Cronus
Cronus (Ancient Greek Κρόνος, Krónos), also called Cronos or Kronos, was the leader of the first generation of Titans. After overthrowing his father, Uranus, he ruled over the other gods throughout the duration of the mythological Golden Age, until he himself was overthrown by his own son, Zeus. Cronus was typically related to agriculture, particularly the harvest, as well as the passage of time. Cronus was also identified in classical antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn.
Origins
The etymology of the theonym cronus is obscure. Despite some conflation of the terms in the Alexandrian and Renaissance periods, Cronus is not necessarily related to the Greek word χρόνος, Chronos, meaning time. Nor is he related to Chronos, the personification of time in Greek myth; although Cronus was the god of time among the Titans, Chronos is an entirely different divine being. The name, however, may be related to the Proto-Indo-European root *krno- which would later develop into the Latin cornu and Germanic *hurnaz, from which the English word "horn" derived. This reference to a "horned" deity suggests a possible connection with the ancient Indian demon Kroni or the Levantine deity El.
The legend of Cronus may also have been extrapolated from events in the life of a historical figure. The account ascribed by Eusebius to the semi-legendary pre-Trojan War Phoenician historian, Sanchuniathon, indicates that Cronus was originally a Canaanite ruler who founded Byblos and was subsequently deified. This report gives his alternate name as Elus or Ilus, and states that in the 32nd year of his reign, he castrated, slew and deified his father Epigeius or Autochthon. Epigeius, the narrative claims, was thereafter known as Uranus. It further states that after ships were invented, Cronus, visiting the 'inhabitable world', bequeathed Attica to his own daughter Athena, and Egypt to Thoth, the son of Misor and inventor of writing.
Mythology
Family & Function
Cronus was the youngest of the twelve Titans, the divine descendants of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus. He eventually married his sister Rhea, another earth goddess. With Rhea, Cronus sired Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, Hera and Zeus. Other children Cronus is reputed to have had include the centaur Chiron, by the nymph Philyra, and Eris, by the night goddess Nyx.
As a result of his association with the bountiful and virtuous Golden Age, Cronus was construed as a harvest deity, overseeing grain, nature, agriculture. Thus, the fact that his divine consort was said to be Rhea, the earth mother, is not surprising. While she was responsible for allowing crops to grow, it was Cronus who performed the harvest. As such, he was usually depicted with a sickle, which he used not only to harvest crops but also as a weapon for the purpose of castrating his father Uranus. Cronus was also connected with to the progression of time as it related to humans.
Ascendance
In ancient Greek myths, Cronus envied the power of his father and the ruler of the universe, Uranus. Uranus drew the enmity of Cronus' mother, Gaia, when he hid the gigantic youngest children of Gaia, the hundred-armed Hecatonchires and one-eyed Cyclopes, in Tartarus, so that they would not see the light. Gaia created a great sickle and gathered together Cronus and his brothers to persuade them to kill Uranus. Only Cronus was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the sickle and placed him in ambush. When Uranus met with Gaia, Cronus attacked Uranus with the sickle by cutting off his genitals, castrating him and casting the severed member into the sea. From the blood (or, by a few accounts, semen) that spilled out from Uranus and fell upon the earth, the Gigantes, Erinyes, and Meliae were produced. From the member that was cast into the sea, Aphrodite later emerged. For this, Uranus threatened vengeance and called his sons titenes ("straining ones") for overstepping their boundaries and daring to commit such an act, and this is the source of the name Titan.
In an alternate version of this myth, a more benevolent Cronus overthrew the wicked serpentine Titan Ophion. In doing so, he released the world from bondage and for a time ruled it justly.
After dispatching Uranus, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires, the Gigantes, and the Cyclopes and set the dragon Campe to guard them. He and Rhea took the throne of the world as King and Queen. This period of Cronus' rule was called the Golden Age, as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone did the right thing, and immorality was absent.
Usurpation
Cronus learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son, just as he had overthrown his father. As a result, although he sired the gods Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Hestia, by Rhea, he swallowed them all as soon as they were born to preempt the prophecy. When the fifth and six children were born, Poseidon and Zeus, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save them and to eventually get retribution on Cronus for his acts against his father and children. Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus in Crete, and handed Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, also known as the Omphalos Stone, which he promptly swallowed, thinking that it is his son. The same happened with Poseidon, though Cronus swallowed a goat as opposed to a rock, thinking it to be his son.
