Kronos

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

- Kronos Kronos (Κρόνος in Ancient Greek) is the Titan Lord and the primary antagonist of the Percy Jackson series. His name's pronunciation is similar (though different) to Chronos ("Time" in Ancient Greek, with which he was identified in more modern times), and he is the Titan Lord of Time. Let it be recognized, that Kronosor Cronus the Titan of the harvest, was combined with the Protogenos Chronos for the series, as they are two very different gods in Greek mythology. He is the son of Gaia and Ouranos, the father of the Olympian gods, and the King of the Titans. Kronos or Cronus wants to take over Olympus. He possessed Luke Castellan and was using his body as a shell. Kronos is the father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, as well of Hestia, Demeter, Chiron and Hera.

His mother is Gaia, the Primal Goddess of Earth, his father Ouranos, the Primal God of Sky and his brother is Oceanus, Primal God of the Sea. He is most referred to as the Crooked One because he manipulates the plot and secretly twists others to his own corrupt will. His Roman counterpart is Saturn, who doesn't seem as evil as his Greek counterpart, as he was said to have taught the Romans about the ways of harvest and agriculture.

Early Life
It should be noted that his early life is much like Zeus', who like the aforementioned Zeus was the youngest and most powerful of his siblings, and was asked to defeat his father by his mother. Kronos was one of the Titans born to Ouranos and Gaia. But Ouranos despised the ugliness of the Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires, so he banished them to Tartarus. Gaia was enraged. She offered the title of ruler of the world to whichever of the Titans defeated him. Kronos, the youngest and the most powerful, was the only one who dared to challenge his own father using a sickle (scythe in the books). Using this mighty weapon, he attacked and greatly injured Ouranos and gained the mantle of ruler of the world for himself.

Golden Age
Although Kronos( or Cronus) swore to free his siblings from Tartarus after destroying Ouranos, he became obsessed with the power that he didn't remained true to his word. He married his sister Rhea, but not even his love for her quenched his lust for power.



When the two had children, he began to fear that one of them would overthrow him as he had his own father. To stop this, he swallowed his children as they were born. It was then that Rhea began to see her husband's mad and selfish nature. Making her choice, she hid one of her children and gave a rock in a blanket to Kronos in it's place. The child was raised by Gaia and the nymphs, and eventually grew up to become the mighty god Zeus.

Meanwhile, Kronos created man, and from here began the golden age of man. Theft was not invented. The people smiled on each other. Everyone had sweet, blissful content.

However, Zeus learned of his heritage and plotted to free his siblings in order to overthrow Kronos. His wife Metis, who decided to aid in this plan, slipped Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which caused him to vomit the gods he had eaten, who reunited with his siblings and planned rebellion against the lord of the Titans. With this, the Titanomachy (first olympian war) had begun with humankind swept in with it.

War With the Gods
The war between the gods and the Titans lasted for ten years. However, the Gods claimed victory, slicing Kronos into pieces with his own sickle (scythe in the books) and casting his remains into Tartarus.

The Lightning Thief
Kronos, knowing of the resentment demigods had towards their parents, decided to use this to his advantage and find a worthy follower willing to oppose Olympus. Kronos found this follower in the form of Luke, 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.

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 Nakamura swears loyalty to the Titan. Kronos, in the appearance of Luke, comes back from Tartarus, invulnerable because Luke bathed in the River Styx.

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.

Physical Description
Kronos is described with golden eyes, voice that sounds like a scraping knife. He is good at gloating and has the epithet 'The Crooked One' for the his ability to make his enemies serve his own ends. 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 into his Divine Form for this to happen and in the book it is also stated that a titan is 10 times as powerful as a god.

Powers

 * 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 a an exaggeration.
 * Has the power to control time around him (also known as chronokinesis). "Why turn them to stone, when you can freeze time itself" is one of many quotes of pride about himself.
 * He can communicate with demigods through dreams and attempt to manipulate them but a child of the Big Three is apparently more resistant and his own children can block his attempts to pry into their mind.
 * He has a scythe which can 'sever the body from the soul'.
 * Kronos presumably possesses the standard powers of a God.
 * 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 scream.
 * It is implied in The Last Olympian that he has telekinesis when his scythe flies out of his hand and he makes it fly back.
 * His scythe can teleport the wielder, as it did to Luke in Backbiter form. "He slashed his sword in an arc and vanished in a ripple of darkness" is how Percy described it.
 * As a Titan, his divine form is so powerful that one only needs to be in the his presence to be completely vaporized, as stated in The Last Olympian by Dionysus.

Film
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.

Trivia

 * His daughter Demeter says that he has no appreciation of agriculture, yet ironically, he is the Titan of Harvest.
 * In some Myths, Kronos actually was a good titan; he was sometimes known as kindly Father Time, 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.