Kronos

"Finally! The Olympian Council- so proud and mighty. Which seat of power shall I destroy first?"

- Kronos

Kronos (Κρόνος in Ancient Greek, also known as Cronus) is the king of the Titan and most powerful child child of Gaea and Ouranos. Kronos acts as the primary antagonist in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, being directly responsible for some of the major events in the series. Kronos is the Titan Lord of Fate, Harvest, Justice, and Time whose Roman counterpart is Saturn.

History
The Titans were the youngest of the three sets of offspring born to Gaea the Earth and Ouranos the Sky after the Hekatonkheires and the Cyclopes respectively. All were detested by their father but he both feared and hated the elder children so much that he imprisoned them in the abyss of Tartarus. Enraged, Gaea petitioned her remaining children to avenge their brothers and overthrow their tyrannical parent. Kronos was the boldest and youngest of the Titans thus only he would agree to help his mother in her revenge. Using a scythe fashioned by Gaea, he sliced Ouranos into a thousand pieces and claimed his supremacy over the universe.

During his reign, Kronos would usher in an era of peace and prosperity for the Titans and took his sister, Rhea as his bride and queen. His rule would also see the genesis of mankind and be called their "Golden Age". However, Kronos abandoned his forgotten siblings beneath the earth to their fates out of the belief that they would only pose a threat to his authority. In addition, he viewed mortals as little more than useless. He would go as far as to become a more terrible father than even his own.

At the height of his power, Kronos was warned by Gaea that he would be supplanted by his own child just as he had usurped his father long before. Determined to avoid this fate, he decided to swallow each of his five children alive so that they can never challenge him. A griefstricken and horrified Rhea pleaded with Kronos to spare their children with no success but he fatally underestimated the strength of her resolve to protect her children. Kronos' wife secretly gave birth to his sixth child on Mount Ida and deceived her husband into devouring a swaddled stone instead. This rescued son would be named Zeus and it would be he whom would machinate his father's downfall.

Knowing that any children he fathered with Rhea were potentially dangerous, Kronos would have a brief affair that produced Chiron. When Zeus grew to adulthood, he infiltrated his father's palace on Mount Othrys and slipped a concoction into the Titan Lord's drink which forced him to disgorge Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon. Kronos' children quickly declared war against him and eventually triumphed in the consequent Titanomachy where his followers were banished and their king was dismembered into thousands of pieces by the very weapon used to eviscerate Ouranos.

The Lightning Thief
Knowing of the resentment between demigods and their parents, Kronos decided to use this to his advantage and find a worthy follower willing to oppose Olympus. Kronos found this follower in Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes. Kronos contacted Luke in his dreams and manipulated him to his cause, ordering him to steal the Master Bolt and the Helm of Darkness, the legendary weapons of Zeus and Hades, respectively, which would start a civil war amongst the Gods.

Luke succeeded in stealing the bolt and the helm during a camp field trip to Mount Olympus, but Luke was caught and defeated by Ares. Kronos saved Luke by manipulating Ares through the Demigod, telling Ares that if the weapons were successfully stolen, a war would begin. Ares let Luke take the weapons, but Luke was later punished by Kronos through nightmares. When Luke promised never to fail him again, Kronos told him that a boy would be coming to Camp Half-Blood soon, and they would use that boy to send the Master Bolt and the Helm of Darkness to Tartarus, where Kronos would be able to gain them and possibly use them to break free. That boy turned out to be Percy.

The Sea of Monsters
Kronos makes a brief appearance in The Sea of Monsters, when Luke explains to Percy that when demigods join his cause they make the Olympians weaker and make Kronos stronger. It's later revealed that the whole quest is a trick to bring Thalia back so Kronos can have another chance to control the Great Prophecy.

The Battle of the Labyrinth
Kronos appears on Mount Orthys, when Percy goes through the path in the Labyrinth that Hera opened. Ethan swears loyalty to the Titan. Kronos, in the appearance of Luke, comes back from Tartarus, invulnerable because Luke bathed in the River Styx. Kronos' Sythce was created in Mount Saint Helens out of Backbiter.

The Last Olympian
Kronos is on the Princess Andromeda, where he almost kills Percy. He led the attack at New York but only could do it at night. He later makes his last appearance when Luke betrays Kronos, stabbing himself in the one place where he could be harmed. Kronos was spread to the wind, hopefully spread so thin, so he could never make a form again.

Personality
Kronos has a callous disposition with an insatiable appetite for power. his ruthlessness is such that even his own children are meaningless to him. In addition, he is also cunning and manipulative which is why he is the "Crooked One" for his ability to use both allies and enemies to do his bidding.

Appearance
Kronos is described with cruel golden eyes and a voice that sounds heavy, cold, metallic and ancient. Percy has often stated that it sounds like a 'knife scraping on stone.' His true appearance is unknown since the only time he is seen is in Luke's body, although Dionysus states that if he took on his true form as that of a Titan King, even being in the same room as him would incinerate you. It is unknown, however, if he would need to transform into his Divine Form for this to happen. It is also stated in the book that a Titan (or at least Kronos' form) is 10 times as powerful as a god.

Abilities

 * Kronos is arguably the most powerful of all of the Titans. He is described by Percy as making Typhon look like a "playground bully" (in his true form), though this likely is an exaggeration.
 * He has the power to control time around him. During The Last Olympian, he was able to slow down time around Manhattan during the course of the battle.
 * He can communicate with demigods through dreams and attempt to manipulate them. However, a child of the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) is apparently more resistant, and his own children can block his attempts to pry into their minds.
 * He has a scythe which can sever the soul from the body.
 * Kronos presumably possesses the standard powers of a God or Titan.
 * He has powers shared with other Titans; both he and Hyperion have an ability to release an incredible wave of force (or energy), usually accompanied by a yell or a flick of the hand.
 * It is implied in The Last Olympian that he has telekinesis when his scythe flies out of his hand and he wills it to fly back.
 * His scythe can create "portals", as it did to Luke in Backbiter form.
 * As a Titan, his Divine Form is so powerful that one only needs to be in his presence to be completely incinerated, as stated in The Last Olympian by Dionysus.

The Lightning Thief
Oddly, Kronos did not have an important part in the film and his role was limited to a passing mention by Chiron. It is unclear if he was the one who made Luke believe that the heroes should take over and if he had any association with the theft of Zeus' Master Bolt. Luke stated it was him who wanted the demigods to rule Olympus, not Kronos (though this could be a lie or rather Kronos twisted his will to make him think so).

Trivia

 * His daughter Demeter says that he has no appreciation of agriculture, yet ironically, he is the Titan of the Harvest.
 * In some Myths, Kronos actually was a good Titan; he was sometimes known as a kind ruler of Rome and taught them agriculture and peace, and Zeus overthrew him for power of the world, which had changed him.
 * In Roman mythology, Kronos was named Saturn. The sixth planet from the sun was later named Saturn and the Romans had a celebration called Saturnalia named for Saturn on the winter solstice.
 * In The Lost Hero, it was stated that during the Battle of Manhattan, Jason Grace led the Roman demigods to attack Mount Orthys and that he himself 'toppled the black throne of Kronos'. If a god's throne (or a Titan's throne presumably) is destroyed, they are severely weakened; this is possibly what gave Luke Castellan the power to control himself, with Kronos in a weakened state. This also implies that Kronos will never reform again without a seat of power.
 * At one point Percy realizes Kronos is technically his parental grandfather, and finds this disturbing.
 * Despite being a Greek-Roman Titan, he possessed a human like an Egyptian God.