Rhea kept Zeus hidden in a cave on Mount Ida, Crete. According to some versions of the story, he was then raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes, armored male dancers, shouted and clapped their hands to make enough noise to mask the baby's cries from Cronus. Other versions of the myth have Zeus raised by the nymph Adamanthea, who hid Zeus by dangling him by a rope from a tree so that he was suspended between the earth, the sea, and the sky, all of which were ruled by his father, Cronus. Still other versions of the tale say that Zeus was raised by his grandmother, Gaia.
Once he had grown up, Zeus used a poison given to him by Gaia to force Cronus to vomit up the contents of his stomach in reverse order: first the stone, which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Mount Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, then the goat, and then his two brothers and three sisters. In other versions of the tale, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the children, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open. After freeing his siblings, Zeus released the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes, who forged for him his thunderbolts. In a vast war called the Titanomachy, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, with the help of the Gigantes, Hecatonchires, and Cyclopes, overthrew Cronus and the other Titans. Afterwards, many of the Titans were confined in Tartarus. Some Titans were not banished to Tartarus. Atlas, Cronus, Epimetheus, Metis, Menoetius, Oceanus and Prometheus are examples of Titans who were not imprisoned in Tartarus following the Titanomachy. He was not imprisoned in the depths of the underworld, Tartarus, like most other Titans, but instead fled. Gaia sired the monster Typhon to claim revenge for the imprisoned Titans, though Zeus was victorious.
Worship
In Athens, on the twelfth day of every month (Hekatombaion), a festival called Kronia was held in honor of Cronus to celebrate the harvest. The festival Kronia held in honor of Cronus just after the New Year on the twelfth day of the month of Hekatombaion (which was at one point known as Kronion) according to the Athenian calendar. The nature of the festival was decidedly agrarian, as it occurred after the final grain harvest. Cronos was naturally related to this, as he was the god of the grain. During this time, social mores were temporarily dissolved. For example, slaves were emancipated from their duties, and permitted to participate in the festivities alongside their masters. In some cases, masters became “servants” of their slaves, serving them food during the feasts. This was done to commemorate the Golden Age under Cronus, when there slavery did not exist. Furthermore, this myth paid homage to the the myth in which Cronus overthrew his father, only to be overthrown himself by Zeus, thereby acknowledging the tenuous nature of dominion. Some modern Neopagans still celebrate this festival, although it is not particularly popular in North America due to the fact that its occurance in mid-summer does not correspond with the harvest.
Cronus in Roman Mythology
While the Greeks considered Cronus a force of chaos along with disorder, believing that the Olympian gods had brought an era of peace and order by seizing power from the crude and malicious Titans, the Romans had a more positive view of the deity. Although the Roman deity Saturn was conflated heavily with Cronus, the Romans favored Saturn much more than the Greeks did Cronus. While Cronus was considered a cruel and tempestuous deity to the Greeks, his nature under Roman influence became more innocuous, with his association with the Golden Age eventually causing him to become the god of "human time", i.e., calendars, seasons, and harvests—not to be confused with Chronos, the unrelated embodiment of time in general. While the Greeks largely neglected Cronus, considering him a mere intermediary stage between Uranus and Zeus, he was a larger aspect of Roman mythology and religion; Saturnalia was a festival dedicated in his honor, and at least one temple to Saturn existed in the early Roman Kingdom.
It is important to note that due to the numerous cities in ancient and classic times which would exist in isolation, numerous myths were developed and adopted to the local region. As technology allowed cultures of common descent to rejoin the people made accommodations to create a unified understanding of the universe. It should also be noted that this is not restrained to Greco-Roman culture. Historical documents reveal this to be a common event affecting most religions.
As a result of Cronus' importance to the Romans, his Roman variant, Saturn, has had a large influence on Western culture. In accordance with the Near Eastern tradition, the seventh day of the Judaeo-Christian week was also called in Latin Dies Saturni ("Day of Saturn"), which in turn was adapted and became the source of the English word Saturday. In astronomy, the planet Saturn is called so because of Roman influence. It was considered the seventh and outermost of the seven heavenly objects that are visible with the naked eye.
In some sects of Hinduism, Kroni is a primordial manifestation of evil.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion (John Raffan, trans). Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1985. ISBN 0631112413
- "New Year's Kronia Festival." <http://persephones.250free.com/kronia.html.> [Accessed February 1 2007].
- Nussbaum, Alan J. Head and Horn in Indo-European. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1986. ISBN 3110104490
- Pfister, Friedrich. Greek Heroes (Mervyn Savill. trans). London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1961.
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