Wisdom
Metis
ΜῆτιςRoman: Metis
Zeus swallowed her whole and kept her advice inside him permanently.
- 2
- epithets
- 0
- cult sites
- 1
- offspring
- 1
- union
- 1
- recorded birth
Vitals
- Kind
- Titan
- Generation
- 2
- Domains
- cunning intelligence, practical counsel, the trick that works
- Accent
- Wisdom — counsel, craft, memory, cunning
- Sacred symbols
- the swallowed counsel, the shifting form
- Principal cult sites
- No cult attested
What they were called
Μῆτις
the intelligence that finds a way
πλεῖστα θεῶν εἰδυῖα
who knows most of gods and mortals
Lineage
See in the tree
Offspring in this roster
Notable myths
The Swallowing of Metis
Metis was Zeus's first wife and already pregnant with Athena when Gaia and Ouranos warned him that her second child would be a son who would take his throne. Zeus deceived her with soft words and swallowed her whole. Hesiod says she remains inside him and advises him from there. Athena was born later out of his head, fully armed, which is why she has two real parents and an impossible birth.
Hesiod, Theogony 886-900
The Drug That Emptied Kronos
Before any of that, it was Metis who gave Kronos the drug that forced him to bring up what he had swallowed — first the stone, then Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon, alive and grown. The Olympian order exists because of a piece of her advice, and it is secured a generation later by removing her.
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.2.1
The account
Metis is the intelligence that solves a specific problem, and she is used and then removed. She is an Okeanid, the one who knew most of gods and mortals, and it was her advice that got the swallowed Olympians back out of Kronos — she gave him the drug that made him vomit up the stone and then his children. Then Zeus took her as his first wife, and Gaia and Ouranos told him what would follow: she would bear Athena, and after Athena a son who would be king of gods and men. So Zeus talked her into becoming small, and swallowed her. Hesiod is explicit about why it worked and what it achieved — she is in his belly still, and she is the reason he can tell good from bad. Athena was born from his head in full armour. Zeus's characteristic epithet, mētieta, the counsellor, is her name turned into an adjective for him. The succession stops with him because he has internalised the thing that would have replaced him.
Ancient sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 337-370
- Hesiod, Theogony 886-900
- Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.2.1
Where a line reference is not given, the work is cited without one rather than guessed at.
Image credit
No classical portrait of this figure survives, so the mark on this page is generated from their Greek initial and their domain accent rather than taken from an artwork.