Kronos
Kronos was the youngest of the original Titans and ruler of the cosmos during the Golden Age, after castrating his father Uranus to seize power. Warned that his own son would do the same to him, he swallowed each of his children at birth until Rhea tricked him with a stone and Zeus grew up to defeat him in the Titanomachy.
Kronos, king of the Titans
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Core Myth
Kronos was the youngest son of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). At his mother's urging, he took the sickle she had made, castrated his father, and cast the severed member into the sea, ending Uranus's rule and freeing Gaia's other children from the cramped space where Uranus had been forcing them to stay. Kronos took power and, with his sister-wife Rhea, fathered the first generation of Olympians. Hesiod gives the reason for what follows in a single line: Kronos learned from Gaia and the dying Uranus that he too was destined to be overthrown by his own son, exactly as he had overthrown his father. To prevent it, he swallowed each child whole as Rhea bore them - Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon in turn - leaving Rhea grieving with no living child. When Zeus was about to be born, Rhea, on Gaia's advice, hid him in a cave on Crete and gave Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed believing it was his sixth child.
Why did Kronos castrate his father Uranus?
Gaia, exhausted by Uranus forcing their children to stay hidden inside her body, made a great sickle and asked her children to punish him. Only Kronos agreed. He ambushed Uranus, cut off his genitals, and threw them into the sea, ending his father's rule outright rather than merely resisting it.
Hesiod, Theogony 154-182
Why did Kronos swallow his own children?
He had learned from Gaia and the dying Uranus that he was fated to be overthrown by one of his own sons, exactly as he had overthrown his father. To stop the prophecy from having anyone left to fulfill it, he swallowed Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon whole as each was born, leaving Rhea to grieve alone.
Hesiod, Theogony 453-467
How did Rhea save Zeus from being swallowed?
On Gaia's advice, Rhea gave birth to Zeus in secret on Crete and handed Kronos a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead. Kronos swallowed it without noticing the substitution, believing he had disposed of his sixth child exactly as he had the first five.
Hesiod, Theogony 468-491
How did Kronos lose power to Zeus?
Zeus grew to adulthood hidden from his father, then forced Kronos to vomit up the swallowed stone and, after it, his five swallowed children, who emerged alive and in reverse order. Zeus and his freed siblings then fought Kronos and the other Titans for ten years in the Titanomachy, ending with the Titans overthrown and bound in Tartarus.
Hesiod, Theogony 492-506
Is Kronos the same figure as Chronos, the god of time?
No, though the names are easy to confuse. Kronos (Κρόνος) is the Titan king in this article; Chronos (Χρόνος) is a separate, much rarer personification of time itself, appearing mainly in Orphic cosmogony rather than in Hesiod. Later Greek and Roman writers sometimes conflated the two because the names sound alike, but the two figures are etymologically and mythologically distinct.
Hesiod, Theogony 116-138
Later Traditions
Zeus grew to adulthood in secret and, once strong enough, forced Kronos to disgorge the stone first and then his swallowed siblings, who emerged in reverse order, still living. The freed Olympians and Zeus then fought Kronos and the other Titans in the Titanomachy, a ten-year war that ended with the Titans bound in Tartarus. In Roman religion, Kronos was identified with Saturn, worshipped as a benevolent agricultural deity whose Golden Age reign was celebrated every December at the festival of Saturnalia.
Lineage
See the full family tree11 recorded relations, each with the ancient line behind it.
Siblings
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Both are counted among the twelve original Titans in Hesiod's Theogony.
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Both are counted among the twelve original Titans in Hesiod's Theogony.
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Both are Titans.
Children
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Kronos swallowed each child at birth; Zeus alone escaped and later forced the others back up.
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Kronos swallowed each child at birth; Zeus alone escaped and later forced the others back up.
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Kronos swallowed each child at birth; Zeus alone escaped and later forced the others back up.
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Kronos swallowed each child at birth; Zeus alone escaped and later forced the others back up.
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Kronos swallowed each child at birth; Zeus alone escaped and later forced the others back up.
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Kronos swallowed each child at birth; Zeus alone escaped and later forced the others back up.
Also Connected
1 recorded connection, each with the ancient line behind it.
Connected
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Hesiod traces one unbroken genealogy from Chaos's initial emergence down through Gaia's and Ouranos's line to Kronos, born the youngest and most fearsome of the Titans.
Where Accounts Differ
- kronos-chronos conflation
- Kronos (Κρόνος) is sometimes confused with Chronos (Χρόνος), the personification of Time. The two figures are etymologically distinct but were conflated in later antiquity.
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Mythology
Related Terms
Referenced By
Sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 154-182
- Hesiod, Theogony 453-506
- Homer, Iliad
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)