Uranus fathered the Titans. Then he confined the Cyclopes, who troubled him, in Tartarus, a place in the depths of the Earth. An anvil falling downwards needed nine days to reach Tartarus—such was the distance. The Earth, angered by Uranus, urged the Titans to rebel, and the youngest among them, Cronus, one evening, taking advantage of the fact that Uranus was about to unite with the Mother, castrated him with a flint sickle. The blood that splattered onto the earth gave birth to the Erinyes, and from his genitals, which fell near Cape Drepanon, Aphrodite was born, rising from the sea. The Titans freed the Cyclopes and made Cronus their king.
He, in turn, confined the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-Handed Giants in Tartarus, married his sister Rhea, and ruled the world as a tyrant—worse even than his father Uranus, whom he had castrated and exiled, some say to Ausonia, that is, Italy. Cronus, known to the Latins as Saturn, was also called Father Time, who advanced inexorably with his sickle. He had to build his world and at the same time ensure its endurance. So, as mentioned, he proceeded in this way (poor fools who believe in liberators!): he once again exiled the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-Handed Giants to Tartarus; he married, willingly or not, his sister Rhea; and he ruled the world without disturbance. In practice, one tyrant was replaced by an even worse one.
An unfavorable prophecy told him that he would be dethroned by one of his children, so Cronus thought it best to devour every child Rhea bore. He swallowed without remorse Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Hera, and finally Poseidon (we will later see who these figures were). We have not yet said that the prophecy had been given by Mother Earth and a dying Uranus.
Rhea, more than a little vexed by Cronus’s behavior, and following the counsel of Mother Earth, devised a stratagem to prevent her last child, Zeus, from being devoured like the others. After secretly giving birth to him, she hid him carefully. She picked up a large stone, wrapped it in swaddling cloths, and offered it to an unsuspecting Cronus, who swallowed it without hesitation. Meanwhile Zeus had been taken to Crete, and suspended in a cradle hung from a tree—so that he could be said to be neither in the sky nor on the earth—he grew up in secrecy, nursed by the goat Amalthea (whom we shall soon meet again). My goodness, what stories!
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