First Titanomachy

The Titanomachy, also known as the First Titan War, was the ten year conflict fought between the Titans, fighting from Mount Othrys, and the younger gods, fighting from their future home of Mount Olympus. The war was said to have been fought on the plains of Thessaly in Greece.
== Beginnings ==
The roots of the First Titanomachy began when Ouranos imprisoned his children, the Elder Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires, in Tartarus. Furious with her husband's treatment of their children, Gaia asked her remaining children, the Titans, to take revenge for her. Kronos, the youngest Titan, accepted. Attacking his father with a scythe, Kronos cut Ouranos into pieces and cast them into the sea, eventually forming Aphrodite. While Kronos attacked Ouranos he uttered out that Kronos’ children would one day overthrow him just like he did to him. Kronos, hoping his father's words were a lie, then established himself and his siblings as masters of the universe, and took his sister, Rhea, as his queen. Kronos' rule would come to be called the "Golden Age" because it was a time of peace and prosperity.
Over time, however, Kronos grew more cold and sadistic, and came to love his power even more than his own family. When his first child was born, he feared that it would eventually try to supplant him, like his father had mentioned to him, and thus swallowed each of his children as soon as they were born. Horrified by the fate of her children and their father's savagery, Rhea hid her youngest child, Zeus, after his birth and raised him in secret from his father.
Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus was told the truth about his parentage and became determined to depose his father. With the aid of his cousin, Metis, Zeus sneaked into Kronos' palace on Mount Othrys and slipped an emetic into his drink, which caused him to become very ill and regurgitate his five elder children, who (because they were immortal) had grown up inside Kronos. Zeus' freed siblings readily agreed to join their brother in his war against their father and the other Titans.
== The War ==
Shortly after their return from Tartarus, in which they freed their uncles, the Hekatonkhieres and the Elder Cyclopes, Zeus and his siblings officially declared war on Kronos and the other Titans, which resulted in the terrifying 11-year-long conflict now known as the Titanomachy. The Titans initially had the upper hand, since they were well-armed and much more experienced warriors. However, as the years passed, the gods quickly became skilled warriors as well, and with the help of their new extremely powerful weapons (Zeus' Master Bolt, Poseidon's Trident, and Hades' Helm of Darkness), as well as the aid of the Elder Cyclopes and Hekatonkheires, the gods finally prevailed.
While preparing for the final battle of the war, Zeus and his siblings ascended to Mount Olympus (the tallest mountain in Greece after Mount Orthys). During the final battle, Zeus used his Master Bolt to shear off the top of Mount Othrys and hurl Kronos from his black throne, defeating the evil Titan King. Shortly thereafter, the gods invaded the ruins of Mount Orthys, and finally overwhelmed the remaining Titans.
== Aftermath ==
After the last battle, the Elder Cyclopes chained up all of the defeated Titans, while the Hekatonkheires forced them to kneel before Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Zeus then took his father's scythe, and sliced Kronos into a thousand pieces, before casting him into Tartarus, along with Hyperion, Iapetus, Krios, and Koios. The Titans would be imprisoned in the maximum-security zone of Tartarus, surrounded by huge bronze walls, and a lava moat, guarded by their Hundred-Handed brothers.
However, General Atlas, Kronos' second-in-command, had a special punishment in store for him: to hold up the sky on his own for all of eternity. Hence, the Elder Cyclopes, Arges, Brontes, and Steropes, constructed a new central supporting column for the sky on the ruins of Mount Orthys, chained Atlas to it, and forced the weight of the sky onto his shoulders.
Kronos' mighty sons then divided his former domain between themselves. Although it was Hades' birthright, as Kronos' firstborn son, to be named his father's successor, he agreed to divide the Titan King's former domain with his brothers. Hades received the Underworld, Poseidon drew the seas, and Zeus claimed the heavens as his domain. After this division, the three sons of Kronos came to be known as "The Big Three." However, Zeus' authority was recognized as superior to that of his brothers, and he became the king of the gods.
With the fall of the Titans, the Olympians came to replace them entirely, and mankind developed under them to create western civilization.
Category:Wars