Set or Typhon. In the primitive Egyptian religions like Demeter, Rhea is goddess of the earth. Kronos was said to have devoured all his children by Rhea except Zeus whom she concealed giving Kronos a stone wrapped up as an infant whom the god swallowed.
Crete was probably the earliest seat of the worship of Rhea. She was identified with Cybele in Phrygia, was worshipped by the Thracians, under different names she was the great goddess of the Eastern world and was known as the Great Mother, the mother of all the gods. Her priests were the Corybantes who dressed in full armour, with cymbals, horns and drums performed their orgiastic dances on the mountains or in the depths of the forests of Phrygia. Many of the attributes of Rhea were given to her daughter Demeter. The lion was the symbolic animal of the earth-goddess because of all the animals known it was the strongest and most important. In works of art she was rarely depicted standing. She is usually represented seated on a throne, wearing a mural crown from which hangs down a veil. Lions crouch on either side of her throne or sometimes she is shown in a chariot drawn by lions. In Greece the oak tree was sacred to Rhea.
Sail. The sail springing into movement under the influence of the wind was an Egyptian symbol of the spirit-spiritus meaning breath or wind.
