Extinguishing
Competitive Divine Lineages
“None
of Charlemagne’s daughters ever married. His biographer, Einhard, claimed
that he loved his daughters so much he could not bear to part with them.
However, it is quite likely he knew that the marriage of his daughters could
possibly weaken his imperial claims.” Sarah Jane Bodell[i]
Initially the greatest threat to Zeus reign was competing divine lineages. I suggest that Zeus’ choice of brides
represents an effort to extinguish such.
During the Titanomachy as before Oceanus and his children
remained neutral in the wars of succession.
After the Titanomachy the bulk of the first and second generation male
Titans were tossed into Tartarus. The children of the Titan Hyperion were
struck with a passion for mortals.[ii] The lineage of the Titaness
Phoebe and Titan Coeus dwindles down with their granddaughters Hecate and
Artemis chosing eternal virginity and only Zeus’ and Leto’s son Apollo continuing the lineage
In order to consolidate power he weds the Titanesses Themis
and Mnemosyne the solitary
representatives of their lineages and Eurynome
the Orphic creatrix. (Thetis, is the Spartan
creatrix.)
The Hellenistic Queen
Arsinoe was wife and also sister of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, “and such unions were a strategy for consolidating power with in one family following the Egyptian model.”[iii]
Rhea, mother to "wise Zeus, father of gods and men", “was
subject in love to Cronus and bare splendid children.” The first was Hestia who chose eternal
virginity, “Demeter and
gold-shod Hera” whom he wed “and
strong Hades, pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth,” where apparently
the beds of the gods prove fruitless because Hades and his bride (Zeus’ daughter,
Persephone) never have any universally recognized children. And finally “and
the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker” (Theogony XXX) That is to say the final divine bloodline on
this list; Poseidon's. In order to
consolidate power in his own watery realm, Poseidon must conquer a list of
water-goddesses, the Nereids. No other god has ever bed a Nereid because they are
Pontides (descendants of ancient Pontus) and just as likely to produce monsters
and godlings. Hence Poseidon’s heir is
Triton, half god and half fish.
So, Zeus is able to consolidate power by; extinguishing the Ancient Titan lineages with
the tossing of the males into Tartarus, wedding into the surviving lineages wedding
his Hyperionides cousins off to mortals, convincing female members of his
household to remain virgins, marrying his sisters and tossing his brothers into
realms where either reproduction is impossible or it produces only monsters.
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