Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen The Curetes.
The gallery
Base with Reliefs of the Birth of Zeus
Unknown (Roman), 2nd century AD
Capitoline base: armed dancers clash shields while the infant Zeus is nursed — the Dictaean Curetes drowning Cronus' hearing. Not Homer's Aetolian Curetes tribe.
Rhea Presents the Swaddled Stone to Cronus (relief)
Unknown (Roman), c. 2nd century AD
The trick that sends Zeus to Crete: Rhea's stone for Cronus, then the Curetes' din in the cave — nursery and deceit as one succession myth.
Rhea Handing the Swaddled Stone to Cronus
Nausicaä Painter (attr.), c. 460–450 BC
Attic pelike of Rhea's ruse — the moment before the Curetes take up the hidden child in Crete. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In play
Rhea (mythology)
The mother who hides Zeus with the Curetes and the Dictaean nurses — the Titans' queen as the dancers' employer.
Zeus
The infant whose cries the Curetes drown with spear on shield — Crete's hidden king of Olympus.
Korybantes
Often conflated with the Curetes in later tradition — armed ecstatic dancers; our Cretan Curetes are Rhea's nursery guard, not the Phrygian Corybantes alone.
Bibliotheca (birth of Zeus)
Apollodorus
Apollodorus' handbook: Rhea gives Zeus to the Curetes and the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida — the classic nursery roster.