Titans

Kronos

In Greek mythology, Kronos is a titan. He is the son of Earth (Gaia) and Heaven (Uranos). At his mother's urging, Kronos stood up to his father Uranus and, after his overthrow, became ruler of all. But he did not escape his fate and eventually had to face the wrath of his own son Zeus.

When Uranos ruled the world, he and Gaia produced twelve offspring (Titans), among whom was Kronos. Uranos hated his descendants, so much so that he cast the Hekatoncheires into the bowels of the earth (Tartarus). Gaia then asked the Titans to remove Uranos from power. Only Kronos dared to do so, and he hacked Uranus to pieces with an iron sickle (other sources say he cut off his manhood). From Uranus' blood, Gaia gave birth to the Giants.

Another myth claims that Kronos threw Uranus' organs (in the other interpretation, it was his manhood) into the sea, where they mixed with sea foam to create Aphrodite.

After the overthrow of Uranus, Kronos became ruler of all. He re-imprisoned the Hekatoncheires and took his sister Rhea as his wife. His children were Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon. All of them he eventually swallowed for fear that history would repeat itself and his own children would not deprive him of his rule in the future.

The youngest son (Zeus) escaped Cronus' threat through Rhea's cunning. Before Zeus was born, she went to the island of Crete, where she secretly gave birth. She then gave Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of the newborn. The same thing, according to some legends, happened to Poseidon.

When Zeus came of age, he wanted revenge, so he mixed a honey drink with a poison and gave it to Cronus. Then Kronos overthrew all of Zeus' brothers and sisters, and the siblings teamed up to fight. Zeus freed the Hekatoncheires, won the Cyclopes and some of the Titans to his side, and after a ten-year struggle overcame Kronos and overthrew him in Tartarus.

People later idealized Kronos' reign as a golden age. As a result of his association with the Golden Age, Kronos was worshipped as a god of the harvest, overseeing crops, nature and agriculture. In Athens, on the twelfth day of each month, a festival called Kronia was held in honor of Kronos celebrating the harvest.

The Greeks did not build any temples to Kronos or otherwise show him any special reverence.