Cronus, one of the giants[1], was once ruler of the world. Someone told him that one of his sons would take the power away from him. In order to avoid this, he swallowed [2] all his children.

Cronus' wife was just pregnant then, and she didn't want this child to be swallowed too. So when the boy, the later Zeus, was born, she cheated her husband by giving him a stone dressed up like a boy to swallow and hid Zeus in a cave.

When Zeus grew up, he decided to avenge his brothers and sisters, and Cronus was tricked[3] into coughing his children out. Thus the war between the giants and Zeus' brothers started. The war was a very hard one and it lasted 10 years.

The giants were defeated and Cronus ran away. Zeus and his brothers and sisters became gods and godesses, and ruled over all the world.

克罗诺斯——巨人之一，曾一度统治全世界。有人告诉他将来会有一个儿子夺去他的权力。为了避免此事发生，他吞掉了所有的孩子。

他的妻子当时正怀孕，她不愿意这个孩子也被吞掉。所以，当孩子——就是后来的宙斯——出生时，她把一块石头包成孩子的样子骗克罗诺斯吞下，并把宙斯藏到了洞里。

宙斯长大后，他决定为他的兄弟姐妹报仇。克罗诺斯被骗，吐出了他的孩子们。于是，巨人和宙斯兄妹间的战争开始了。这次战争是漫长的，整整持续了10年。

巨人被击败，克罗诺斯逃走了。宙斯和他的兄弟姐妹变成了神，并统治着全世界。

注释：

1. Giant：“希腊神话中的巨人”、“力量超群的伟人”，a literary giant（大文豪），He is a giant in his field（他是这一行中的巨擘）。另外，giant还有几个很有意思的含义，为“水枪”、“大喷嘴”等，的确，这些东西是非常有威力的。

2. Swallow：swallow有很多意思，作动词用时表示“吞咽”、“淹没”、“吞并”、“轻信”等。Swallow down one's food（吞下食物）。The billows apparently swallowed the vessel（巨浪好象吞没了船）。当名词讲时，表示“燕子”、“雨燕”，还有一个意思是“苏联情报机构雇佣的色相女间谍”，哇！

3. Trick：“哄骗”、“愚弄”等意思，He was tricked at the market（他在市场上被骗了）。有一个关于trick的词组，非常有用，never miss a trick（不失时机的利用、对所发生的时无所不晓）。He is a very clever man and never misses a trick in improving his business（他是个聪明能干的人，总是不失时机的利用有利条件去发展营业）。She never seems to miss a trick（她对所发生的事好象无所不晓）。