Thanks to my rewatching/listening to Red’s videos on the Overly Sarcastic Productions youtube channel, I have (re)learned something interesting that I think would be really cool to explore.
According to his parents, Zeus is/was Fated to be overthrown by the second child of his first wife, the oceanic nymph Metis. She was prophecized to have children who were more clever and powerful than he was. First, a daughter who would be wiser than her mother; and then a son who would be mightier than his father who would later overthrow him.
Zeus, trying to escape this fate, tricked the (at the time) pregnant Metis so that he could absorb her essence/eat her. Which, somehow, allowed him to keep her alive/with him so she could continue to give him her counsel without him killing her outright.
(This is also how/why Athena had been born in Zeus’ mind and later managed to break out of it.)
But, if there’s anything I’ve learned from Greek/Roman myths, there is no escaping Fate or a Prophecy. No matter what you try to do, that sucker is gonna come true. That means, somehow, someway, someday, Metis is going to get pregnant with a second kid with Zeus and give birth to a son. A son that will eventually be his downfall.
I’m genuinely amazed that no one has taken this idea and made a novel/comic/show/game about this!
How does Metis conceive her son? How does she get him out? Does Zeus try to get rid of his son to stop him from trying to dethrone him? Does Metis have some way to hide her son? Do the other Olympians help?
How close to the modern-day is this? Does that play into the Son wanting to overthrow Zeus? (What if Zeus refusing to adapt to the modern-day was one of the reasons everyone decided he couldn’t stay in charge anymore?) What is the Son’s divine/godly domain?
Seriously, this could be so dramatic/fascinating to explore.