KRONOS, one of the most ancient of the Greek gods, the youngest of the Titans, and father of Zeus. Kronos was the son of Uranus and Oren. Uranus, who was ruler of the world, out of fear or hatred of his children, especially of the Cyclopes, cast them into Tartarus and kept them imprisoned there. In revenge Gma incited the Titans to rebel against their father, and gave to Kronos a sickle (Ipyrr) of adamant, with which he deprived his father of virility. Uranus being deposed, Kronos was raised to his throne, and the Cyclopes liberated; but they were again cast by Kronos into Tartarus. Kronos now married his sister Rhea, and had by her Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus; but it having been foretold him by Uranus that he should be deposed by one of his children, he swallowed all of them but Zeus as soon as they were born. On the birth of Zeus, Rhea gave Kronos a ton wrapped in a cloth, which he swallowed, believing it to be his newly born child. Rhea concealed her son in a cave in Crete, where he passed the first years of his life. When Zeus grew up, Kronos, in order to secure his throne, called the Titans to his aid ; but Zeus, by the Counsel of Thetis, administered a potion to Kronos, which caused him to bring up the children he had swallowed. Zeus, with his brothers and sisters, now attacked the Titans, who, after a contest which lasted ten years, and which was known to the Greeks as the Titanomachia, were eventually conquered, and Kronos was dethroned.
In Greek art Kronos is often represented with a veil covering the back of his head; and almost always with the harpe, or sickle, in his hand. Sometimes he is figured enthroned, with Rhea offering him the stone ; sometimes he is naked, at others wrapped in voluminous drapery.
Greek and Roman writers regarded the Greek Kronos and the Roman Saturnus as the same deity. By recent writem their identity has been doubted. Their identity has been maintained with strong arguments by Buttmann, 3lythologus,' ii. 28, &c. but as strenuously opposed by Hartung, 'Die Relig. der Horn.' ii. 123, &c., who considers the two divinities as quite distinct, and Saturnus as an ancient national divinity of the Italians. Certain it is that there are few if any points of resem blance between their attributes : the chief coincidence is that each was regarded as the most ancient deity of his country. Both the deities
are figured iu ancient works of art with a sickle in their hand; but the sickle of Kronos had reference to the harpe given him by his mother Grea, while that of Saturnus was typical of his protection of hus bandry.
Saturnus was one of the principal divinities of the ancient Italians. He was considered to be the protector of agriculture, and of all civili sation arising from it. His name probably contains the same element as the verb sero (sa), whence he was considered as the protecting divinity of all that was sown and planted, and as the giver of plenty. The Italian legends represented him as having come from abroad to the shores of Italy, in the reign of Janus, by whom he was hospitably received. Notwithstanding this, Saturnus was always considered as the first king of the Aborigines, probably because agriculture and civilisation in Italy dated from his reign. (Virg., 'Aen.; viii. 319; Aurel. Viet., De Orig. Gent. Rom.,' c. 1,' &c.) He was said to have established a settlement on the Capitoline Hill, which from this cir cumstance was called the Saturnian Hill, and the settlement itself Saturnia. He now began to teach the Italians the art of cultivating the fields, and led them from their savage state to the peaceful occu pations of civilised life, so that the whole land of Italy was called, after him, Saturnia, or the land of fruit. In agriculture he is said to have taught his subjects the use of manure (stems), from which he derived the surnames of Stercutus, Stercilinus, and Stercenius. (Macrob., Sat.,' 1 7.) His rule was so just and mild, that the age in which he reigned was afterwards described as the golden age of Italy. His wife, called Ops, was in aftertimes worshipped as the goddess of plenty. After the death of Saturnus, or rather after his disappearance from the world, he was raised to the rank of a god, au altar was erected to him on the spot which was afterwards called the Forum, and a temple near the foot of the Capitoline. Concerning his worship at Rome, see SATURNALIA.