by Christina Pomoni

Created on: September 14, 2008

Cronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, who were Gods descendants of Uranus and Gaia (in ancient Greek, "ouranos" means sky and "Gaia" means "earth"). Although he was the youngest of all Titans and had the less power, he was the most crafty and ambitious. He gained power by defeating his father and he governed the Gods during the mythological Golden Age, until he got defeated by his son, Zeus.

According to the legend, Cronos and his spouse Rhea gave birth to six children, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades and Hestia. Upon birth Cronos swallowed all his children, except Zeus, in the fear of being defeated in the same way he had defeated his father. After the second big religious revolution that occurred in the Greek Mythology, it is said that, as soon as Zeus became an adult he managed to make Cronos to spit out his siblings with the help of Rhea, who had initially hidden him. In a series of battles known as the Titan Wars that lasted 10 years. Cronos and his Titans were defeated and sent to the Tartars.

Despite all these events, which some have called primitive and uncivilized, Cronos has been worshiped for having ruled the world during the Golden Age, which is the first age of mankind. During that period, people lived in peace without punishments, threatening words or weapons and even to eat meat was considered a crime. Streams of milk, nectar and honey flowed in profusion. The paradoxical element is that all that order and ease, all that absence or urge and compulsion was held by a character, who had castrated his father to gain power.

Cronos was worshipped as deity of crop and harvest, while he supervised also the progress of mankind. He was typically portrayed with an adamantine sickle, which he used in order to harvest the crops. It is said that with this sickle he castrated Uranus. Even after Zeus defeated Cronos and became the king of Gods, Cronos did not cease to be worshipped all over ancient Greece.

In ancient Athens, on the twelfth day of each month, Cronos was worshipped on the ground of temple of Olympian Zeus, where a temple of Zeus and Rhea existed. The feast called Cronia was initially founded in the early ancient years by Cecrops, who was said to be the reporter of Cronos' adoration in Attica.

In ancient Olympia, where tradition says that Cronos and Helios resided, people believed that during Cronos' kingdom the golden gender of the mankind was created and had built that temple for Cronos. A splendid feast was taking place, during which the invited kings were offering sacrifices on the top Cronos hill. The details of this feast are unknown, but it is believed that during the early ancient years, people were also sacrificed on Cronos' altar.

The etymology of name Cronos is not evident. In majority, researchers support that the name emanates from the ancient Indian demon Kroni. During the Alexandrian period, when the Latin language was reborn, there has been a confusion of word "Cronos" with the word "Chronos", which in Greek means "time".

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