Cronus / Saturn
King of the Titans, god of time and the harvest
Cronus was the youngest of the Titans and the ruler of the cosmos before the Olympian gods. He overthrew his father, the sky god Uranus, and ruled during a mythical Golden Age — until his own son Zeus overthrew him, just as he had been warned would happen.
How they were born
Cronus was the youngest child of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth, and the youngest of the twelve Titans. His mother Gaia was in pain because Uranus had hidden their other children, the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires, deep inside her. She forged a great sickle and asked her children to help her strike back, and only Cronus was bold — or ruthless — enough to take it.
The greatest stories
The Castration of Uranus
When Uranus came down to lie with Gaia, Cronus sprang from hiding with the sickle his mother had made. He cut his father down and cast the severed parts into the sea, ending Uranus's rule over the cosmos. From the blood that fell on the earth sprang the Furies, the Giants, and the ash-tree nymphs, while from the sea foam rose Aphrodite, goddess of love. As Uranus withdrew from the world, he cursed his son: one day, Cronus's own child would overthrow him, just as he had overthrown his father.
Swallowing His Children
Determined to escape the prophecy, Cronus swallowed each child his wife Rhea bore him the moment it was born: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, one after another, vanished into their father's belly. The children did not die — they lived on, unharmed but trapped, inside him. When her sixth child, Zeus, was born, Rhea could bear it no longer. She hid the baby on the island of Crete and handed Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed without a second thought.
Zeus's Revenge and the Titanomachy
Zeus grew up in secret on Crete, nursed by the goat Amalthea and guarded by the Curetes, whose clashing shields drowned out the baby's cries. When he was grown, Zeus forced his father to disgorge his brothers and sisters — some say with a drug from the goddess Metis, others by sheer force. Then the young Olympians declared war on the Titans. The Titanomachy raged for ten years, shaking heaven and earth, until Zeus and his siblings, helped by the freed Cyclopes and hundred-handed giants, hurled the Titans down into Tartarus, the deepest pit of the underworld.
The Golden Age
The Greeks remembered Cronus's reign as the Golden Age, a lost time when the earth gave food freely, there was no war or hunger, and people lived in peace without laws or toil. The Romans, who called Cronus Saturn, kept the memory alive every December at the Saturnalia, a winter festival when masters served their slaves at table, gifts were exchanged, and the normal rules of society were turned upside down. In some later stories, Zeus relented and released Cronus from Tartarus, making the old Titan king of the Isles of the Blessed, the paradise of heroes.
Family & connections
Symbol, animal & weapon
Fun facts
- The planet Saturn is named after Cronus's Roman name, and Saturday — Saturn's day — takes its name from him too.
- According to the Roman writer Hyginus, when Rhea pressed her breast against the swaddled stone to trick Cronus, her milk sprayed across the sky and created the Milky Way.
- The Romans celebrated Cronus, as Saturn, every December at the Saturnalia, a festival where slaves dined as equals with their masters and the social order was flipped upside down.
- Later Greek writers said Zeus eventually freed Cronus from Tartarus and made him king of the Isles of the Blessed, the paradise where heroes spent the afterlife.
- Cronus is often confused with Chronos, the primordial god of time — the two names sound alike, and Cronus's story of devouring his children made him a natural symbol of time devouring everything.
Gallery — sculpture & art
