Cronus

Cronus took the flint sickle that Gaia had given him and waited for Uranus to come to her. Uranus had forced the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers back into Gaia, causing her great distress. She asked the Titans to help free their brothers, but only Cronus, the youngest, agreed. He hid until Uranus approached, then attacked him with the sickle and cut off his genitals. Some accounts say that Cronus ambushed Uranus while he slept. Another says that he first released the Titans from their bonds, then defeated and bound his father.

Cronus threw the severed parts and the sickle into the sea, near Cape Drepanum in one account. Blood from Uranus fell upon Gaia. From it came the Erinyes, spirits who avenge parricide and perjury, named Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. The Meliae, nymphs of the ash tree, also sprang from the blood. Another passage adds the Giants, who appeared fully armed. Aphrodite arose from the sea foam formed where Uranus’s severed parts fell. A different account says that Aphrodite, the Giants, the Furies, and the Meliae all came from the drops that fell from Uranus’s wound.

Uranus could no longer keep his power. One account says that he fled across the universe and was never seen again. Another says that Cronus bound him after defeating him. Cronus then took the vacant throne and became ruler of the universe. He released the Titans, his brothers and sisters, and intended to rule forever.

Uranus cursed Cronus and foretold that his own children would one day overthrow him. Cronus ignored the curse. He later married his sister Rhea and fathered Zeus and the other children who became the Olympian gods. Fearing the prophecy, he swallowed each child at birth except Zeus, whom Rhea saved by giving Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Zeus eventually led the struggle that ended Cronus’s rule.

Gaia and Uranus brought Cronus into the world as the youngest of their twelve Titan children. His brothers included Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, and Iapetus. His sisters included Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. Gaia had other children by Uranus, including the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. Uranus feared and hated these monstrous children, so he forced them back inside Gaia or shut them away in deep Tartarus. Gaia suffered greatly because of this.

Gaia asked the Titans to help free their imprisoned brothers. They were afraid of Uranus, except for Cronus, who was the youngest and strongest. Gaia made him a sickle from hard flint, or from the sturdy rock of her own body. Cronus hid until Uranus came to Gaia at night. He then attacked his father and castrated him with the sickle. The blood from Uranus fell upon the earth. From it came the Giants and the Erinyes, also called the Furies. Aphrodite was also said to have arisen from this act.

After Uranus lost his power, Cronus became king of the gods. He took his sister Rhea as his mate, and they had children who would become the Olympian gods. Cronus learned that one of his sons was destined to overthrow him, so he swallowed each child as soon as it was born. Rhea saved Zeus by giving Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead. Zeus later escaped this fate and became the son who would challenge Cronus.

Cronus led the Titans against Uranus after Gaia armed him with a flint sickle. They surprised Uranus while he slept, and Cronus castrated him. He became king of the gods. Blood from Uranus’s wound fell upon Gaia, who bore the Erinyes, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera, along with the ash tree nymphs, the Meliae. Cronus then took control of the divine realm.

The Cyclopes were confined below the earth, in the gloomy depths of Tartarus. Cronus placed them in a strong cage near a volcanic forge. They entered laughing, certain that the cage could not be broken, even by their great strength. When Cronus wrapped a chain around the sliding gate and fastened it with a bolt, the Cyclopes seized the bars and tried to bend them. Others struck the bars, gate, and chain with sledgehammers. The metal rang through the cavern, and the walls shook, but the cage held.

The Cyclopes called to Cronus, asking him to open the gate. He did not answer. They saw only the forge fire and red shadows, then understood that their brother and king had abandoned them. Other dangerous beings were also confined underground. Cronus led a group of giants into a chamber near the Cyclopes’ prison. When they entered, the Titans rolled a great boulder across the narrow mouth of the cave. The giants realised that Cronus had used them to imprison the Cyclopes, then imprisoned them in turn. The Cyclopes remained behind their bars, while the giants were sealed in the chamber below the earth.

Apollo and Artemis instructed Chiron in the arts he later taught to Greek heroes. He became a tutor in the knowledge of herbs and medicine, and was credited with botany and pharmacy. He was also associated with lyric poetry. Achilles, Asclepius, Heracles, Jason, Aeneas, Ajax, Theseus, Nestor, Odysseus and Patroclus are named among his pupils. The accounts do not present this as a complete list.

Chiron lived in a cave with his wife, his daughters and his mother, the Oceanid Philyra. He was called both Philyridas and Kronidas, and was said to be the son of Philyra and Cronus. Some accounts say that Cronus took the form of a horse when he approached Philyra. Afterward, she changed into a tree, a flower or a mare, depending on the source. Chiron was therefore given a different birth from the other Centaurs.

