As a result of the fact that there was no proper agreement between the ancient Greek mythographers - writers who clothed in the art form the myths of ancient Hellas, very contradictory information has survived to this day about how its inhabitants imagined the immortal inhabitants of Olympus. For example, two different celestials received the name Chronos (or Kronos), which for several thousand years has been causing a fair amount of confusion.
The founder of the world, born of chaos
One of them, which is the personification of time, was born from primary chaos - a shapeless combination of space and matter. He is ranked among the founders of the world. It was he who then gave birth to three elements - fire, air and water. Subsequently, as a result of their merger, land was formed.
If you believe the ancient Greek historian and philosopher Ferekid of Syros, then the god of time Chronos is the father of the first generation of immortals, whose history was not filled with any dramatic upheavals. The fate of his namesake was completely different.
The son who oversaw his father
The second Chronos known to us is one of the titans that became the product of the sky god Uranus and his wife Gaia, who embodied the earth. Their marriage was very prolific and gave the world numerous offspring. But the trouble is that, according to ancient prophecy, Uranus had to fall at the hands of one of his sons. Not wanting to tempt fate, he sent all the male children — titans and cyclops, who had barely emerged from the mother’s womb — straight into the bowels of the earth.
By this, Uranus plunged his wife into deep despair, and one day Gaia decided to stop the series of murders. Having produced the twelfth son in a row, she managed for some time to conceal him from the infamous child killer, thanks to which Chronos (it was he) grew and got stronger. Gaia chose him as her weapon of revenge, instructing the young man to sweep the hated husband.
Ancient sculptures that have reached us often represent Chronos with a sickle or scythe in his hands, which is why he is mistaken for some kind of agricultural deity. In fact, everything is different. One of these innocuous-looking guns, the god Chronos, at the instigation of his mother, scattered his father, who rested peacefully on his conjugal bed. The above-mentioned Ferekid of Syros further informs that the son threw the cut-off organs into the sea, and from them then the goddess of love Aphrodite (aka Venus) was born, so wonderfully sung on the immortal canvas of Botticelli.
The new ruler of the world
The next feat that Chronos accomplished was his victory in the battle with the Great Serpent and Lord of the Titans, Ofion, as a result of which he was crowned as the supreme ruler of the world. As for Uranus, after everything that happened to him, the poor fellow lost interest in life and retired, predicting, however, that the evil committed by Chronos would not go unpunished, and one of his future children would overthrow him.
The Greeks called the period of the reign of Chronos the Golden Age of Ancient Hellas. Great gods have not yet been born, pouring out their anger on people and plunging them into the bloody abysses of wars. Everywhere reigned peace and prosperity - everywhere except the family of the ruler himself. The fact is that, fearing the predictions of the father, the god of time (by the similarity of names, the Greeks identified the two Chronos) swallowed all the children whom his wife Ray gave birth to, which entailed constant family scandals. In addition, the gluttonous spouse also walked on the side, having survived the illegitimate centaur from the nymph of the Filia.
The Birth of Zeus
Finally, Ray's patience snapped. After he was born in the womb, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia (great gods in the future), desperate, was, his wife decided to save the life of at least the only baby. Secretly resolving herself from the burden in one of the distant caves, she brought her husband a swaddled stone instead of a child, and he swallowed it, not noticing a dirty trick. However, soon the heaviness in the stomach aroused suspicion in Chronos, and he forced Ray to confess to his deed.
Enraged, Chronos rushed in search, but all his efforts were in vain. The servant’s rheins — dexterous and quick-witted demons-kurets — each time pounded their shields with spears, drowning the baby’s cry and preventing his father from discovering him. This saved baby was the newborn Zeus, who eventually became the lord of the earth and sky. He was destined to fully fulfill the prediction of Uranus.
Overthrow in Tartarus
Growing up and gaining strength, he declared war on Chronos and fought with him for ten years, until he won. Treading with his foot the womb of the father who was defeated on the ground, Zeus forced him to belch out once swallowed brothers and sisters. After they were safely born, the winner found each of them a worthy destination. So, Demeter became the goddess of fertility, Hestia - the keeper of the hearth, Hera - his own wife, and therefore, the queen of all other gods. He also did not offend the male part, entrusting Aida to the kingdom of the dead, and making Poseidon king of the seas.
After that, no matter how the defeated god appealed to mercy, he was cast out by his son in Tartarus - a dark and gloomy abyss, located below the underground kingdom of Hades. There he was guarded by the hundred-year-old monstrous giants of Hekatonheira, born at one time by his own father Uranus, and therefore, born to him by siblings. This is how his story is presented in one of the many versions of the myth that has come down to us from the depths of centuries.
The fusion of two mythical characters
Since in later mythology Chronos is a compilation of two initially different characters (as mentioned above), then they are merged as objects of worship. They were also often identified with the Phoenician god Moloch, who in ancient times sacrificed children. It is easy to guess that the reason for this was the myth of how Chronos devoured his offspring.
The merger of two essentially different gods is also evidenced by the fact that the temple dedicated to Chronos (it was erected at Olympia) was simultaneously decorated with sculptures depicting the three elements - fire, air and water, as well as the figure of an old man preparing to swallow a baby. In a later period, the ancient Greek Chronos found its embodiment in the image of the Roman god Saturn, who also ate his children and commanded the time.
Already in the period of modern history, the name of the ancient god Chronos (or Kronos) was given to the prehistoric reptile, which lived 140 million years ago. By the contents of the stomach of this fossilized twelve-meter sea monster found by scientists, it was possible to determine that it used to swallow everything that caught the eye, including its own offspring. For such a resemblance to the ancient Greek god, the reptile was called a kronosaurus.