Cronus

Cronus: see Kronos.

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Cronus

 or Cronos or Kronos

In Greek religion, a male agricultural deity. He was the youngest of the 12 Titans borne by Uranus and Gaea, and his castration of his father separated heaven from earth. With his sister and consort Rhea, he fathered Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, all of whom he swallowed because he had been warned that he would be overthrown by his own child. Rhea hid his son Zeus and tricked Cronus into swallowing a stone; Zeus later forced Cronus to disgorge the others and then vanquished him in war. He was identified with the Roman god Saturn.

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Cronus 

in ancient Greek mythology, a Titan, son of Uranus and Gaea (Earth).

Fearing that he would die at the hands of one of his own children, Uranus sent them back into the bowels of the earth. Therefore Gaea, exhausted from the burden, persuaded Cronus, the last-born, to castrate Uranus. Cronus became the supreme god. Fearing in turn for his own authority, Cronus swallowed the children he sired by the Titan Rhea, until she succeeded in hiding Zeus, whom she raised secretly. Upon reaching maturity, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge the children he had swallowed, and they formed the generation of Olympian gods. Cronus himself and the other Titans who were conquered by Zeus were imprisoned in Tartarus. According to a later version of the myth, Cronus was subsequently removed to the Isles of the Blest. Hence, in the minds of the ancient Greeks, the “reign of Cronus” corresponded to a mythical “golden age.”

Originally Cronus was apparently worshiped as a god of agriculture. The Romans identified Cronus with their local god, Saturn. The image of Cronus (Saturn) devouring his children has been depicted in the arts (for example, by Rubens and Goya).