He envisioned an assembly of twelve major gods—a dodecatheon as he Greekly put it to himself.49 So far we have met six, the children of Kronos and Rhea. There was already another deity to call upon of course, one who was older than any of them—foam-born Aphrodite. The moment the Titanomachy erupted, Zeus collected Aphrodite from Cyprus, aware that she would constitute a great prize if kidnapped, ransomed, or recruited by the Titans. For the last ten years she had contentedly been living amongst them and thus the gods now numbered seven.
