In Greek mythology, Cronus (also spelt Kronos) is a Titan and the youngest son of Uranus (Heaven/Sky) and Gaia (Earth). He dethroned Uranus and became the world's first king, ruling over his siblings and fellow Titans. Cronus married his sister Rhea and was eventually overthrown by his son Zeus.
Cronus' origin story is most famously told in Hesiod's (c. 700 BCE) Theogony. He is linked to the Roman god Saturn, the Egyptian god Geb, the Phoenician Ēl, and the Hittite/Hurrian god Kumarbi.
According to Hesiod, Cronus was the youngest child of Uranus, the primordial deity of heaven and the sky, and Gaia, the primordial deity of the earth. Uranus and Gaia had six male Titans and six female Titans (Titanides):
And then she lay with Heaven, and bore
Deep-whirling Oceanus and Koios; then
Kreius, Iapetos, Hyperion,
Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne,
Lovely Tethys, and Phoebe, golden-crowned.
Last, after these, most terrible of sons,
The crooked-scheming Kronos came to birth
Who was his vigorous father's enemy.
(Hesiod, Theogony, 131-138)
The Titans are rarely represented in art and are not found in many myths; however, they played an essential role in the creation story of the Olympian gods. Uranus and Gaia also gave birth to the Cyclopes (giants with one eye) and the Hecatonchires (giants with a hundred hands).
