Cronus
Kronos (Greek Κρόνος ) In Greek mythology, the youngest son of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven), leader of the Titans and father of Zeus. In Roman mythology, Saturn corresponds to it (us).
Etymology
His name was equated in the ancient folk etymology very early ( in Orphism ) with the time of God Chronos ( Χρόνος ), but this is etymologically incorrect; originally there were two different gods, which were then merged in some traditions together. The question of the correct etymology is disputed; It has been suggested a derivation of kraíno, then Kronos would be the "Closer ". More likely, however, that the name is pre-Greek origin and therefore Kronos was taken from a pre-Greek tradition.
Mythology
In the early days of mythology Kronos had no fixed place in the genealogy of the gods; of the various versions of the myth has become the traditional Hesiod enforced, which makes Cronus to a son of Uranus and Gaia.
Since Uranus his children - the Cyclopes and Hekatonchires - hated so much that he banished them to Tartarus, Gaia brought her other children - the Titans - in secret to the world. They eventually donated to Kronos to castrate his father with a sickle.
Cronus became the ruler of the world and the founder of the Golden Age. After the presentation of Hesiod ( Theogony 446ff. ) Kronos by his sister Rhea ( Rhea ) was taken to the husband. For fear of being ousted himself, but he ate all the children who emerged from this relationship: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon, the Kroniden. The youngest son, however, Zeus, Rhea hid on the advice of Gaia and Uranus in the cave of Psychro in Dikti Mountains in Crete, while the Kronos handed over a wound in a diaper stone that swallowed this without noticing the deception. So Zeus could grow undisturbed. Later, Zeus succeeded to overcome his father with deceit and violence, followed Cronos only spit out the stone and then his entwined children. The stone, Zeus set at the place of worship Pytho (Delphi ) so that he will be there admired by mortals.
The Orphic told that one day Cronus by the then flowing from the oaks honey lay intoxicated and was so captivated by Zeus. Subsequently, this led him to the " Isle of the Blessed ", the Elysian fields, which lie on the edge of the earth, where Kronos until today while. Therefore, there still holding the Golden Age, which had with his disempowerment found for the rest of the known world to an end. After the Libraries of Apollodorus Metis, the first love of Zeus, was to assist this in the disempowerment of the Father, by handing him the potion, the Kronos stunned and finally compelled him to give all children previously tangled again by itself.
Worship
Kronos was a relatively shadowy figure from mythology, which was venerated only to a very limited extent. However, there was a him celebrated in honor rural festival that Kronien. The spat from him stone was worshiped at Delphi; you anoint it daily with oil and wrapped him on holidays with woolen bandages. He is not to be confused with another well established in Delphi and revered stone, the omphalos. The stone cult was widespread in the ancient Mediterranean.