Editing Zeus (section)

=== Infancy ===
[[File:Idäische Grotte 01.JPG|thumb|"[[Cave of Zeus]]", [[Mount Ida (Crete)|Mount Ida, Crete]]]]
While the ''Theogony'' says nothing of Zeus's upbringing other than that he grew up swiftly,<ref>Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA68 p. 68]; Gantz, p. 41; [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:492-506 492&ndash;3]: "the strength and glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly".</ref> other sources provide more detailed accounts. According to Apollodorus, Rhea, after giving birth to Zeus in a cave in Dicte, gives him to the nymphs [[Adrasteia]] and [[Ida (nurse of Zeus)|Ida]], daughters of [[Melisseus]], to nurse.<ref>West 1983, p. 122; [[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.6 1.1.6].</ref> They feed him on the milk of the she-goat [[Amalthea (mythology)|Amalthea]],<ref>Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA612 p. 612 n. 53 to p. 75]; [[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.7 1.1.7].</ref> while the [[Kouretes]] guard the cave and beat their spears on their shields so that [[Cronus]] cannot hear the infant's crying.<ref>Hansen, [https://archive.org/details/handbookofclassi0000hans/page/216/mode/2up?view=theater p. 216]; [[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.7 1.1.7].</ref> Diodorus Siculus provides a similar account, saying that, after giving birth, Rhea travels to [[Mount Ida]] and gives the newborn Zeus to the Kouretes,<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#70.2 7.70.2]; see also [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#65.4 7.65.4].</ref> who then takes him to some nymphs (not named), who raised him on a mixture of honey and milk from the goat Amalthea.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#70.2 7.70.2&ndash;3].</ref> He also refers to the Kouretes "rais[ing] a great alarum", and in doing so deceiving Cronus,<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#65.4 7.65.4].</ref> and relates that when the Kouretes were carrying the newborn Zeus that the [[umbilical cord]] fell away at the river Triton.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#70.4 7.70.4].</ref>

Hyginus, the author of the ''[[Fabulae]]'', relates a version in which Cronus casts Poseidon into the sea and Hades to the Underworld instead of swallowing them. When Zeus is born, Hera (also not swallowed), asks Rhea to give her the young Zeus, and Rhea gives Cronus a stone to swallow.<ref>Gantz, p. 42; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#139 139].</ref> Hera gives him to Amalthea, who hangs his cradle from a tree, where he is not in heaven, on earth or in the sea, meaning that when Cronus later goes looking for Zeus, he is unable to find him.<ref>Gantz, p. 42; Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA75 p. 75]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#139 139].</ref> Hyginus also says that [[Ida (nurse of Zeus)|Ida]], Althaea, and [[Adrasteia]], usually considered the children of [[Oceanus]], are sometimes called the daughters of Melisseus and the nurses of Zeus.<ref>Smith and Trzaskoma, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vczTNMWLGdoC&pg=PA191 p. 191 on line 182]; West 1983, p. 133 n. 40; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 182 (Smith and Trzaskoma, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vczTNMWLGdoC&pg=PA158 p. 158]).</ref>

According to a fragment of Epimenides, the nymphs Helike and Kynosura are the young Zeus's nurses. Cronus travels to Crete to look for Zeus, who, to conceal his presence, transforms himself into a snake and his two nurses into bears.<ref>Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA75 p. 75&ndash;6]; Gantz, p. 42; [[Epimenides]] [https://archive.org/details/diefragmenteder02diel/page/192/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 23 Diels, p. 193] [= Scholia on [[Aratus]], 46]. Zeus later marks the event by placing the constellations of the Dragon, the Greater Bear and the Lesser Bear in the sky.</ref> According to [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]], after Zeus is born, Rhea gives him to [[Themis]]. Themis in turn gives him to Amalthea, who owns a she-goat, which nurses the young Zeus.<ref>Gantz, p. 41; Gee, [https://books.google.com/books?id=NPsh5CsJprYC&pg=PA131 p. 131&ndash;2]; Frazer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=n6uUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 p. 120]; [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]] [https://archive.org/details/diefragmenteder02diel/page/180/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 8 Diels, pp. 181&ndash;2] [= [[Eratosthenes]], ''[[Catasterismi]]'' 13 (Hard 2015, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7IMSBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 p. 44]; Olivieri, [https://archive.org/details/mythographigrae00olivgoog/page/n39/mode/2up?view=theater p. 17])]; [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]] ''apud'' [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[De astronomia]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.13.6 2.13.6]. According to Eratosthenes, Musaeus considers the she-goat to be a child of [[Helios]], and to be "so terrifying to behold" that the [[Titans]] ask for it to be hidden in one of the caves in Crete; hence Earth places it in the care of Amalthea, who nurses Zeus on its milk.</ref>

[[Antoninus Liberalis]], in his ''Metamorphoses'', says that Rhea gives birth to Zeus in a sacred cave in Crete, full of sacred bees, which become the nurses of the infant. While the cave is considered forbidden ground for both mortals and gods, a group of thieves seek to steal honey from it. Upon laying eyes on the swaddling clothes of Zeus, their bronze armour "split[s] away from their bodies", and Zeus would have killed them had it not been for the intervention of the [[Moirai]] and [[Themis]]; he instead transforms them into various species of birds.<ref>Hard 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA75 p. 75]; [[Antoninus Liberalis]], [https://topostext.org/work/216#19 19].</ref>