Cronus

Cronus was the Titan of Agriculture and former King of Mount Othrys. He was the youngest of Uranus and Gaia's eighteen children.

Early Life
Cronus was the youngest Titan, the eldest of the three races born to Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky) before the Hekatonkeries (Cottus, Gyges, and Briares) and the Elder Cyclopes (Arges, Brontes, and Steropes). All were detested by their father, but he detested the six younger children so much (mainly for their ugliness) that he imprisoned them in the terrifying abyss of Tartarus, which was itself deep within the Earth. As the youngest Titan, Cronus was initially ignored by his parents, who even had trouble recalling his name. He wanted to prove himself as superior to his elder brothers, in any possible way. While growing up, Cronus would frequently resort to dirty cunning and dirty fighting tactics while wrestling his elder brothers, earning his infamous nickname "The Crooked One."

Enraged at Uranus and his actions, Gaea eventually forged a scythe within the earth. She then gathered her remaining children to free their brothers and overthrow their arrogant and sadistic father. Initially, only Cronus would agree to help his mother, who gave him the sickle. He was able to convince all of his Titan brothers (except for Oceanus) to aid him in their father's murder. Cronus' sisters Theia, Tethys, Themis, Phoebe, Mnemosyne, and Rhea refused to participate as well.

Murder of Uranus
While preparing to ambush his father, Cronus asked his mother to distract his father in the earth (as Uranus would lose power out of his domain) while he hid himself behind an enormous boulder along with his brothers Hyperion, Iapetus, Crius, and Coeus. After his brothers held the struggling Uranus down, Cronus used his sickle and severed his genitals, claiming his supremacy over the universe. However, right before Cronus sliced him up, Uranus predicted that one day Cronus himself would suffer the same fate at the hands of his own child. Then, Uranus' form was spread so thin that was never able to form a consciousness again.

​​​​​​Afterwards, Cronus hurled Uranus' genitalia into the sea as a gesture of loathing against his brother Oceanus for not helping slay their father. Uranus' blood spilled across the earth, from which many creatures came forth, including the Furies, satyrs, centaurs and nymphs. Much later, the blood from Uranus' severed genitalia would mix with the ocean spray to form sea foam, from which Aphrodite sprung forth.

The Titan King of Mount Othrys
As he had promised, Cronus granted the brothers who helped him control of the four corners of the world and released his Elder Cyclopes and Hekatonkerie brothers from Tartarus. In return, they built a magnificent black marble palace for Cronus on the top of Mount Othrys (then the tallest mountain in Greece), and a massive obsidian throne encrusted with gold and diamonds. Believing everything was fine now, their mother decided to rest for many thousands of years.

During his reign, Cronus would usher in an era of peace and prosperity for the Titans, which would later become known as the "Golden Age." His reign is repeatedly referred to in Greek and Roman mythology as one of the best times in all of history for humanity. The Roman poet Ovid wrote about this in his Metamorphoses: ''Aurea prīma sata est aetās, quae vindice nūllō, sponte suā, sine lēge fidem rēctumque colēbat. Poena metusque aberant, nec verba minantia fīxō aere legēbantur, nec supplex turba timēbat iūdicis ōra sui, sed erant sine vindice tūtī, ''"The first golden age was sown, which with no avenger, but their own free will, cultivated faith and righteousness without law. Punishment and fear were absent, nor were threatening words read in fixed bronze, nor did a host suppliant fear the face of their judge, but they were protected, without a vindicator" (89-93).

However, it should be noted that the Golden Age was mere propaganda and mortals were only seen as fast food or cheap entertainment. As the Titan of Time, Cronus particularly relished time's destructive properties, being immortal himself. He would often travel the world and speed up the lives of random plants, animals and humans, sadistically watch them wither up and die.

By this time, Cronus would frequently approach his clairvoyant brother Coeus with questions about the future. His nephew Atlas would soon grow up to become his most powerful and loyal follower, General of his forces.

Marriage to Rhea
Fearing his father's prediction that he would be overpowered by one of his own children, Cronus had initially vowed to stay a bachelor forever. However, after all five of Cronus' elder siblings got married and had many children, they no longer visited him on Mount Othrys. While they claimed to be too busy, Cronus knew that the actual reason was their secret fear of his might and infamous temper.

Furthermore, Cronus began to fall deeply in love with Rhea, his most beautiful sister. He seemed to believe that marrying her would improve his personality and induce his siblings to visit him more often. In the end, Cronus confessed his deep feelings for Rhea and proposed to her. To Cronus' great delight, Rhea accepted. Their wedding was held at Mount Othrys. Rhea had one bridesmaid, her sister Tethys. He  had one best man, his loyal brother Hyperion. All the Titans were allowed to come. It was a beautiful day with a clear sky, blossoming flowers, and a waterfall behind them. Rhea walked down a carpet of flowers. Her two loyal lions accompanied her at the reception, which was served with nectar and ambrosia.

