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52 names indicating their attributes—by and large benevolent. Now, after the evil deed, the goddess Nyx responded to his call by bring- ing forth the deities of evil: "She bare the Destinies and the ruth- less avenging Fates: Clotho ['The Spinner'] and Lachesis ['The Dis- poser of Lots'] and Atropos ["Inevitable']. . . . She bare Doom and Black Fate and Death . . . and Blame and Painful Woe . . . Famine and Sorrows." And she also brought into the world "Deceit and Strife as also Fighting, Battles, Murders, Killings, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes, Lawlessness and Ruin." Lastly there was borne by Nyx Nemesis ("Retribution"). The call of Uranus has been answered: fighting, battles, and war came to be among the gods. It was into this dangerous world that the Titans were bringing forth the third generation of the gods. Fearful of retribution, they kept closely to each other, five of the six brothers espousing five of their own six sisters. Of these divine brother-sister couples, most important was that of Cronos and Rhea, for it was Cronos, by rea- son of his bold deed, who had assumed the leadership among the gods. Of this union, Rhea gave birth to three daughters and three sons: Hestia, Demeter, and Hera: and Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. No sooner had one of these children been bom than "the great Cronos swallowed each . . . intent that no other of the proud Sons of Heaven should hold kingly office among the deathless gods." The reason for eliminating his own offspring by swallowing them was a prophecy he had learned of, that "strong though he was, he was destined to be overcome by his own son": Fate was to repeat unto Cronos that which he had done unto his father. But Fate could not be evaded. Wisened to the tricks of Cronos, Rhea hid her last-born son Zeus on the island of Crete. To Cronos she gave instead of the baby "a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes." Not realizing the deception, Cronos swallowed the stone, thinking it was the baby Zeus. Soon thereafter he began vomiting, disgorging one by one all the children he had previously swallowed. "As the years rolled on, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince [Zeus] increased quickly." For a while, as a worthy grand- son of the lusty Uranus, Zeus chased lovely goddesses, often get- ting into trouble with their companion gods. But then he turned his mind to affairs of state. For ten years a war had been raging be- tween the older Titans, "the lordly Titans from high Mount Othyres" (which was their abode), and the younger gods "whom rich-haired Rhea bare in union with Cronos" and who settled on the opposite Mount Olympus. "With bitter wrath they were fight- THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN