Читать книгу The Mythology of Greece and Rome, With Special Reference to Its Use in Art онлайн

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After his victory over the Titans, Zeus shared the empire of the world with his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades. The former he made ruler of the ocean and waters; the latter he set over the infernal regions; everything else he retained for himself. This new order of things, however, was by no means securely established. The resentment of Gæa led her to produce with Tartarus, her youngest and most powerful son, the giant Typhoeus, a monster with a hundred fire-breathing dragons’ heads, whom she sent to overthrow the dominion of Zeus. A great battle took place, which shook heaven and earth. Zeus, by means of his never-ceasing thunderbolts, at length overcame Typhoeus, and cast him into Tartarus, or, according to later writers (Pindar and Virgil), buried him beneath Mount Ætna in Sicily, whence at times he still breathes out fire and flames toward heaven.

Some poets tell of another rebellion, that of the Giants, against the dominion of Zeus. These are said to have sprung from the drops of blood which fell on the earth from the mutilated body of Uranus. From the plains of Phlegra, in Thessaly, they sought to storm Olympus by piling Pelion on Ossa. But after a bloody battle, in which all the gods took part, the two were conquered, and sent to share the fate of the vanquished Titans. The dominion of Zeus was now securely established, and no hostile attack ever after disturbed the peaceful ease of the inhabitants of Olympus.