Cronus

Cronus, also known as Kronos, Chronos or Saturn, was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of Ouranos, the sky, and Gaia, the earth. He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus. He was known as the Titan of time, harvest and evil.

Cronus envied the power of his father, the ruler of the universe, Ouranos. Ouranos drew the enmity of Cronus's mother, Gaia, when he imprisoned the gigantic children of Gaia, the hundred-handed Hecatonchires and one-eyed Cyclopes, in Tartarus, so that they would not see the light. Gaia created a great divine sickle which would later on be known as Cronus' sickle and gathered together Cronus and his brothers to persuade them to castrate Ouranos.

Only Cronus was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the sickle and placed him in ambush. When Ouranos met with Gaia, Cronus attacked him with the sickle, castrating him and casting his testicles into the sea. From the blood that spilled out from Ouranos and fell upon the earth, the Gigantes, Erinyes, and Meliae were produced. The testicles produced a white foam from which the goddess Aphrodite emerged.

For this, Ouranos threatened vengeance for overstepping their boundaries and daring to commit such an act. Ouranos had also cursed Cronus, stating that his child would come to overthrow him, just as he had done to him.

After dispatching Ouranos, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes and set the dragon Campe to guard them. He and his sister Rhea took the throne of the world as king and queen. The period in which Cronus ruled 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.

However, when he married and bore children with Rhea, he learned from Gaia that he was destined to one day be overthrown by his own children. Since Cronus feared that one of his children would be his downfall, as he was that of his father before him, he decided that whenever one of his children was born, he would swallow it. This led him to swallowing his first five children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon which gave him the title of The Crooked One and King Cannibal.

Rhea could not stand another one of her children to be devoured until she was informed by Gaia to hide her final child (Zeus) in a cave, and replace him with a stone. Cronus blindly swallowed the stone, but gave him a painful stomach ache.

As the story goes, Zeus grows up, and together with Metis, plots against his father by spiking his drink which in turn caused Cronus to regurgitate his imprisoned children and Zeus freeing his older siblings. Zeus then frees the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires from Tartarus, gets aid from one of the Titans named Themis and her son Prometheus, and engages Cronus and the the rest of the Titans in the Titanomachy for ten years. Zeus defeats Cronus with a lightning bolt made by the Cyclopes as a show of gratitude. Zeus takes his Bronze Scythe and literally chops his father to pieces before casting them with the other Titans to Tartarus.

Powers and abilities
As a Titan, Cronus is unimaginably powerful, with Zeus requiring the created Master Bolt from the Elder Cyclopes in order to defeat Cronus.

Extra Information

 * While having similar names and representing time, Cronus has no connection with the Primordial Deity