All language subtitles for Great.Greek.Myths.S01E01.Zeus.and.the.Conquest.of.Power.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-TEPES

(dramatic music)

(tranquil music)

- [Narrator] This is the father
of the gods and of humanity,

a figure to whom everyone,

whether mortal or divine, owes obedience.

He is the lord of the elements.

He controls all of the
atmospheric phenomena,

the violent winds,

as well as those that
bring live-giving rain.

(thunder cracking)

He upholds the social order,

and the royal power of
the rulers, but above all,

(thunder cracking)

he wields the one and only

weapon of mass destruction
of his time, lightning,

which he uses against anyone
who dares to challenge him.

(thunder cracking)

(ominous music)

Among the gods it is his
name that stands out,

the one with which we
are most familiar, Zeus.

Take a good look at him,
observe how majestic he is,

with his long hair, and
his magnificent beard.

In one hand he holds a
scepter made if cypress wood,

the symbol of his royalty,
in the other, the Aegis,

which he uses to create thunderstorms.

A supreme ruler must have a supreme abode.

Zeus dwells in the love,
peaceful upper regions,

that lie above the Earth's atmosphere.

The mountains are his thrones,

but his most famous residence
is on Mount Olympus.

That is where he has his palace,

which was built by his son, Hephaestus,

the god of fire and blacksmiths.

(dramatic music)

Yet, Zeus was not always
this almighty god.

In fact, his birth destined him

for an entirely different fate.

It all began at the very beginning,

before the dawn of time.

And in the beginning was darkness,

and out of this darkness came Chaos,

the void filled with infinite obscurity.

Then Gaia was born, the Earth,

the primordial goddess,
the mother goddess.

(rocks clattering)

And out of her womb came the mountains,

the snow-capped peaks, and the caves,

the forests, the oceans and their foam,

the plains, and the rivers.

(water gurgling)

Later on, as the world
took on form and shape,

Eros appeared,

the invisible force that breathes

an irresistible desire into creatures

to come together and mate.

Gaia, Mother Earth, was all alone.

No one loved her, and she loved no one.

Who was there for her
to love, except herself?

There was nothing around
her, except for Chaos,

so in her loneliness,

Gaia decided to bring
forth Uranus, the sky,

her exact opposite,

the sky, which was filled
with a host of constellations.

Then the sky came and lay upon Gaia.

It embraced her.

There they were, practically a couple,

the sky and the earth,

the two planes of the universe,
one on top of the other.

And then what?

Well, wouldn't it be good if this embrace

could lead to the
creation of living beings?

That is where Eros came in.

Surreptitiously he breathed
that mysterious urge into Uranus

that is called desire,
and Uranus gave in to it.

He came together with
Gaia, and they made love,

not just oncw, but 100 times.

not just for a day, but for 1,000 days,

and soon a swarm of children were born.

The first 12 would be called the Titans,

six male Titans and six female Titanides.

They were followed by the Cyclops,

who got their name from the single eye

they had in the middle of their forehead.

After that came the Hekatonkheires,

whose name mean the Hundred-Handed Ones.

And as if 100 hands weren't enough,

each of them also had
50 fire-spitting heads.

Finally, Gaia gave birth to the Giants,

a fearsome race of colossal,
monstrous-looking beings.

(giant roaring)

(rocks clattering)

There was only one problem,

all of these children were unable to move.

They were forced to remain
inside their mother,

imprisoned in the very place
in which they were conceived.

The reason was that Uranus, the sky,

was literally pressed up
against the earth, Gaia.

Between them there was no space at all

for there offspring to
emerge into the light,

to have an independent
existence of their own.

(dramatic music)

As soon as they tried to get out,

their father, Uranus, would
brutally shove them back inside.

(thunder rumbling)

So, filled with rage and frustration,

the Titans took it out on their mother.

They fought, they thrashed
about inside of her,

they suffocated and tormented her.

Gaia was suffering, she was
worn-out as well as furious.

Things could not go on this way.

Enough was enough.

Gaia decided to rebel,

and she ordered her children
to turn against their father.

(rocks shattering)

No one moved.

No one except the youngest
of the Titans, Cronus.

Cronus agreed to attack his father,

with the help of his mother.

Unbeknownst to Uranus,

Gaia secretly made a sickle out of flint,

and gave it to her son.

All he had to do was wait
for the right moment.

And that moment wasn't long in coming.

The ever-ardent Uranus
came to make love to Gaia.

As soon as he penetrated her,

Cronus grabbed his father's
genitals in his left hand,

and with the sickle cut them off,

and tossed them into the sea.

Overcome with pain, Uranus
pulled back violently,

and moved away from Gaia.

It was the moment they were waiting for.

The two were separated at last.

From then on, Uranus, the sky,

remained in his place
high up above the world,

never to move again.

The Titans, the Cyclops, the Giants,

were finally free to
leave their mother's womb.

