Also called Cronus, Saturn (Roman).
Their story
Kronos was the youngest Titan, who castrated his father Uranus with a sickle at Gaia's urging. Warned that a child would overthrow him, he swallowed his children until Rhea tricked him with a stone. Zeus forced him to disgorge them and defeated him in the war of the Titans. Yet Hesiod also remembers his reign as the golden age, when people lived without toil.
Their day
Saturday. The planetary day of Saturn, Kronos's Roman counterpart.
Best times to give to them
- The Kronia, on the twelfth of Hekatombaion (July to August), when masters and slaves feasted together
- After the grain harvest
- Saturdays, in modern practice
What they like being given
- Grain or bread
- Figs
- A shared meal with everyone in the house at the same table
How to honour them
- Hold a meal where no one serves and no one is served, as at the Kronia.
- Reflect on what you are holding onto too tightly.
- Mark endings with gratitude before starting again.
How they can help you
- Endings and harvests
- Letting go of control
- Equality and shared feasting
Symbols
- sickle
- harp (the adamant sickle)
- grain
His link with time comes from a later confusion with chronos, the word for time.
Sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 137-138, 154-210, 453-506
- Hesiod, Works and Days 109-120
- Burkert, Greek Religion (1985)