RHEA Wife of Kronos, and mother to such gods as Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Zeus, Hades and Hestia, Rhea represented the fertilising force in nature. It was she who saved her sonZeus from being swallowed by his father, when Kronos had determined that, in order to prevent an oracle coming true, he would devour every one of his sons. Rhea offered the god a rock shaped roughly like a baby, and Kronos, unsuspecting, swallowed it. Thus Zeus lived, to return and challenge---and in the end, oust---his father.