We tell you all the secrets of Cronus The Titan Of Time. Discover his origins and powers that created an epic legend.
Cronus: The Titan Of Time
Cronus in ancient Greek religion, male deity who was worshipped by the pre-Hellenic population of Greece, but probably not much revered by the Greeks themselves; later identified with the Roman god Saturn.
The functions of Cronus were related to agriculture; in Attica, his feast, the Kronia, celebrated the harvest and resembled the Saturnalia. In art he was depicted as an old man holding a sickle, probably originally a sickle but interpreted as a harpē, or curved sword.
He may also be known as Kronos, depending on the English translation, and as a result it is common to find Cronus being confused with Chronos, the Primordial god of Time.
Who was Cronus?
In Greek mythology, (/ˈkroʊnəs/ or /ˈkroʊnɒs/, US: /-oʊs/, from Greek: Κρόνος, Kronos), was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth.
He dethroned his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until his own son Zeus overthrew him and imprisoned him in Tartarus. According to Plato, however, the deities Forcys, Cronus and Rhea were the eldest children of Oceanus and Tethys.
He now became king of the Titans, and took for his consort his sister Rhea; she bore for him Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon, all of whom he swallowed because his own parents had warned him that he would be overthrown by his own son.
History of Cronus
According to Greek mythology, in the beginning there was nothing. This was called Chaos. Out of this nothingness came light, Mother Earth (Gaia) and Heaven (Uranus) were formed. From Gaia and Uranus came six twins known as the Titans. The six twin Titans were named Oceanus, Tethys, Coeos, Phoebe, Hyperion and Thea, Creos, Themis, Iapetos, Clymene, and finally Cronus and Rhea.
Gaia and Uranus also gave birth to three Cyclops, three giants, each with fifty heads and a hundred arms. Uranus did not like their offspring, so he forced them back into their mother’s womb.
The pain of carrying the numerous offspring enraged Gaia, and she made a plan to take revenge on Uranus. She called upon the Titans to help her. The youngest, Cronus (master of time), came to her aid. With the help of her mother, she created a sickle and cut off her father’s genitals when he came to be with her mother.
Cronus threw the severed genitals into the sea. According to some versions of the myth, the part of the blood that fell to earth created all kinds of terrifying offspring.
After defeating his father, he married his sister Rhea. The two had six children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Cronus, after each birth, swallowed the first five children because of a prophecy that he would raise one of his children to overthrow him. Rhea tricked Cronus with one of his children.
Cheating Zeus
Zeus, instead of giving Cronus the child, gave him a stone in a blanket. He swallowed it believing it was the baby. Rhea then hid the baby Zeus on the island of Crete to be raised by the nymphs. Later Zeus would return to defeat his father in the battle between the Olympians and the Titans.
The family tree of Kronos. The parents of Kronos were two of the most ancient figures in all of Greek mythology: Uranus (the deified personification of the sky) and Gaia (the deified personification of the Earth).
Therefore, their parents were very important, and also the king and queen of the Universe. The children of this cosmic power couple were called the Titans. There were twelve of them, and Cronus was the youngest. Uranus hated his children and hid them in the Underworld. Gaia could not stand this and began to conspire with her children to defeat the king of the cosmos.
All the Titans were too afraid of Uranus to fight him, except Cronus. Cronus took an iron sickle made by Gaia and attacked Uranus, castrating him. With that, Uranus was deposed. Cronus and Rhea took the throne as the new king and queen of the Universe.
Meaning of the name Cronus
Because his name was often confused with the Greek word for time, Cronus, he was often depicted as Old Father Time, with whom, conveniently, he shared few characteristics: mercy, a beard, and a scythe. In fact, in many cases, the two are visually indistinguishable.
what powers did Cronus have?
Cronus was the King of the Titans and the god of time, particularly when viewed as a destructive and devouring force. He is usually described as tall and powerful and wielding a scythe. He possessed extreme strength and endurance, which can be attributed to his enormous size.
As King of the Titans, he is one of the most powerful and his strength, durability, endurance and stamina is almost as great, if not quite equal to that of Atlas. He was also the only Titan brave enough to stand up to his father Ouranos, dismember him and become the new ruler of the world.
Cronus and the stages of creation
Cronus played a crucial role in the creation of the knownuniverse, first as a rebel against Uranus, then as the tyrant against whom Zeus led his rebellion.
The Castration of Uranus
The story of Cronus begins with the irrational decision of his father Uranus (Heaven) not to allow his children (the Cyclopes, the Hecatonians and the Titans) to leave their mother’s womb, i.e., the Earth.
