Nolan Preece

for the Ouranos and Kronos Nolangram and the Communicable Disease project

In the beginning there was Chaos, Gaia (Earth) and Eros. And Chaos begat Erebos and Night while Gaia begat Ouranos and Okeanos. Ouranos was at first only to protect Gaia but they coupled and became the first gods to rule the world. Together they begat the twelve Titans: Okeanos, Koios, Kreios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Kronos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe and Tethys; the three Kyklopes: Brontes, Steropes and Arges; and finally, the three-handed giants: Kottos, Gyges and Briares.

Ouranos became suspicious of his offspring, fearing he would lose his throne to them when they matured. He made his wife hide their children deep in her bowels, but Gaia’s motherly instincts overcame her conjugal solidarity and she used her intelligence to free her children. She had to take away her husband’s strength; therefore she armed her youngest child, Kronos, with a sickle and planned an appropriate moment for him to cut off his father’s genitals.

Kronos carried out his mother’s wishes and from the seed of Ouranos that fell into the sea Aphrodite was born and from his blood spilt upon the earth were created the Fates, the Giants and the Meliai Nymphs.

Kronos succeeded his father, Ouranos, and took his sister Rhea as his wife. He freed the rest of his brothers from the bowels of the earth and shared some of his power with them.

When Rhea presented Kronos with their first child, like his father he too felt his throne was threatened. He decided to swallow all of his children to protect his throne. Once again it was the mother who opposed the intensions of a powerful father. Rhea secretly saved her youngest child, Zeus, by wrapping a stone in swaddling clothes. Kronos swallowed the stone thinking it was Zeus but Zeus had been taken safely to Mount Dikte in Crete where he was to be raised by the Nymphs.