Infancy of Zeus.
Learning that one of his offspring would usurp his power, the Titan Cronus (Saturn) devoured his children at birth. However, his wife Rhea saved the unborn Zeus (Jupiter) by going secretly to bear him in Crete. Hidden in a cave (by Gaia, according to Hesiod) on a mountain that is variously cited as Aegeon, Dicte, or Ida, the infant was protected by Rhea’s attendants, the Curetes. To keep Cronus from hearing the child’s cries, they created a racket by clashing their spears against their shields. The infant was nurtured by nymphs and suckled by the she-goat Amalthea.
      In postclassical treatments, the Curetes are often confused with the Corybantes, priests of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, with whom Rhea was often identified.
      
       Classical Sources. Hesiod, Theogony 453-91- Diodorus Siculus, Biblioteca 1.61.4. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.282. Apol-lodorus, Biblioteca 1.1.5—7.
      
      See also Cronus, Birth of the Olympians.