Distressed and grief-stricken, Gaea devised a cunning little plan, created an uncompromising sickle (harp) and asked her offspring for help. “My children,” she said, “if you obey me, we must punish your father’s vile outrage.” Cronus was the only one who was not captured by fear.
Then, Gaea gave Cronus the sickle and strategically hid him in her womb. The very next night, when Uranus, who longed for love, came to lie with Gaea, Cronus stretched out his hand and castrated him. Then he released his brothers and sisters and, joyful and proud, proclaimed himself king of all gods and men.
Rule of Cronus: The Golden Age
After taking power, Cronus married his sister Rhea and, for a while, everything seemed perfect. Finally freed of her burdens, Gaea was once again happy and more than generous, producing crops for all humans on her own. Despite the efforts and hard work, the humans lived carefree and healthy lives, which ended peacefully and only when they were very old.
Some say that even the gods themselves walked among humans during the reign of Cronus. Undoubtedly, this was the Golden Age, the most beautiful of the five legendary ages of man. At some point, however, Cronus violently and dramatically changed his ways.
Fearing a rebellion, he imprisoned both the Cyclopes and the Hecatonians in Tartarus and ordered the dragon Campe to protect them. Alarmed by a prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his sons, he began to swallow them all, one by one. Seeing that her husband, in essence, had been transformed into Uranus, after becoming pregnant with their sixth child, Rhea turned to Gaea for help.
The Rebellion of Zeus: The Titanomachy
Gaea advised her daughter to go to Crete, where the Titans eventually gave birth to a mighty son, Zeus. Prompted by further advice, Rhea left her son there and handed Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in place of the supposed baby. Cronus swallowed the stone, unsuspecting of any foul play, and unaware that the nymphs are meanwhile raising his eventual overthrow on Crete.
When the time came, disguised as Cronus’ cupbearer, Zeus managed to give his father a vomit-inducing drink (prepared by Metis) instead of his favorite wine. This led Cronus to slit the throats of all his sons, who subsequently teamed up with the Cyclops and the Hecatonchires and drove him from power after a bloody decade-long war that will forever be remembered as the Titanomachy.
Wife of Cronus
Cronus would later marry his sister Rhea, also an Earth goddess, who was part of the Titans. She had a temple on the Greek island of Crete at Phaistos, an ancient Minoan site.
Sons of Cronus
Hera, Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. In addition, Aphrodite was born from his severed limb that Zeus threw into the sea. None of his children were particularly close to him, Zeus was the one who interacted with him the most, but even then, that was only to emasculate his father as Cronus himself had done to his own father, Uranus.
Symbols or attributes of Cronus
No distinctive symbol; sometimes part of the zodiac, the ring of stars symbols are shown in the image. In his old man form, he usually has an exceptionally long beard and may carry a staff. He was usually depicted with a harp, a scythe or a sickle, which was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father.
Titans in Greek mythology
The Titans occupied an interesting, and often misunderstood, place in Greek mythology. In this lesson, this titan played an important role in the mythological foundations of Greek civilization.
The Titans
One of the most famous stories in all of Greek mythology is the triumph of the gods over the race of cosmic beings known as the Titans. The gods ushered in a new era of humanity and civilization as we know it. Thanks to this history, the Titans often have the reputation of being an ancient and ultimate cosmic evil. However, when we look at Greek mythology, that is not what we see.
To understand the Titans in Greek mythology, we have to start with their ruler: Cronus. Cronus was one of the most powerful beings in Greek mythology, a deification and symbol of unlimited harvest and abundance.
Relations with the humans
It is important to remember that, according to Greek mythology, humans were alive for all of this. They just weren’t humans as we know them today. Cronus ruled the Universe in an era known in Greek mythology as the Golden Age, a mythological period when humans lived in complete peace and harmony, but also in primitive tribes.
Basically, they were humans as basic animals, with no societies, no art, no governments and since there was no war, slavery or violence, no laws or rules. In this Golden Age, Cronus ruled over existence and provided unlimited abundance. The Golden Age was a mythical era of peace, abundance and frivolity.
Cronus and the gods
Although Cronus was benevolent to these primordial humans, he was also a paranoid and angry figure. In particular, he feared that his own sons would continue the cycle of usurping the throne, a fear validated by a prophecy that his own son would defeat him. To ensure that this never happened, he devoured his sons, known as the gods.
Just as Gaia had grown tired of Uranus abusing her children, so did Rhea. After she devoured her first children, she decided to take action. Rhea gave birth to another son, but hid him from Cronus.
