Hey everyone, Welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss
five of the most powerful gods in Greek mythology,
gods so powerful that their powers often dwarfed those of the other deities in the Greek mythos.
And just a quick comment before we get started: this list isn’t ranked and is by no means
comprehensive, so let us know in the comments who else you think deserved to be included.
Certainly Hades could have been added, but we kept it to five.
Let’s get into it.
Starting off our list is Atlas.
Atlas’ case for making this list is explained through the punishment he was saddled with
when the Titans were finally defeated by the gods after 10 years of war.
Unlike the other titans that fought in the war, Atlas wasn’t banished to Tartarus,
the great, cavernous abyss that existed beneath the earth; No, he was singled out and perpetually
subjected to his own personal hell, which was to forever be the pillar that held up the heavens,
stabilizing creation itself by keeping earth and sky separate. This, of course, begs the question:
why was Atlas given special treatment? Well, the reason for this was that Atlas was an implacable
force for the Titans. His leadership and battle prowess greatly bolstered the overall strength
of his side. His presence, both as counselor and as warrior, was a core reason that the war
between the gods and the titans extended into the protracted 10 year conflict that it was. When the
gods finally won, their greatest adversary was condemned to suffer the greatest punishment.
Atlas came to be defined by his unending plight.
In this way, his constant, crushing burden associated him with endurance and resilience.
But he wasn’t all brawn. He was known as a wise man, and the art of astronomy, the tracking of
the myriad of stars embedded in the firmament he pressed upwards, was said to come from him.
At number 2 we have Cronus.
Cronus was the youngest of the 12 first generation titans. His mother, Gaia,
the personification of the earth, was kept in constant agony by having her older children,
the cyclopes and the Hecatonchires, trapped inside of her by her consort,
Uranus, the personification of the sky, who was repulsed by his earlier children, thinking
them abominations that needed to be hidden away, which he did by pressing them back inside Gaia.
This unbearable predicament was the catalyst that forced Gaia to turn to her children for help,
beseeching them to rise up against their father. Only Cronus had the potency of character,
a combination of audacity and ambition, to answer his mother’s call. He lay in wait, stone sickle
in hand, then ambushed his father, castrating him, casting the severed genitals into the sea.
And so, Cronus deposed his own father, superseding him to become the new king of the cosmos,
ushering in the era of titan rule. Later, Cronus would swallow his children,
one at a time as they were born, a preemptive effort to prevent his own usurpation
at the hands of one of his children as he himself had done. But his efforts would be to no avail,
and the drums of war would soon sound as the gods and titans laid waste to the surface
of the earth as they fought for supremacy, a conflict that would end badly for the Titans,
the belligerents of their number heaved into Tartarus, sentenced to banishment, forever.
Coming in at number 3 is Poseidon.
Poseidon, along with Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, was one of five children swallowed by
Cronus, who did this to forestall his own downfall that was to be brought about by
one of his children, an eventuality that had been carved in stone by the inexorable words
of prophecy. After Zeus rescued his siblings by making Cronus disgorge them, the gods and the
titans engaged in a 10 year war that reshaped the face of the earth. By the three cyclopes, Poseidon
was gifted a trident that bestowed him with the power to shake and sunder the earth, a power that
would help control the seas. Once the Titans were defeated, Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus drew lots to
see how creation would be divided amongst them. To Poseidon went the seas, to Hades the underworld,
and Zeus the heavens. As the lord of the seas, Poseidon controlled their waters, able to pacify
them with placidity or create tempests that could rip sails off masts and splinter ships. As such,
he was the patron god of any human pursuit that took people to his element. Navigation,
fishing, maritime warfare, any who engaged in these activities were subject to the whim of
Poseidon’s will, which could be as capricious as the winds. He was also the lord of earthquakes.
Fissures were sacred to him, monuments to his power. And anything equestrian was his province;
riding, racing, taming, training, and breeding, success in these were his to confer or withhold.
At number 4 we have Uranus
Gaia independently produced three children, three aspects of the world. They were Uranus, the sky,
Ourea, the mountains, and Pontus, the sea. Gaia took Uranus as her consort, and many children came
from their union. First there were two trios of children, the one-eyed Cyclopes and the
hundred-handed Hecatonchires. Uranus thought these first children an affront to some undisclosed,
arbitrary aesthetic standard, which must have been of superlative importance to him,
because it pushed him into a radical course of action, which was to keep his children
trapped inside of Gaia, preventing them from being born. As we know from the Cronus entry, this is
what led to his castration, a sort of gruesome and grotesque passing of the torch from father to son,
with Cronus seizing the title of most powerful male deity and ruler of the cosmos. Uranus’
severed sex fell into the sea, and the water churning about them began to foam;
and from this foam emerged the goddess Aphrodite. At the same time, droplets of blood dripped from
the disembodied genitals arcing through the air on their way towards a water-bound landing.
They fell to the ground, wetting the earth, thereby impregnating it. From this blood-soaked
union came the giants, a mortal race with god-like strength and endurance, and the Erinyes,
spirits of vengeance, also known as the Furies. Following this, Uranus was, at times,
the bearer of prophecy; one of these times was Gaia and Uranus revealing to their son Cronus that
he was destined to be supplanted by one of his children just as he had supplanted his own father.
Wrapping up this list is Zeus.
Zeus was the supreme god in Greek mythology. His was the highest seat in Olympus, the celestial
abode of the gods. Wind, rain, lightning, thunder, these phenomena were his servants.
Though the earth was too sacred for any god to claim as their own,
leaving its domain to Gaia, mountains, being the geological feature that reached
farthest up into the sky, were of special significance to Zeus.
Zeus was undeniably powerful. He led the gods to victory in their war against the titans;
he led the gods to victory against the giant uprising; and finally,
he defeated Typhon, the most powerful monster in Greek mythology.
Now, there are different lenses through which you can look at these accomplishments, and there
are different versions, too; but regardless of this ambiguity, Zeus was a paragon of power.
Cronus' attempt to swallow each of his children, imprisoning them inside himself, was thwarted
when Zeus was whisked away and raised in secret. This was made possible when Cronus unwittingly
swallowed a stone wrapped as a baby, thinking it his youngest son. Later, when the bloom of
manhood was upon Zeus, he freed his siblings, then freed the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires from the
cavernous depths of Tartarus. The Cyclopes joined the war effort by forging awesome weapons for
the gods. Zeus was gifted the lightning bolt, the most powerful weapon in Greek mythology, one that
he would use to devastating effect, smiting his enemies as if he were a thousand storm incarnate.
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