastly their art that has survived today, staying a place for the Gods in our memory.