It's said that the drops of
rain that fall from heaven

are in fact the tears of Uranus,

tears of sorrow, tears of
remorse, tears of nostalgia.

With Uranus vanquished,
Cronus became the ruler.

Soon afterwards, he
married his sister, Rhea.

One might have thought
that this would lead

to a reign of peace,

but it is well known that
once they take power,

rulers are loathe to relinquish it.

Having been warned by Gaia

that one of his sons would
steal his throne one day,

Cronus devoured each
of his children alive,

as soon as Rhea gave birth to them.

(tranquil music)

In despair, the unlucky
goddess had no other choice

but to try to escape from her
husband's murderous frenzy.

When she became pregnant
again, she decided to run away.

It was a wise decision,

since the unborn child
was a special child,

who wasn't quite like the others.

It was Zeus, and she would
not have him put to death.

So, Rhea ran away.

She came to an island
by the name of Crete,

where in great secrecy she
gave birth to the child.

After she had entrusted
her baby to the Nymphs,

the deities who personify
the vital forces of nature,

Rhea went back to Cronus.

Cronus knew that his
wife had been pregnant,

and he was expecting her to
give him the newborn child.

But Rhea had planned everything out.

Instead of the newborn baby,
she have Cronus a stone,

a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.

This was apparently enough
to fool the voracious Titan,

who immediately devoured it.

How could he have known
that one of his sons

up in Mount Ida in faraway Crete

would return to avenge his
mother, to free his brothers,

to strip him of his honors,

and reign in his place over the Immortals?

(tranquil music)

Zeus grew up in the mountains of Crete,

under the watchful eye
of his grandmother, Gaia,

the Mother Earth, and the Nymphs.

He was fed on nectar and ambrosia,

which was brought to him by
the doves and the eagles.

He savored the delicate honeycombs

that the bees made for him alone.

And he suckled the milk of
the goat nymph Amalthea.

Later, after he had become
master of the universe,

Zeus would show his gratitude
to these nurses and guardians.

Amalthea would be raised
up into the heavens,

to become the constellation Capricorn.

He would take one of her horns

and give it to the nymphs
who had cared for him,

turning it into the famous
Cornucopia, the horn of plenty,

that is always filled
with what its possessor

desires to eat and drink.

Meanwhile, little Zeus was in danger.

Cronus had found out that
his wife had tricked him.

He set out to search from the son

who had got away from his
bloodthirsty clutches.

He knew that his throne was at stake.

(rock crunching)

Cronus looked everywhere.

He lifted up the mountains and
hills, he scanned the seas,

but failed to find the
child, and for good reason.

The cradle containing the infant, Zeus,

was in a cave up on Mount Ida,

and some rather curious creatures

were posted at its entrance.

Who were they?

The Curetes.

The Curetes were a group
of boisterous demons

whose orders were to perform war dances,

which consisted of striking

their spears and shields together,

in order to keep the
cries of the young god

from reaching his father's ears.

Time went by.

Zeus grew up.

He had learned about Cronus'
gruesome deeds from his mother,

and as he grew older,
he thought more and more

about taking revenge
on his unworthy father.

(tense music)

(tranquil music)

Zeus was now an adult.

He met an Oceanid named
Metis, a sea nymph,

who was the daughters of the
Titans Oceanus and Tethys.

(tranquil music)

Metis was the goddess
of wisdom and prudence,

as well as the goddess of cunning.

The young Zeus set out to seduce her,

and he succeeded without
any trouble at all.

He then told her about his birth,

his desire the avenge the
crimes committed by his father,

and his wish to free
his brothers and sisters

trapped inside Cronus' belly.

How should he go about it?

Metis came up with solution,

give Cronus an emetic potion to drink,

that will cause him to vomit.

To hide the taste, she
added, mix it with honey.

Excellent idea, but were
can I find such a potion?

Metis smiled, why don't you
asked your mother, she'll know.

Zeus took the goddess'
advice and went to see Rhea.

He told her about the plan.

Rhea approved of the scheme.

She made the potion
and gave it to her son,

after arranging for him
to enter Cronus' court

as a cup bearer,

the boy responsible for
serving drinks to the gods.

As soon as he got the chance
to approach his father,

Zeus offered him the cup.

The unsuspecting Cronus
took the cup and drank.

The potion went to work at once,

and he vomited up the stone,
the stone in swaddling clothes.

Then, one by one he regurgitated

all of the children that Rhea
had brought into the world.

Cronus was furious at having been duped,

and determined to keep his throne,

he decided to make his
son pay for this ruse.

He rallied all of his
brothers and sisters,

the Titans, around him.

(dramatic music)

In the meantime, Rhea's children

naturally sided with
Zeus up on Mount Olympus,

six Olympians against 12 Titans.

Thus began the great and terrible war.

It would be known as the Titanomachy,

and would last for hundreds of years.

