Cronus

Cronus (Ancient Greek: Κρόνος (Krónos)) was the Titan God of the Harvest, agriculture, vegetation, fertility, the ages and the destructive forces of time, and King of the Titans. Also known as Father Time.

Cronus was the son of Gaia and Ouranós in Greek mythology. His wife was the Titaness Rhea. He was the leader of the Titans. His Roman counterpart is Saturn. He is often confused with Chronos, the Greek god of time.

In Mythology
Cronus was born to Gaia and Ouranós as their last Titan child. He was asked by Gaia to kill Ouranós for imprisoning their children, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, in the depths of Tartarus. He was given a sickle (named the scythe) which he used to castrate Ouranós when he was going to have intercourse with Gaia. He then became the King of Gods.

He married his sister, Rhea, and had six children: Demeter, Hestia, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, and Zeus. He was also the father of Chiron, who was born to Philyra. But when Gaia asked him to free her children from Tartarus, Cronus refused. She warned him that if he refused to let them go, that one of his children would betray and kill him, just as he did to Ouranós. He then ate all of his children, one by one, as they were born. When his sixth child, Zeus, was born, Rhea decided that she could no longer continue bearing children only to have them eaten. She swaddled a rock in a baby's cloth and gave that to Cronus instead. He gladly ate it while Zeus lived on. When Zeus grew up, he approached his father as a stranger, and gave him a drink that made him throw up his siblings, who as immortal gods had survived in Cronus' stomach.

Titanomachy
Once Zeus and his brothers and sisters were free, they decided to go to war with him and his Titan siblings. Cronus did not lead this war, for he was already defeated, so his nephew Atlas, led the forces of the Titans. However, the Titans lost the war against the Gods when they freed the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes at Gaia's urging. He was then cut up by Zeus with his own scythe, the one that he had used on Ouranós.

Punishment
Different versions of Cronus' punishment exist. Some versions of the story have him ruling over Elysium in Hades, while other versions have him trapped deep in the bowels of Tartarus, constantly tortured. And yet another is that he was made drunk, and cast off in a cave, in which he was drunk forever.

Archetypes and Status

 * Sky Father
 * Titan

Gallery
Image gallery of Cronus