In Greek mythology, Metis was Zeus’s first wife before he married Hera.
Metis was a Titaness associated with wisdom, counsel, and cunning intelligence. Zeus took her as his first consort, but a prophecy warned that Metis would bear a daughter and then a son who would become more powerful than Zeus. To prevent the prophecy, Zeus swallowed Metis while she was pregnant.
Athena later emerged fully armed from Zeus’s head. In this myth, Metis remained inside Zeus and was connected with the wisdom that Athena embodied. The story helps explain Athena’s unusual birth and her close relationship with Zeus.
Metis is sometimes confused with Themis, another Titaness who became a consort of Zeus in ancient traditions. Hera was Zeus’s principal wife and queen of the gods, but she was not his first wife in the standard genealogical account.