Cronus

Cronus in Greek mythology is the ruler of the Titans, the descendants of Gaia (the earth) and Uranus (the sky).

His father Uranus had hidden him and the other Titans in a secret place inside the Earth. Angered by this, she encouraged Cronus to rebel against his father. While Uranus was in bed with Gaia, Cronus surprised him and cut off his members with a sickle he had received from Gaia. Having overthrown their father, the Titans accepted Cronus as their ruler. He married his sister Rhea and in order to avoid being overthrown by his children in turn, Cronus swallowed every child born to Rhea. After he had swallowed her first five children, Rhea took her sixth child Zeus into Crete and gave Cronus a rock instead which he swallowed. After Zeus had grown, he returned and forced Cronus to swallow a drug which made him disgorge the rock and his other children Hestia, Hera, Demeter, Hades and Poseidon. Following this, Zeus and his siblings began a ten-year war against the Titans. In the tenth year they freed the Cyclopes, sons of Cronus whom he had imprisoned in Tartarus. With their help Zeus was able to defeat Cronus and cast him and his followers into Tartarus.

References[edit]

• Hesiod. Theogony.
• Apollodorus. The Library.