Who Is Cronus (Kronos)?
The second king, who swallowed his children
Cronus is the Titan god who ruled as king of the gods before Zeus in Greek mythology. The youngest son of Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky), he is a cunning schemer whom Hesiod's Theogony calls "of crooked counsel."
Hating his father Ouranos, who kept his children locked deep inside the earth, Cronus overthrew him with a sickle his mother Gaia had made, and became king. But his parents told him that he, too, would be overthrown by a child of his own. So he swallowed, one after another, the children his wife Rhea bore: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. In the end he was tricked into swallowing a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, and his youngest, Zeus, escaped him. Later he vomited up the children he had swallowed, and as king of the Titans he fought against Zeus and his allies.
He is a different god from Chronos, the god of time. Their names are only similar, but the two came to be confused in later times. In Roman mythology he was identified with Saturn.
Episodes featuring this character8
NEWEpisode 1
The Universe Began with a CrackChaos and the Creation (Theogony)
On fog-wrapped Mount Helicon, Hesiod, a starving shepherd, gets roasted by the sharp-tongued Muses, then handed a laurel staff and a divine voice. A single "Gap" opens in the white void. Darkness and Night are born, then the light Hesiod's own song calls up, then Earth and the starry Sky. Twelve children stir deep inside Earth, and only the youngest glares through the ceiling at his father with golden eyes.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 2
Mother Forged a Blade. Who Will Take It?Cronus and Uranus
Ouranos, the starry Sky, has shoved his children deep inside the Earth. Their mother Gaia, groaning under the weight, forges a great gray sickle of adamant from her own body and asks which of them will take it up. The older brothers and sisters stay silent. Only the youngest and slightest of them, Cronus, steps forward.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 3
Love Was Born From a Wound in the SkyThe Birth of Aphrodite
From the drops that fell from the sky come warriors and nymphs, and from the sea foam steps Aphrodite, goddess of love. At the same dawn of the world, Night—joined with no one—gives birth to Death, Sleep, and even Affection.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 5
He Swallowed Five. Not This One.Cronus and Rhea
Cronus overthrew his father to become king, but one prophecy haunts him, so he swallows each of his five newborn children one after another. Grieving and carrying a sixth child, their mother Rhea asks Earth and Sky for help. Holding close the stone Earth gave her, she crosses the night sea, resolved that this time she will protect her child.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 6
The King of Gods Was Saved by a StoneThe Birth of Zeus and the Stone of Kronos
On a misty mountain, the Muses sing a hungry shepherd the tale of "the night a mother told her only lie." To save her youngest, Zeus, from Cronus, the boy-king who swallows his children, Rhea hands him a stone wrapped in swaddling cloth. Raised in a cave deep within the earth, Zeus overthrows his father with his grandmother Gaia's cunning and his own strength. He frees his five siblings from the light, reunites with his mother, and receives thunder from the uncles he unchains.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 7
Victory Belongs to Those Who Show UpStyx and Nike
Zeus calls every god to his side, but no one wants to be the first to raise a hand. Then Nike, the youngest, asks one simple question. It pushes her mother Styx to act, and Styx brings her four children to Olympus ahead of everyone else. The young king has been standing alone until now, and he answers her by keeping every promise he makes.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 8
They Were Forgotten. They Never Forgot.Zeus and the Hundred-Handers (Hecatoncheires)
On a misty mountain, the shepherd Hesiod hears a song from the goddesses of song. Ten years into the war against Cronus, the father who swallowed his own children, the fighting still hasn't ended. Then Zeus hears the voice of Gaia, Mother Earth. He goes down to the depths of the earth and, with his own hands, brings three forgotten hundred-armed brothers back into the light. Cottus swears that now it's their turn to protect him, and Zeus raises his thunderbolt for the first time. But across the divide, in the darkness, a golden eye opens.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 9
The Day Zeus Stopped Holding BackTitanomachy
Cronus feared his children would take his throne. Zeus, the youngest, was the only one who escaped him, and he has fought his father for ten years. This is the war's last day. Zeus finally stops holding back and hurls lightning hot enough to set the world on fire. The three Hundred-Handers bury the sky under three hundred boulders. Together they drive the old gods down into Tartarus, which lies as far below the earth as heaven lies above it.
19 pages