Rhea
Queen of the Titans, mother of the Olympians
Rhea was a Titaness, the wife of Cronos and the mother of the first six Olympian gods. When her husband devoured their children one by one, she hid her sixth child away and gave Cronos a stone in his place, setting in motion the war that would end the reign of the Titans.
Rhea was a Titaness, a daughter of Ouranos and Gaia and one of the twelve Titans. She became the wife of her brother Cronos and the mother of the first six Olympians, among them Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. When Cronos devoured their children to escape a prophecy, it was Rhea who preserved the line of the gods by hiding her youngest son away. (Theogony; God of War II)
Queen of the Titans#
The Titans were sired by the union of Ouranos and Gaia and born upon the Island of Creation, the home of the Sisters of Fate. Fearing the power of the Fates over the threads of life and death, the Titans abandoned the island to rule the mortal world, beginning the Golden Age of mankind. In time Cronos overthrew and slew his father Ouranos, and Rhea wed him and ruled at his side as Queen of the Titans. She came to despise her husband's cruelty and his paranoia. (God of War II)
The hidden child#
Cronos had been warned by prophecy that he would one day be overthrown by his own children. He first tried to bribe the Sisters of Fate into changing his destiny by granting them the Steeds of Time, but the Fates heeded only their own counsel and the gift availed him nothing. So as Rhea bore his children, Cronos swallowed each one whole, imprisoning them within his belly. Five children were taken from her in this way, and Rhea could not bear another loss. When her sixth child was born she summoned an eagle to carry the infant far beyond Cronos's watchful gaze, and in the child's place she wrapped a stone in cloth and gave it to her husband, who swallowed it whole, never knowing he had been deceived. (God of War II)
The Great War and Zeus's punishment#
When the hidden child, now grown and called Zeus, came of age, he freed his brothers and sisters from within Cronos. Declaring themselves the Olympians, they made war upon the Titans in the Titanomachy. (God of War II)
What became of Rhea after the war depends on the source. The God of War II novel places her in Tartarus among the defeated Titans. (God of War II (novel))
The lexicon in Sons of Sparta tells it differently, naming Rhea as the only Titan spared Zeus's wrath. (God of War Sons of Sparta)
Later history#
When Gaia recounted to Kratos the history of the gods, she told the story of Cronos and Rhea, and how Rhea had sent the infant Zeus to safety upon an eagle's wings before tricking Cronos with the stone. Through her children, Rhea was grandmother to a great many of the Olympian gods and to the demigods born of them. (God of War II)
When Kratos at last traveled back to the time of the Great War and freed the Titans from their banishment to carry them forward into the Second Titanomachy, Rhea was nowhere among them and took no part in that final war upon Olympus. (God of War II; God of War III)
Frequently asked questions
- Who was Rhea in God of War?
- Rhea was a Titaness, a daughter of Ouranos and Gaia and one of the twelve Titans. She married her brother Cronos and bore him the first six Olympian gods. After Cronos began devouring their children, she saved her last child, Zeus, by hiding him away and tricking Cronos into swallowing a stone in his place.
- How did Rhea save Zeus?
- When her sixth child was born, Rhea could not bear another loss, having already had five children taken from her. She called upon an eagle to carry the infant far from Cronos, and in the baby's place she wrapped a stone in cloth and offered it to her husband, who swallowed it whole believing it to be his son.
- Was Rhea imprisoned in Tartarus?
- The sources disagree. The God of War II novel places her in Tartarus with the defeated Titans, but the lexicon in God of War Sons of Sparta says she was the only Titan spared Zeus's wrath. The main games never show her after the Great War.
- Why was Rhea not a giant like the other Titans?
- Unlike most Titans, who were ancient giants, Rhea was shown at the size of a mortal woman, and no explanation was given for the difference. She did not take part in the Titanomachy, and she was absent from the Second Titanomachy when Kratos freed the Titans from their banishment.
Sources
- BookTheogony, Hesiod, around 700 BC
- GameGod of War II, Santa Monica Studio, 2007
- GameGod of War III, Santa Monica Studio, 2010
- BookGod of War II (novel), Robert E. Vardeman, Del Rey, 2013
- GameGod of War Sons of Sparta, Mega Cat Studios and Santa Monica Studio, 2026
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Cronos: the Titan who ate his children
Warned that his own children would depose him, Cronos swallowed each at birth. Rhea hid Zeus, Zeus deposed him anyway, and Kratos finished him.
