Kronos (Golden Age King)
titanThe king of the Titans who ruled during the Golden Age and devoured his children to prevent prophecy of his overthrow.
The Myth
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:
Explore Further
Kronos
titanKing of the Titans who ruled during the mythological Golden Age. Kronos overthrew his father...
Rhea
titanMother of the Olympian gods and wife of Kronos. Rhea saved the infant Zeus from being devoured by...
Rhea (Mother of Gods)
titanThe great Titaness who saved Zeus from being swallowed by Kronos, enabling the entire Olympian...
Titan War (Titanomachy)
titanThe ten-year war between the Titans and the Olympians that reshaped the cosmos and established...
Aphrodite
godGoddess of love and beauty, born from the sea foam. Aphrodite's power to inspire desire was so...
Aphrodite (Golden One)
godThe goddess born from sea-foam whose power over desire could override the will of gods and mortals...
Chronos (Primordial)
primordialChronos was the primordial personification of Time itself — not the Titan Kronos, though they were...
Demeter
godGoddess of grain, harvest, and the fertility of the earth. When her daughter Persephone was...
Demeter (Grain)
godDemeter was the goddess of grain, harvest, and fertility whose grief over Persephone's abduction...
Gaia
primordialGaia was the primordial Earth goddess, the first being to emerge after Chaos — mother of the...
Hades
godRuler of the underworld and lord of the dead. Despite his fearsome reputation, Hades was not evil —...
Hades (God)
godHades was the lord of the underworld who received the dead — feared but not evil, wealthy from...