Vinyl on board, 38cm X 60cm
After the death of Uranus , his successor Cronus lived in fear of being deposed by one of his own sons, as predicted by Uranus. To prevent this, Cronus decided to destroy all the children that Rhea gave birth to .He would snatch the newly born babies from Rhea's arms and swallow them whole. Shocked by his brutality , Rhea planned to save her sixth child. Just before giving birth, she fled to Mount Lyceum in Aracadia , central southern Greece.
It was there that Zeus was born. He was left hidden in a remote cave under the care of the nymphs Adrasteia , Io and Amaltheia. Cronus felt safe for a while until he discovered what Rhea had done. In a fit of rage he searched the universe to find his son . Fearing that he was getting closer , Rhea devised a plan to deceive him. She wrapped up a large stone in layers of padding, covered it with a blanket and presented it to Cronus who immediately swallowed it as he did with all previous children. Again Cronus felt relieved from his eventual fate .While in fact time passed and Zeus grew to manhood and learnt of what had happened to his newly born siblings and was determined to seek revenge and rescue them.
Disguised as a servant , He presented himself to Cronus one day, and with Rhea's recommendation Zeus was entrusted to serve Cronus with food and drink , a potion was prepared and as Cronus drank it he became violently sick, spewing up Poseidon, Hades, Hera ,Demeter and Hestia all unharmed , safe and healthy .Thus followed the battle between the Titans and new gods of which eventually the new gods would win. Cronus was spared further punishment and luckily for him,although he was sent to Hades, he resided in the Elysian fields.
Zeus remained victorious and reigns until this present day the everlasting Supreme god , wise ,male , white , European ,almighty ,all knowing, all seeing and merciful but ruthless and unforgiving.Compassionate, callous and also intensely jealous,uncaring and self obsessed , vain ,insecure and in need of being worshipped, with the ability to control all destiny of mere mortals but at the same time allowing them free will , a truly paradoxical , modern 21st century god..............
