The Siblings of Zeus

Youngest or eldest? The birth order problem

Hesiod lists the children of Cronus and Rhea in order: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and finally Zeus. Because Cronus swallowed each child as it was born and later vomited them up in reverse order, a neat paradox followed. Hestia, the first to be swallowed, was the last to come out, and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite calls her both the eldest and the youngest daughter of Cronus. The swallowed stone, which Rhea had wrapped in swaddling clothes to stand in for Zeus, came up first. Hesiod says Zeus set it up at Delphi as a marvel, and Pausanias, many centuries later, saw a small stone there that was anointed with oil every day and wrapped in unspun wool at festivals.

Homer, however, makes Zeus the elder brother. In Iliad 13 the poet says Zeus and Poseidon had one father and one birth, but Zeus was older and knew more, and in Book 15 Iris reminds Poseidon that the Furies always side with the elder. Two different ways of explaining Zeus's authority are at work: in Hesiod he earns kingship by rescuing his siblings and defeating the Titans, while in Homer he holds it partly by seniority.

Accounts of how the siblings got out differ too. Hesiod says Cronus was tricked by Gaia's advice. Apollodorus says Metis gave Cronus a drug that made him disgorge first the stone and then the children, who then joined Zeus in the ten-year war against the Titans described under the Titanomachy. The Cyclopes gave the brothers their signature weapons: the thunderbolt for Zeus, the trident for Poseidon and a helmet of invisibility for Hades.

Dividing the world

The lot-drawing is told in the Iliad by an angry Poseidon, who objects to Zeus giving him orders. He says the three brothers shook lots in a helmet: Zeus won the wide sky, Poseidon the grey sea and Hades the misty darkness, while the earth and Olympus remained common to all three. Poseidon's point is that he is Zeus's equal by birth and by share. The sisters were not included in the division, and their spheres were settled in other ways.

Other siblings, other childhoods

Local traditions gave some of the siblings their own escape stories. In Arcadia, Pausanias heard that Rhea saved Poseidon as well, hiding him among a flock of lambs at a spring called Arne and handing Cronus a foal to swallow in his place. Hera, in the Iliad, says Rhea entrusted her to Oceanus and Tethys at the time Zeus was thrusting Cronus beneath the earth, a detail that sits awkwardly with Hesiod's story of all the children being swallowed.

Cronus also had another son. With the Oceanid Philyra he fathered the centaur Chiron, who took his half-horse shape because Cronus mated with Philyra in the form of a stallion to escape Rhea's notice. Chiron is therefore technically a half-brother of Zeus, which helps explain his immortality and his unusual wisdom among centaurs.

Marriages inside the family, and a modern myth about Hestia

The siblings intermarried in a way that makes the family tree hard to draw. Zeus married Hera and had Ares, Hebe and Eileithyia by her (Hephaestus is Hera's alone in Hesiod). By Demeter he fathered Persephone, whom Hades, her uncle, later carried off. In Arcadian myth Poseidon pursued Demeter while she searched for her daughter; she turned into a mare to escape and he followed as a stallion, and she bore the horse Arion and a daughter whose name was kept secret from the uninitiated. Pausanias records her worship there as Demeter Erinys, the angry one.

Hestia refused marriage. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite says Poseidon and Apollo both courted her, but she swore by Zeus's head to remain a virgin, and Zeus gave her a place at the centre of every house and a share of every sacrifice. She received the first and last offerings at feasts, and every Greek city kept her flame burning in its prytaneion. The popular claim that she gave up her Olympian throne to make room for Dionysus has no ancient source. It became widespread through Robert Graves's The Greek Myths (1955). Ancient lists of the twelve gods vary, and Hestia appears in some (including the Parthenon frieze, as most scholars read it) while Dionysus appears in others.

Ancient sources

• Hesiod, Theogony 453–506 — the birth order of Cronus's children, the swallowing, the stone given in Zeus's place, its release and its placing at Delphi.
• Homer, Iliad 15.185–199 and 13.354–355 — Poseidon's account of the three brothers drawing lots, and the statement that Zeus was the elder.
• Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 21–32 — Hestia as eldest and youngest child of Cronus, her vow of virginity and her honours at every hearth.
• Apollodorus, Library 1.1.5–1.2.1 — Rhea's deception, Metis's emetic drug, the war with the Titans and the gifts of the Cyclopes.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.8.2, 8.25.4–7 and 10.24.6 — Poseidon hidden among lambs at Arne, Demeter Erinys and the horse Arion, and the stone of Cronus at Delphi.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the oldest sibling of Zeus?

Hestia was the first-born child of Cronus and Rhea. Because she was the first swallowed and the last disgorged, she was also called the youngest.

Was Zeus the oldest or youngest brother?

In Hesiod he is the youngest child; in Homer he is the eldest. Both poets agree that he became king, but they explain his right to rule differently.

Did Hestia give her throne to Dionysus?

Not in any ancient text. The idea comes from Robert Graves in the twentieth century, though it is now often repeated as if it were classical myth.

Is Chiron a sibling of Zeus?

Yes, a half-brother. Apollodorus and other sources make him the son of Cronus by the Oceanid Philyra, not of Rhea.