Greek mythology tells us that the god Zeus had what we might consider a rather brutal father. His dad, named Cronus, acquired his own throne by overthrowing his father Uranus, who had confined his offspring to the Underworld in fear for his crown.

Urged by his mother, Rhea, Cronus escaped from his nether world prison known as Tartarus, revolted, and took over his father’s realm–but not before Uranus warned that the same fate awaited his son.

Fearing that curse, Cronus found a simple solution for the threat of his own children: he devoured them, one by one. Only Zeus escaped that fate when his father was tricked into consuming a rock which he believed to be the newly-delivered boy.

Hidden on the island of Crete, Zeus was suckled and raised to manhood by a goat named Amalthaea, who fed the boy by using her own horn as a drinking vessel.

That horn came to be known as a cornu copiae, literally a “horn or plenty,” and is easily recognized today as the curved horn overflowing with fruits and grains that we see gracing so many Thanksgiving celebrations.