At one point, when the
outcome of the struggle

seemed uncertain,

Gaia, the tenebrous yet
luminous grandmother,

who could be silent as well as loquacious,

told Zeus that in order to win,

he would have to seek
the support of allies

from the same generation
as the Titans, the Cyclops.

(tranquil music)

The Cyclops were primordial deities.

That is, they still had within
them all of the brutality,

all of the violence inherent
in the earliest beings.

In addition, Gaia explained,

the Cyclops would also give
Zeus the greatest of weapons,

the weapons of thunder and lightning.

(thunder cracking)

At the present time, however,

they were shut up in the realm
of Tartarus, the most remote,

and the most abysmal
region of the underworld.

That was where Cronus had imprisoned them.

(Cyclops groaning)

If Zeus were able to free them,

they would join forces with them.

Zeus agreed, he released them,

and with the support of
the one-eyed monsters,

he soon defeated the Titans.

Had peace finally arrived?

No, because even though she had helped

her grandson come to power,
Gaia was now angry at him

for forever banishing her
own children, the Titans.

So, against Zeus she pitted the Giants,

the enormous race of creatures

who were considered to be invincible,

and thus a new war broke out,

a new war galled this
time the Gigantomachy,

which would continue long
after the first mortals

had come into the world.

Zeus gathered his brothers, his sisters,

and his children around
him, and they fought back.

The battles were fierce.

Zeus managed to prevent the Giants

from getting their
hands on the magic herd,

a plant that was said to
protect them from death.

But even that did not stop Gaia.

She refused to give in.

Knowing that he could
not defeat the Giants

without the help of a mortal,
Zeus came up with an idea.

He found his way into the bed

of the daughter of the
king of Mycenae, Alcmene,

who gave birth to a being

of extraordinary strength, Heracles.

Every Giant that was wounded by Zeus

was then killed by an arrow by Heracles.

(flesh squelching)
(giant growling)

(tranquil music)

Once again, Zeus triumphed
over his enemies,

and as if to mark this victory
with a tangible memento,

he would have the big stone

that Cronus had swallowed in his place,

and then regurgitated, placed in Delphi.

This was the Omphalos,
the navel of the world,

the center of the universe,
and it is still there today.

One might have thought that
things would now settle down,

but this was not to be the case.

Zeus had one more obstacle to overcome,

the last but certainly not the least,

for Gaia once again
was enraged at the fate

to which Zeus had doomed
her offspring, the Titans,

so she conceived a child with
Tartarus, the most remote,

and the most abysmal
region in the underworld.

From this union would be born

the most fiendish creature
of them all, Typhon.

Typhon was half beast and half man.

The top of his head brushed the stars.

His arms, when stretched out,

extended from the east on
side to the west on the other.

Fire burned in his eyes.

Serpents were coiled
around his lower limbs.

And as if his appearance
alone was not enough

to leave his enemies petrified with fear,

Typhon also made the most
horrendous noises when he moved,

which resembled the bellowing of a bull,

combined with the roar of a lion.

(ground thudding)

When this monstrous creature
set out for Olympus,

the panic-stricken gods fled to Egypt,

where they disguised themselves

by taking on the forms of animals.

(god whooshing)
(bird screeching)

(sparks sizzling)

Apollo became a hawk,
Hermes an ibis, Ares a fish,

Dionysus a goat, Hephaestus an ox.

Only Zeus stayed behind
to fight the monster.

(tranquil music)

This flight into Egypt would
have unexpected results.

It would lead to a mingling

of the Greek and Egyptian deities.

Typhon would be identified with Seth,

the brother and enemy of Osiris.

Zeus would be equated with Horus,

Dionysus would become Osiris,

Demeter, Isis, and so forth.

It was an extraordinary
intermixing of two cultures

that were not necessarily
destined to come together.

But let us return to our hero,

and the battle he was
waging against Typhon.

It was brief, but decisive.

While Typhon was going after
Zeus across the sea in Sicily,

Zeus tore up Mount Aetna, and
threw it on top of his enemy.

With Typhon buried at last under Aetna,

Zeus could finally proclaim
himself the indisputable ruler.

He was now, without contest,
the master of the gods.

(tranquil choral music)

It was now time to divide up the cosmos.

Zeus set himself up as the supreme ruler,

and chose as his residence
the realm of the sky.

Poseidon, his older brother,

was promoted to lord of the seas.

His other brother, Hades,

was given the keys to the underworld,

with the power to reign
over the forces of darkness.

(thunder cracking)

The end result was a universe

that was now structured and stratified.

At the top was the organizing power

of the world that was born out of Chaos.

Everything that had once
been a part of the sky,

had been driven out, either
imprisoned in Tartarus,

or sent down to Earth
to be among the mortals.

An omnipotent god had been born,

but this god did not
impose any kind of creed,

had no need for any kind of clergy.

Zeus, who would henceforth rule the world,

had a difficult task ahead of him.

He would have to establish order,

without falling into despotism.

(thunder cracking)

(dramatic music)