Metis
Metis
6 min read
Metis is an Oceanid of Greek mythology, daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. The personification of cunning and wisdom, she was Zeus's first wife and the mother of Athena. Zeus swallowed her while she was pregnant, fearing a prophecy that their child would dethrone him.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, she belongs to the generation of the Oceanids
- Zeus's first wife according to Hesiod's *Theogony* (8th–7th century BC)
- Helped Zeus free his brothers and sisters by providing the potion that forced Cronus to disgorge his children
- Swallowed by Zeus while pregnant, because of a prophecy foretelling that she would bear a son more powerful than his father
- Mother of Athena, who was born from Zeus's skull, armed and fully grown
Works & Achievements
By making Cronus regurgitate, Metis makes possible the freeing of the gods and the victory of Zeus: her founding act.
Through her cunning (mêtis), she helps the Olympians prevail over the Titans.
Metis conceives Athena, goddess of wisdom and measured warfare, who carries on her mother's intelligence.
Once swallowed, Metis becomes the inner counsellor of Zeus, ensuring the soundness of his sovereign decisions.
In Greek culture she embodies cunning and practical intelligence, a central value of the Homeric and Hesiodic world.
Anecdotes
Metis is Zeus's very first wife, even before Hera. In Greek mythology, it is she who is said to have given Zeus the potion (a philter or an emetic) that forced Cronus to disgorge the brothers and sisters he had swallowed — a decisive act in the victory of the Olympians.
Frightened by a prophecy from Gaia and Uranus foretelling that a son of Metis would dethrone him just as he himself had dethroned his father, Zeus swallowed Metis while she was pregnant. In doing so he imitated the devouring act of Cronus, but in order to prevent the birth of a rival.
Some time later, Zeus was seized by a terrible headache. According to the myth, Hephaestus (or Prometheus) split his skull open with a blow of an axe, and Athena sprang forth fully armed, already grown and uttering a war cry.
The very name of Metis, in Ancient Greek (*mêtis*), means “cunning intelligence,” practical craftiness. By swallowing Metis, Zeus is supposed to have absorbed her wisdom: the goddess becomes the inner counselor of the king of the gods, who from then on decides “from the depths of his belly.”
Metis belongs to the Oceanids, the three thousand daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. Hesiod names forty-one of them in his *Theogony*, and places Metis at the head as “the wisest of gods and mortal men.”
Primary Sources
Zeus, king of the gods, took as his first wife Metis, the wisest among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to give birth to bright-eyed Athena, he tricked her and slipped her down into his belly, so that no other of the eternal gods should hold the kingship in his stead.
Tethys bore to Ocean the eddying Oceanids... and divine Metis.
Zeus lay with Metis, who turned herself into many shapes to escape him; when she became pregnant, he swallowed her by surprise, for she had said that, after the daughter she was carrying, she would bear a son who would become king of heaven.
It was through the counsel of Metis that Cronus was forced to vomit up the children he had swallowed.
Key Places
The river that encircles the world, home of Oceanus and Tethys, parents of Metis. It is the birthplace of the Oceanids.
Home of the gods where Zeus marries Metis and where he swallows her. The center of Olympian power that the prophecy threatened.
The mythical place where Metis, once swallowed, continues to exist and to advise the king of the gods. Her wisdom there becomes the inner voice of Zeus.
The island where Rhea hid the young Zeus to keep him from Cronus. It is from here that Zeus returns to confront his father, helped by Metis's potion.
The mountain where the Titans were seated during the Titanomachy, facing the Olympians of Mount Olympus. The setting of the war that Metis's cunning helped to win.
