MYTH OF POSEIDON'S BIRTH

Poseidon’s father, Kronos, swallowed him whole at birth because Gaia, the ancestral mother of all life, told him that Poseidon would eventually overthrow him.  Kronos also swallowed four other children born to him by Rheia.  To prevent Kronos  from swallowing their sixth child, Rheia substituted a stone for the baby.  Kronos swallowed the blanket-wrapped stone without a clue of Rheia’s trickery.  The sixth child would become known as Zeus, god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods.  To protect her son, Rheia hid Zeus’s existence by secretly raising him on the island of Crete.  When Zeus became an adult, he attacked his father--- forcing him to vomit all of the children that he swallowed, releasing Poseidon back into the world.