The first race of gods were the Titans: Gaia and Uranus, and their
children Kronos (Saturn), Rhea (Kronos’ wife), Oceanus, Tethys (Oceanus’
wife, mother to the 3000 ocean nymphs), Hyperion (Light, an early Sun
god), Thea (mated with Hyperion, bore Helios, Eos, and Selene), Mnemosyne
(memory, mother of the Muses), Themis (Justice and Order, mother of the
Fates and the Seasons by Zeus), Iapetus (father of Prometheus,
Epimetheus, Menoetius and Atlas), Coeus (intelligence), Phoebe (the Moon,
Coeus’ wife, mother of Leto), Leto (mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus),
Crius (father of Pallas, Perses and Astraios), Prometheus (Forethought,
the wisest; molded the human race out of clay), Epimetheus
(Afterthought), Atlas, and Metis (Mercury). After Kronos took the throne from
Uranus, the Golden age of Man, a time of harmony and prosperity, ensued.
According to Greek legend, during this period man lived in a paradise like
the garden of Eden, without greed, violence, toil, or the need for
laws.
This unfortunately did not last forever. When Kronos was about to slay
his own father Uranus, it was prophesied that his son would in turn
someday depose him. To keep this from being fulfilled, Kronos swallowed
his children as they were born, but Rhea tricked him. When their sixth
child was born, she substituted a stone for the infant Zeus, and Kronos
ignorantly swallowed it down.
Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Crete, where he was suckled and raised by
the divine goat Amaltheia until old enough to fulfill his destiny. One
day while Kronos was hunting, Zeus ambushed and kicked him so hard in the
stomach that he vomited up the stone and Zeus’ five undigested
siblings: Demeter, Hades, Hestia, Hera and Poseidon. His immortal brothers and
sisters each took a portion of creation to rule over and gratefully
made him their leader. Zeus then led them in a ten-year war against their
father and Kronos’ siblings, the Titans, at the end of which Kronos and
the Titans were exiled to Tartarus (the lowest part of Earth, a great
stormy pit beneath even Hades itself).
The Roman gods are often corrupted or different versions of their Greek
counterparts. The Romans compared the Greek Kronos with their corn-god,
Saturn, although a monthly festival to celebrate the harvest was held
in Athens in honor of Kronos. Pictures of Kronos depict him carrying a
sickle, used both to gather the harvest and to castrate his father.
Khronos remained as the remote, incorporeal god of time who encircled
the universe, driving the rotation of the heavens and the eternal
passage of time. He occasionally appeared to Zeus in the form of an elderly
man with long white hair and beard, but for the most part he remained a
force beyond the reach and power of the younger gods.
Parents
NONE - he was the first being to emerge at the creation of the
universe.
Chronos rebelled against his father and deposed him; or, in other
words, active, swift-flying time took the place of immovable eternity.
During the reign of Chronos men were born and peopled the earth. Then
Chronos was in his turn dethroned by his son Zeus, or Jupiter, the thunderer,
the god who typifies the rule of intellect over mere earthly force.
Thus Chronos in his old age was exiled from heaven, the region of the
gods, and dwelt on earth among men. He made his home in Italy, where he
taught men so much that they all lived in peace and wisdom and ever after
looked back to the time of Chronos as "the golden age."
In Greek mythology, Chronos (often mystically confused with the Titan
Cronus) was the personification of time. He emerged from the primordial
chaos. He is often depicted as an elderly, gray-haired man with a long
beard. His name actually means "Time" (khronos in Greek), and is
altenatively spelled Khronos, Chronos, Chronus (Latin version).
Some of the current English words which show a tie to khronos/chronos
and the attachment to time are chronology, chronic, and chronicle.
In astronomy, the planet we now call Saturn because of Roman influence
was called Khronos by the Greeks. It was the outermost planet
god/deity, and was considered the seventh of the seven heavenly objects that are
visible with the naked eye. Given that it had the longest observable
repeatable period in the sky, which is currently around 30 years, it was
thought to be the keeper of time, or Father Time, since no other
objects had been seen or recorded to have a longer period. That is why it is
often depicted as an elderly man with a long gray beard, as mentioned
above.