A medieval depiction of Cronus (identifiable by the scythe or sickle) eating his children. When Zeus finally grew up, he returned to save his siblings. With Rhea’s help, he gave Cronus a poison that caused the Titan to regurgitate the other gods. Zeus then released the monsters of the cosmos that he had imprisoned to maintain order and with the gods managed to defeat him
Dethroned
Cronus was not killed, but he was dethroned. He lost his power, and therefore the right for anyone to worship him. In essence, he became irrelevant to the Greeks, who did not worship degraded deities.
Ancient peoples often believed in stories about powerful, immortal beings who created and protected various aspects of human life. The heroes, gods, and monsters of ancient Greece are still remembered, and their stories are still told in the modern world. Many students read stories of heroes such as Hercules or watch movies featuring versions of Greek gods, such as the recent movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.
The Defeat of Uranus
Before the birth of the Titans, Gaea and Uranus had six monstrous children. Three were Cyclops, huge creatures with one eye in the center of their foreheads. The others were giants with a hundred hands. Although Gaea loved her children, Uranus found them terrifying and imprisoned them in the depths of Tartarus, the deepest and darkest place in the underworld.
Gaea was distraught over the loss of her children and finally persuaded Cronus to help her free them from Tartarus. She gave her son a sharp piece of flint and hid it near the place where his father slept. When Uranus was fast asleep, Cronus cut him to pieces with the sharp flint and threw his body into the ocean.
With Uranus dead, Gaea believed that Cronus would release her brothers imprisoned in Tartarus; however, Cronus refused to release her brothers and so Gaea remained without her other sons. Angry and disappointed, Gaea predicted that her son would be defeated at the hands of one of his sons, just as he had defeated her father.
Cronus comes to power
Gaia, however, initiated an uprising against Ouranus, and Cronus was convinced to wield an uncompromising sickle against his father, castrating Ouranus.
The Titans were now in charge of the cosmos, and having struck the cutting blow, Cronus took the mantle of supreme deity. The Titans ruled in pairs, and Cronus paired with Rhea.
The rule of Cronus and the Titans was regarded as the “Golden Age,” a generous age, in which everyone prospered, and yet in later Greek mythology, Cronus was regarded as a cruel and ruthless ruler.
Certainly, Cronus was as afraid of his position as Ouranos had been, and that is why the lord of the Titans would keep the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncimos imprisoned.
Cronus begins his reign
“The time for the mighty reign of Cronus will begin today,” he proclaimed. But then Cronus looked toward the door. He quickly realized why his younger brothers were imprisoned when he saw their violent twisted faces, staring eyes and many hands. They screamed viciously and furiously at him.
He had never seen them before; they had gone into hiding so quickly. Instantly he knew they were dangerous. He cared for his mother, but these creatures were a threat to his throne and his power. They could not be released, promised or unpromised. Gaia would never understand, blinded by a mother’s love, but Cronus’ eyes were wide open to the menacing horror of that pit.
Cottus, Briareus, Gynes and the Cyclops cried out in terrible anguish and fury as their door closed again, and the shadow of darkness came over their eyes. A mighty dragon, Campe, was placed in front of their prison as a guard.
The dragon
Cronus sat alone in the firelight of the dragon’s breath, thinking deeply about what he had seen and done. He had just overthrown his own father and taken the throne with his sister, Rhea. He had broken a promise to his beloved mother, justifying himself over and over again to relieve himself of his guilt. “I’m not a monster, they are,” he thought to himself.
Together with Rhea, Cronus declared that a new golden age of justice would begin. The mortals of earth celebrated and began to live in an age where there was no need for laws or rules, no immorality and no evil.
But Cronus knew better than to believe it was an age of justice. He realized that if he could overthrow his own father, what would stop him from suffering the same fate? What would stop an uprising by any of his children? And his grieving mother would never accept that her other sons would again be imprisoned in Tartarus. She knew, and had prophesied, that he would suffer the same fate as his father and was consumed with fear. Cronus knew that he would have to do something with his own children as soon as he was born.
Cronus’ Final Destiny
Deposed from the throne, Cronus either escaped to Latium or was imprisoned in Tartarus with the rest of the Titans. Either way, he seems to have returned to his good old ways, as he was eventually promoted to ruler of the Isles of the Blessed, a heavenly abode, where only the souls of the greatest heroes lived after their earthly deaths.
Saturnales
Unlike the ancient Greeks, the Romans didn’t consider Saturn (because that’s what they called Cronus) all that bad. Believing that once he escaped to Latium (the region of Italy that includes Rome), he instituted the Golden Age again (this time only in Rome), they celebrated him every December during a famous six-day festival called Saturnalia, probably Rome’s most important holiday and one that has undoubtedly influenced the way people celebrate Christmas today.