Birth of the Olympian Gods
A few weeks after her and Cronus' wonderful honeymoon, Rhea gave birth to their first child: a beautiful girl named Hestia. At first, Cronus seemed willing to be a good father and not to resemble his own father. However, Cronus suddenly realized that Hestia wasn't a Titaness, but rather, a more powerful and beautiful immortal (a goddess). Fearing that Hestia might one day overpower him, Cronus quickly swallowed her whole, to Rhea's horror. Trying to calm down his beloved wife, Cronus would give her many gifts and invite her to multiple magnificent dinners.

Rhea would give birth to two even more beautiful daughters (Demeter and Hera) and two handsome sons (Hades and Poseidon), all of whom were gods. As before, Cronus feared that any one of them might one day overpower him and swallowed all of them whole. Rhea pleaded with Cronus to spare their children but with no success, since even Cronus' great love for Rhea wasn't enough to overpower his selfish and evil nature. For his savagery towards his own children, Cronus became known as "King Cannibal." All five of their children had been growing undigested in Cronus' stomach, being immortal gods.

A distraught Rhea soon heard the voice of her mother Gaia, advising her to give birth to her final child (who would save his other siblings) on the island of Crete. Claiming that Coeus advised her to do so, Rhea successfully departed for Crete. There, in a cave at the base of Mount Ida, she gave birth to her sixth and final child, whom she named Zeus. Rhea gave her newborn son the nine nymphs that attended his birth and returned to Mount Othrys. She used a huge smooth boulder (given to her by Gaea) to deceive the weakened Cronus (who had five gods inside of him) by wrapping it up in swaddling clothes and pretending that it was her final child. Cronus swallowed it without even looking, which gave him an intense stomach ache).

Re-Imprisoning his Brothers
Cronus grew disgusted by all of the unbearable noise that his Hekatonkerie and Elder Cyclopes brothers constantly made and their revolting stench. Hence, Cronus, Hyperion and Atlas (the three strongest Titans) overpowered all six of his younger brothers, chained them up, and hurled them into Tartarus once again. This time, they were guarded by Kampê, the most ferocious and terrifying monster in all of Tartarus that the Titan King personally hired.

Zeus Rescues His Siblings
When Zeus grew to adulthood, he transformed into a Titanic version of himself and successfully infiltrated Mount Othrys at his mother's advice. Rhea convinced Cronus to hire him as his royal cupbearer. With the help of his great singing, dancing and joking skills, Zeus was able to constantly entertain all of the Titans at Mount Othrys, even Cronus himself. Shortly thereafter, Zeus encouraged the Titans to participate in drinking contests. As the Titan King, Cronus would always win, since he couldn't let his siblings, nieces or nephews overcome him in anything. Finally, the Titan King began trusting Zeus completely, which is exactly what the latter was waiting for.

One evening when Cronus was dining together with his brothers and nephews, Zeus prepared a special set of drinks for them all. Zeus prepared nectar mixed with the sleeping potion to Cronus' guests, while he prepared an extremely powerful emetic (made from nectar mixed with mustard) for Cronus himself. Near the end of the grand banquet, Zeus encouraged all of the Titans to have yet another drinking contest and handed out the prepared goblets. As before, Cronus won the contest, but Zeus' emetic was so powerful, that it forced him to instantly disgorge all of the contents of his stomach, in reverse order of swallowing: first the boulder, then Poseidon, followed by Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. They escaped before their Titan relatives could recover properly.

The First Titanomachy
All six of Cronus' divine children quickly declared war against their father and other Titans, which resulted in the terrifying eleven-year-long Titanomachy. Rhea convinced all the female Titans and Oceanus to remain neutral all side with her children.

Cronus, their brothers and their children initially had the upper hand in the battles, since they were very skilled and much more experienced warriors. However, the gods quickly became skilled warriors as well, and with the help of their new extremely powerful weapons (Zeus' Master Bolt, Poseidon's Trident, and Hades' Helm of Darkness) and the aid of the Elder Cyclopes and Hekatonkeries, the gods finally prevailed. During the final battle, Zeus and his siblings ascended to Mount Olympus (the tallest mountain in Greece after Mount Othrys), used his Master Bolt to shear off the top of Mount Othrys, and hurled Cronus from his black throne, defeating the Titan King. Shortly thereafter, the gods invaded the ruins of Mount Othrys, and finally overwhelmed the remaining Titans.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Titans were all chained up by the Elder Cyclopes, after which the Hekatonkeries forced them to kneel before the gods. Zeus proceeded to take his father's sickle and slice him into a thousand pieces just as the Titan Lord had done to his own father, before casting him into Tartarus, along with his brothers Hyperion, Crius, Coeus and Iapetus. Only Cronus' mighty former second-in-command, Atlas, received a different punishment, as he was forced to hold up the sky while being chained to the ruins of Mount Othrys.