Kronos
The king of the Titans who ruled during the Golden Age and devoured his children to prevent prophecy of his overthrow.
The Myth of Kronos
Kronos was the youngest and most cunning of the twelve Titans, son of Ouranos and Gaia. When Gaia could no longer bear Ouranos pressing down upon her and imprisoning her children, she fashioned an adamantine sickle and asked her sons to act. Only Kronos volunteered. He ambushed his father, castrated him, and cast the severed parts into the sea — from whose foam Aphrodite was born. Kronos then ruled during the Golden Age, a time Hesiod describes as free from toil and sorrow. But when he learned that his own child would overthrow him, he swallowed each infant — Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon — as Rhea bore them. Rhea saved the youngest, Zeus, by substituting a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Zeus grew to manhood in Crete, returned, forced Kronos to disgorge his siblings, and launched the Titanomachy. Kronos was cast into Tartarus, though some traditions say he later ruled the Isles of the Blessed.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
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Kronos
🏔 titanTitan, father of the Olympians
King of the Titans who ruled during the mythological Golden Age. Kronos overthrew his father Ouranos and was in turn overthrown by his son Zeus.
Cronus
🏔 titanharvest, time, ruler of the Titans
Ruler of the Titans and father of the first Olympians, who swallowed his children to prevent being overthrown.
Rhea
🏔 titanTitaness of fertility, motherhood, the mountain wilds
Mother of the Olympian gods and wife of Kronos. Rhea saved the infant Zeus from being devoured by his father, enabling the rise of the Olympians.
Metis
🏔 titanWisdom, Cunning Counsel
The Titaness of wisdom and first wife of Zeus, swallowed whole by the king of the gods when a prophecy warned that her child would surpass him.
Eurynome
🏔 titanPastures, Wide Rule
A Titaness who in some traditions ruled Olympus alongside her husband Ophion before being overthrown by Cronus and Rhea in a divine coup.
Menoetius
🏔 titanHubris, Recklessness
A second-generation Titan struck down by Zeus for his violent pride during the war between gods and Titans.
Rhea
🏔 titanTitaness mother of the Olympians
The great Titaness who saved Zeus from being swallowed by Kronos, enabling the entire Olympian order to exist.
Hecatoncheires
🏔 titanHundred-handed giant
Briareus was the mightiest of the three Hundred-Handed Ones who helped Zeus defeat the Titans.
Coeus
🏔 titanTitan of intellect
Coeus was the Titan of rational intelligence and the celestial axis — grandfather of Apollo and Artemis through his daughter Leto.
Kratos
🏔 titanstrength, might, power
The personification of strength and ruling power, son of Pallas and Styx, divine executor of Zeus's commands.
Clymene
🏔 titanFame, Renown
An Oceanid-Titaness best known as the mother of Prometheus, Atlas, and the other sons of Iapetus who shaped humanity's early story.
Perses
🏔 titanTitan of destruction
Perses was the Titan of destruction and ravaging — father of Hecate, the great goddess of crossroads and magic.