About

Cronus (Ancient Greek Κρόνος, Krónos), also called Cronos or Kronos, was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Ouranos, the sky. He overthrew his father, Ouranos, and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son and imprisoned in Tartarus [1] or sent to rule the paradise of the Elysian Fields.[2]

As a result of his association with the bountiful and virtuous Golden Age, Cronus was worshipped as a harvest deity, overseeing crops such as grains, nature, agriculture, and the progression of time in relation to humans in general. He was usually depicted with a sickle, which he used to harvest crops and which was also the weapon he used to castrate and depose Ouranos. In Athens, on the twelfth day of every month (Hekatombaion), a festival called Kronia was held in honor of Cronus to celebrate the harvest. Cronus was also identified in classical antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn.

The etymology of the name is obscure. It may be related to "horned", suggesting a possible connection with the ancient Indian demon Kroni or the Levantine deity El. In the Alexandrian and Renaissance periods there was some confusion with the word χρόνος, Chronos, meaning time.



Children of Uranus


Cronos' father Uranus (Sky) is counted as the first to have ruled the Universe. He was the son of Gaia (Earth) or, as others say, the son of Aether (the Upper Sky) and Hemera (Day). Uranus married Gaia, and had children by her among which the HECATONCHEIRES, who had hundred hands and fifty heads, and the CYCLOPES, who had only one eye in their forehead.

Uranus banishes his children


Uranus, for some reason or other, hated these children of his and hid them away in a secret place on earth, or as others say, cast them into Tartarus, which is a gloomy place in the Underworld as far distant from earth as earth is from the sky. However, Gaia, grieved at the destruction of her gifted children, and being strained and stretched with so many giant beings inside her, planned the destruction of her own husband and his rule as a way to set them and herself free.

Cronos eager to revolt


In order to overthrow him, Gaia tried to persuade the TITANS, who were also her own children by Uranus, to attack their father, but these were afraid, excepting Cronos who immediately said:

"Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I reverence not our father of evil name, for he first thought of doing shameful things." [Cronos to Gaia. Hesiod, Theogony 170]

Castration of Uranus


In order to accomplish the seditious purpose, Gaia gave Cronos an adamantine sickle with jagged teeth, which is said to have been made by the TELCHINES. And when Uranus by night approached Gaia longing for love, Cronos came out from his hiding place and cut off his father's genitals, throwing them into the sea behind his back at cape Drepanum in Achaea. And from the foam which gathered round the severed genitals, lovely Aphrodite was born after a long time, but from the drops of flowing blood that fell on Earth the ERINYES were created, who avenge crime and wickedness, and punish those who are guilty of bloodshed within the family.

Power changes the mind


This is how the TITANS dethroned their father and first ruler of the Universe, committing the sovereignty to Cronos, who was the youngest of them all. Having thus succeeded his father, Cronos brought up the CYCLOPES and the HECATONCHEIRES, who were prisoners in Tartarus. But Power changes the mind, whereas there is no mind able to change the nature of Power. So, when Cronos became ruler, he started seeing things in the same way as the predecessor he had dethroned had seen them; and soon he again bound and shut his brethren up in the same dark depth.

The Punishment of Neoptolemus


Cronos was affected, for having attacked his father, by what later came to be called the "Punishment of Neoptolemus", which consists in suffering oneself what one has done to another, or almost. Soon Cronos was prophetically informed by his parents that he would be dethroned by his own son.

Cronos devours his offspring



And believing that these fateful news could be averted, he started to swallow his offspring at birth. But once the procedure had been repeated several times, her wife and sister Rhea 1, feeling for her children as Gaia for her own, deceived her husband by wrapping a stone in clothes and giving it to him to swallow, as if it were the newborn child Zeus. Some say that when Rhea 1 brought the stone to Cronos, he, believing the stone to be a child, bade her offer milk to the baby. Rhea 1 then pressed her breast, and the flowing milk created the stars that are known by the name of the Milky Way.