Cronus
Cronus
- H. S. Versnel
Extract
The youngest of the *Titans, sons of *Uranus (Heaven) and *Gaia (Earth). His mythology is marked by paradoxes. According to one myth he castrated his father at the instigation of his mother. From his marriage with his sister Rhea the race of the (Olympian) gods was born: *Hestia, *Demeter, *Hera, *Hades, *Poseidon, and *Zeus. Fearing to be overcome by one of his children he swallowed them on birth, save only the last, Zeus, saved by Rhea, who wrapped a stone in swaddling-clothes which Cronus swallowed instead. The infant Zeus was hidden in Crete, where he was protected by the *Curetes. Later, by the contrivance of Gaia, Cronus vomited up all his children and was overcome by them after a desperate struggle. He was incarcerated in Tartarus (Hes.Theog.137–8, 154 ff., 453 ff.). Later authors give roughly the same story, differing mainly on his place of exile, clearly under the influence of the second group of Cronus myths.
Subjects
- Greek Myth and Religion