When studying Greek mythology, it can be challenging to know how all the stories recorded in distinct myths preserved in disparate sources go together. This timeline for Greek mythology is meant to help put each individual myth into the bigger picture. So, below is a very brief summary of the chronology of the main events in Greek mythology from the birth of Gaia to the start of the Trojan War.
The surviving myths are not always consistent about who did what and when, and here we have gone for a clear chronology over debating individual legends. These kinds of details will be covered in individual articles dedicated to specific gods, Titans, and monsters.
Creation Myths
As in many creation myths, in the beginning, there was nothing, though the Greeks characterized this void as “Chaos”. The first thing to emerge from Chaos was Gaia, the personification of the earth and the mother of all things. She was followed by Tartarus, a dark and fearsome place that is more-or-less the antithesis of Earth.
As the great mother, Gaia is able to reproduce and she gives birth to Uranus, the sky. He then fertilizes his mother, in an act that is sometimes described as rape, and she gives birth to the twelve Titans, six males and six females: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Oceanus, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys.
Cronus was the last born, and after that, Uranus decided that there should be no more Titans. Nevertheless, they continued to reproduce, having the one-eyed Cyclopses – Brontes, Steropes, and Arges – and the Hecatoncheires, “the hundred-handed ones” – Cottus, Briaroes, and Gyges. Uranus also seems to have considered them abominations, and he threw them into Tartarus.
Upset by the treatment of her children, Gaia convinced Cronus to castrate his father and take his place as leader of the Titans, which he did with his sister-wife Rhea. Cronus castrated his father with a sickle made by his mother, and from the blood that poured out of Uranus, Gaia made the Eumenides, chthonic goddesses of vengeance, the giants, a race of great strength, and the Meliae, ash tree nymphs. The sea gushed forth from the testicles of Uranus, and also gave birth to Aphrodite.
Gods vs Titans
With his sister-wife Rhea, Cronus had several children including Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. However, due to a prophecy that he would be overthrown by his own children, just like his father, Cronus swallowed them. Rhea was able to save Zeus from this fate by wrapping a stone in his baby blanket so that Cronus ate the stone instead.
When Zeus was grown, he gave his father a poison drink that caused him to vomit up all his siblings. Zeus then challenged Cronus to war for the kingship of the gods. Zeus was victorious with the help of the Cyclopes, which he released from Tartarus. Most of the Titans were cast into Tartarus in their place. One exception is Atlas, the second in command of Cronus, who was given the special punishment of holding up the sky
Rulership of the world was divided between the gods, with Zeus taking the heavens, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld.
Zeus then went about having his own children. With his sister-wife Hera he had Hephaestus, Ares, Aris, and Hebe. By different mothers, he has Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Athena. He would go on to have many other children over the course of time as he was a prolific lover.
Interestingly, Zeus was also afraid of being overthrown by his own children. When Metis was pregnant with Athena, he swallowed her to prevent a child greater than himself from being born. But Athena would later bust out of his head as a fully grown warrior.
Enter Mankind
Prometheus was the son of the Titan Iapetus and one of the Oceanids, one of the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Prometheus reportedly chose not to fight with the Titans, and so was spared imprisonment. He was given the task of creating mankind, which did out of mud. Athena then breathed life into them. Prometheus also chose to make man stand upright like the gods and stole the secret of fire to share with them.
This betrayal angered Zeus, who then created Pandora, the first woman. She was stunningly beautiful but had a deceptive heart and a lying tongue. He also gave her a box and told her never to open it. Of course, curiosity got the best of her and she did, and when she did, she released evil into the world include plagues, sorrows, and misfortune, but also hope. Prometheus was also punished for his acts and was chained to a rock and an eagle was set to eat his liver every day. Every night it would grow back to be eaten again.
According to the Greek author Hesiod, men lived through five distinct ages.
The Golden Age began with the creation of mankind following the fall of Cronus. These humans were sad to live among the gods and that they did not need to work to feed themselves because they were fed by the ever-abundant world. They were long-lived but eventually died naturally. When they died, their spirits lived on as guardians, known as daemons among the Greeks.
During the Silver Age, men lived for one hundred years as children under the dominion of their mothers. When they became adults, they were constantly in strife with one another and refused to worship the gods, so Zeus killed them. They became spirits of the underworld.
The Bronze Age saw hardened and tough men who reveled in war. But they were undone by their own violent ways. They left no named spirits but dwell in the dark corners of Hades. They were destroyed by the gods by a great flood.
This was followed by the Heroic Age, which saw the likes of Hercules and Achilles. When this race of humans died, they went to Elysium.
The Iron Age was the current age of the ancient Greeks, during which they lived an existence of toil and misery.
Age of Gods and Heroes
The next group of myths about the gods seems to start with the birth of Dionysus. He was reportedly the son of Zeus with the princess Semele of Thebes. When Hera learns that Zeus has been cheating on her with Semele, she tricks the princess into making Zeus show her his true form, which he is forced to do, and the sight causes her to catch on fire. Zeus recovered the unborn child from her body and sewed it into his arm to carry to term. Hera still tries to kill Dionysus several, but he survives and moves through the mortal world interacting with many different people.
Shortly after this, Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, is kidnapped and taken to the underworld by Hades, as he wants her as his bride. This caused crop failures in Greece as she was no longer present gifting fertility to the land, so Zeus sent Hermes to ask Hades to release her. Before releasing her, Haes had her eat seeds from a pomegranate. Because she ate the fruit of the underworld, she is now tied to the underworld. Therefore, a compromise is struck, and Persephone spends nine months of the year with her mother Demeter, and four months of the year with Hades as his queen.
Next, the King of Argos has one daughter, Danae, but has received on oracle that he will be killed by his grandson. To keep his daughter childless, he imprisoned her in a bronze tower. But Zeus came to her and fathered a child on her, Perseus. The king then casts the mother and son into the sea in a wooden chest, but they survive. Perseus then goes on to kill Medusa, and her two children with Poseidon, the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor are born. He then marries the princess Andromeda.
Asclepius was the con of Apollo with the princess Koronis. Apollo raised the boy for a while and taught him about medicine, which he also studied under the centaur Chiron. In return for some kindness, a snake also licked Asclepius’ ears clear and taught him secret knowledge, which is part of the reason the snake is associated with healing. He eventually got so good at healing that he was able to bring people back to life. This led to Hades accusing him of stealing his subjects and demanding that Zeus do something about it. Therefore, Zeus killed Asclepius, and at Apollo’s request immortalized him as a star.
It was also at this time that the hero Theseus was born, who slayed the minotaur, Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, and Jason and the Argonauts when on their adventure. But the most important hero born and to walk the earth at this time was Herakles.
Herakles was another son of Zeus, with Alcmene. Born with superhuman strength, he did many great feats including wrestling death and traveling to the underworld twice. Hera hated Herakles and tricked him into killing his wife and children, leading him to take on his famous 12 labors. When the Titans broke out of Tartarus and attacked the gods, they needed Herakles to save them as according to prophecy, they would need the help of a mortal hero. He was offered immortality for his work, but he chose mortality, but his divine part still ascended to heaven and became a god.
It was not long after the age of Hercules that Paris fell in love with the Aegean princess Helen, took her off to Troy, kicking off the legendary Trojan War.
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