Gaia: Mother Earth, betrayed by Kratos
Gaia bore the Titans, hid the infant Zeus from Cronos, and allied with Kratos against Olympus. He ran the Blade of Olympus through her heart.
Hades: the god whose soul Kratos tore out
Eldest son of Cronos, Hades ruled the Underworld and held life and death in balance. Kratos turned the Claws of Hades on him and ripped his soul out.
Olympians: the gods Kratos killed off
Zeus led the third generation of Greek gods to victory over the Titans. Kratos then destroyed almost every one of them, and Greece fell with them.
Ouranos: the sky god Cronos castrated
The first ruler of creation fathered the Titans on Gaia and banished his monstrous children. His son Cronos castrated him and took the throne.
Poseidon: the sea god who drowned Greece
Brother to Zeus and Hades, Poseidon was second only to the King of Olympus. Kratos gouged out his eyes and broke his neck, and the seas swallowed Greece.
Mentioned in15 entries
Adrasteia: the griffin who raised Zeus
Adrasteia was a nymph in the service of Gaia who, with her sisters, hid and raised the infant Zeus beyond the reach of Cronos. For shielding the child she was cursed into the shape of a griffin and imprisoned within Mount Taygetos, until Kratos and Deimos set her free.
Cronos: the Titan who ate his children
Warned that his own children would depose him, Cronos swallowed each at birth. Rhea hid Zeus, Zeus deposed him anyway, and Kratos finished him.
Gaia: Mother Earth, betrayed by Kratos
Gaia bore the Titans, hid the infant Zeus from Cronos, and allied with Kratos against Olympus. He ran the Blade of Olympus through her heart.
God of War II Story Explained: Plot Summary and Ending
The whole story of God of War II in order, from Zeus's betrayal at Rhodes to the Titans climbing Mount Olympus. Then the ending in plain terms: why Athena died, what she told Kratos about his father, and how it sets up God of War III.
God of War Timeline: every major event from the Primordials to Valhalla
The full in-universe chronology of God of War, from the war of the Primordials and the fall of the Titans to Kratos's life in Sparta, his war on Olympus, and the end of the Aesir at Ragnarök. The games give almost no calendar years, so events are ordered by story sequence and grouped into eras, with notes wherever the games' own placement is vague.
Greek Gods
The Greek Gods were the pantheon that ruled over Greece across three generations, the Primordials, the Titans, and the Olympians. Once the masters of mortals, monsters, and the natural world, they were brought to near extinction by Kratos in his war of vengeance against Olympus.
Hades: the god whose soul Kratos tore out
Eldest son of Cronos, Hades ruled the Underworld and held life and death in balance. Kratos turned the Claws of Hades on him and ripped his soul out.
Hestia
Hestia was the Olympian Goddess of the Hearth, Fire, and Family, the firstborn child of Cronos and Rhea. A virgin goddess who tended the royal hearth of Olympus, she never appears in the games, but in the God of War II novelisation she voices her contempt for the destruction Kratos and his Spartan armies brought upon the worshipers of the gods.
Omphalos Stone: the rock Cronos swallowed instead of the infant Zeus
The Omphalos Stone is the stone swapped for the newborn Zeus and swallowed by Cronos. Kratos cut it out of the Titan's stomach in God of War III, and Hephaestus forged it into the Nemesis Whip.
Poseidon: the sea god who drowned Greece
Brother to Zeus and Hades, Poseidon was second only to the King of Olympus. Kratos gouged out his eyes and broke his neck, and the seas swallowed Greece.
The Cycle of Patricide
The Cycle of Patricide was the repeating doom by which the son of a deity rose to slay his father, only to fear the same fate from his own children. It bound the Greek pantheon from Ouranos to Zeus, and its shadow fell again upon the Norse gods.
Themis: Titaness of Justice and Goddess of Law
Themis was the Titaness of Justice, the embodiment of divine order, law, and custom, a daughter of Gaia who held the oracle at Delphi before Apollo and sided with Zeus in the war against the Titans. In God of War she is only a name and a colossal statue near Delos.
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