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How did Zeus defeat Cronus and become ruler of the gods?

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Painting by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo showing crowds pulling the large wooden Trojan Horse into the city of Troy, with excited figures and ancient buildings in the background. — Greek mythology Oil on canvas by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, c. 1760; in the National Gallery, London.

To defeat Cronus and secure his rule, Zeus first had to survive his father’s tyranny. Because Cronus feared being overthrown by his own children, he swallowed them at birth. Rhea, Zeus's mother, saved him by substituting a stone for the infant, who was then raised in secret on Crete.12

Upon reaching manhood, Zeus returned to challenge his father. With the help of Rhea and the Titaness Metis, Zeus became Cronus’s cupbearer and administered a purgative that forced Cronus to regurgitate his siblings: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon.12

Zeus then led the Olympians in a ten-year conflict known as the Titanomachia. He secured victory by liberating the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires from Tartarus. The Cyclopes provided the gods with powerful weapons—Zeus’s thunderbolt, Poseidon’s trident, and Hades’s helmet of invisibility—which proved decisive. Following the defeat of the Titans, Zeus became the lord of the sky, while his brothers took dominion over the oceans and the underworld.12