rhea

One of two flightless birds of the family Rheidae, order Rheiformes. The common rhea Rhea americana is 1.5 m/5 ft high and is distributed widely in South America. The smaller Darwin's rhea Pterocnemia pennata occurs only in the south of South America and has shorter, feathered legs, and mottled plumage. Rheas differ from the ostrich in their smaller size and in having a feathered neck and head, three-toed feet, and no plumelike tail feathers.

Rhea

In Greek mythology, a fertility goddess, one of the Titans, wife of Kronos and mother of several gods, including Zeus. She was identified with the Phrygian Earth goddess Cybele, and the Roman Ops.

Her children Pluto, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia were swallowed at birth by her husband, who believed that one of his children would overthrow him. Rhea saved Zeus by tricking her husband into consuming a swaddled stone.

The noisy ritual dances of her worshippers were said to represent the efforts of Rhea's followers to drown out the cries of the infant Zeus during his secret birth in a Cretan cave.

Rhea

One of the larger moons of Saturn, discovered in 1672 by Italian-born French astronomer Giovanni Cassini. It has a diameter of 1,530 km/950 mi and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 527,000 km/327,000 mi with a period (time taken to circle the planet) of 4.52 days.