Their origins also vary in the sources. The common account made them the offspring of Ixion and Nephele, a cloud shaped in Hera’s image. Another tradition traced them through Ixion’s son Centauros, who mated with mares near Mount Pelion. The Centaurs were generally portrayed as wild tribes who lived in caves and used rocks and branches as weapons. At the wedding of Peirithoos, they became drunk and tried to carry off the bride and other women. A battle followed and destroyed much of their tribe.

Homer called Chiron the wisest and most just of the Centaurs. His teaching and his parentage set him apart from the race to which he belonged.

Cronus married his sister Rhea after receiving a warning from his father Uranus and from Gaia. They had foretold that one of his sons would dethrone him. Cronus therefore decided that none of his children could be allowed to survive. Each time Rhea gave birth, he swallowed the child. The sources differ on the timing, with one stating that he did this at birth and another describing it as an annual act.

The first child consumed was Hestia. Cronus then swallowed Demeter and Hera, followed by Hades and Poseidon. These five children disappeared in this way. One account describes Cronus concealing the deaths by claiming that a child had been born dead and buried. Rhea became suspicious after several children vanished, then realised that Cronus had swallowed them and intended to continue.

When Rhea was pregnant with her sixth child, she acted secretly. She gave birth to Zeus away from Cronus and concealed him in a cave on Crete. One source places the cave within Mount Ida. Other accounts call it the cave of Dicte, or state that Zeus was first born on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia before being taken to Crete. The accounts also differ about who helped Rhea, naming Gaia and Uranus in one version, and Gaia, the nymphs Adrasteia and Io, and the goat-nymph Amaltheia in others.

Rhea then returned to Cronus with a stone wrapped in baby clothing. He accepted it as the infant and swallowed it without checking what it contained. Zeus was therefore spared, while Cronus believed that he had consumed his sixth child as he had consumed the five before him.

Cronus led the Titans in a ten-year war against Zeus and the younger gods for control of the cosmos. The conflict began after Zeus and his brothers rebelled against Cronus. Heaven, earth, and sea were shaken by the violence of the fighting. The war was called the Titanomachy, though ancient sources sometimes confused it with the Gigantomachy, the battle between the gods and the Giants.

Cronus had become ruler after overthrowing his father, Uranus, with a flint sickle. He had married his sister Rhea, and they had produced Zeus and his siblings, who became known as the Olympian gods. Cronus had heard that one of his sons would overpower him, so he swallowed each child at birth. Rhea saved Zeus by giving Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead. Zeus later led the younger gods against Cronus and the Titans.

Zeus secured the aid of the Hecatoncheires and defeated the Titans. He imprisoned the defeated Titans in Tartarus, where the Hecatoncheires guarded them. Atlas was treated differently in one account and was condemned to bear the sky on his shoulders. Later sources state that not all the Titans took part in the war, so not all suffered the same fate. Another account says that Zeus destroyed and burnt the Titans, and that mankind was made from their ashes.

Uranus came to lie with Gaia at night, and Cronus, the youngest Titan, struck from hiding and castrated him. Gaia had called upon the Titans for help because Uranus had forced the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes back inside her. Cronus alone had dared to act. The attack brought forth Aphrodite and the Erinyes, and Cronus became king of the gods.

Cronus married his sister Rhea, and they had Zeus and the children who would later be called the Olympian gods. Cronus had learned that one of his sons would overthrow him. He therefore swallowed each child at birth. When Zeus was born, Rhea concealed him and gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead. Cronus swallowed the stone, believing it was the infant.

Rhea took Zeus to Crete and brought him to birth in a cave on Mount Dicte. She entrusted him to the Curetes and to the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus. The nymphs fed him on the milk of Amaltheia. The armed Curetes guarded the cave and struck their spears against their shields so that Cronus would not hear the child. When Zeus had grown, he gained the help of Metis, daughter of Oceanos. She gave Cronus a drug, which made him disgorge the stone first and then the children he had swallowed.

Zeus and his recovered siblings went to war against Cronus and the Titans. The fighting lasted ten years. Heaven, earth, and sea were shaken by its force. Zeus secured the help of the Hecatoncheires and defeated the Titans. Cronus and the Titans who had fought with him were confined in Tartarus, where the Hecatoncheires guarded them. Later sources state that not all the Titans took part in the war.