Source Verification: Metis
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Why did Zeus swallow Metis?
To stop a prophecy. Gaia and Ouranos told him that Metis would bear a daughter equal to her father in strength and judgement, and then a son who would become king of gods and men. Zeus had reached his own throne by overthrowing his father, who had overthrown his, so the warning described exactly what he had done. He swallowed her while she was pregnant so that no one else should hold the sceptre.
Source: Hesiod, Theogony 886-900
Is Metis Athena's mother?
Yes, and Hesiod says so directly: Metis is pregnant with Athena when Zeus swallows her. What varies is how much of the birth is credited to Zeus alone. Because Athena emerges from his head, some later tellings speak of her as motherless, and the epithet is used in tragedy. Hesiod does not support that reading; in his account Metis conceives the child first and Zeus takes both of them into himself.
Source: Hesiod, Theogony 886-900
Where Accounts Differ
- parentage of Metis
- who freed the swallowed children
- Metis is not one of the twelve Titans in Hesiod. Later sources make her a daughter of Okeanos and Tethys, and modern accounts often call her a Titaness on the strength of her generation rather than her parentage.
- Apollodorus credits Metis with the drug that made Kronos disgorge his children. Hesiod gives no such role and attributes the trick to Gaia and Rhea.
Sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 886-900
- Hesiod, Theogony 116-138
- Apollodorus, Library 1.2.1