Everyone remembers the rock in the blanket. Nobody asks about the five children before it.Rhea, mother of the Olympians, answers for the years her husband swallowed their children one by one, the plan that finally saved her youngest, and the stone she wrapped for Kronos. She claims she saved Poseidon too. Then her eldest daughter Hestia, the first child swallowed and the last one out, calls in to testify.Did Rhea save her son, or hand him the same knife her mother handed Kronos?ChaptersCold openRhea takes the chairBorn in the darkFive swallowed, and the stonePoseidon and the foalHestia calls inHer mother's patternRhea in the modern worldRapid-fireThe verdictWhat the myths actually say- "The stone was my idea." The plan came from her parents, Earth and Sky; read one way, Hesiod has Gaia hand Kronos the stone. Apollodorus gives it to Rhea (Theogony 468–491; Apollodorus 1.1.7).- "I saved Poseidon too." Hesiod and Apollodorus say Poseidon was swallowed; the foal swapped for him is a local Arcadian story (Theogony 453–458; Pausanias 8.8.2).- "I only wanted my baby safe." She also asked that retribution overtake Kronos (Theogony 468–473).- "My parents only helped me." They first warned Kronos of the prophecy (Theogony 463–465).- "I raised him." Nymphs, the goat Amalthea and the Kouretes raised Zeus on Crete (Theogony 479–484; Apollodorus 1.1.6–7).- Who is the eldest? Hesiod makes Hestia the first-born; Homer gives Hera the claim (Theogony 453–454; Iliad 4.59–61).Sources: Hesiod (Theogony), Homer (Iliad), Homeric Hymns (to Aphrodite, 24 and 29), Callimachus (Hymn to Zeus), Apollodorus (Library), Pausanias, Livy.Cast: Julian H. Cross · Rhea · Call-in: HestiaContent note: children swallowed by their father, and the mutilation of Ouranos (named once), never graphic.Olympus Unfiltered is a dramatized work of fiction based on ancient Greek myths. All voices are AI-generated. Powered by Athena's Archive.athenasarchive.com