Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

The stone of Kronos

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him in her arms she hid him "in a sheer cave beneath the coverts of earth
divine", bon Mount Aigaion1 thickly clad with woods b.] But to him she handed
a great stone wrapped in swaddling bands, "even to the son of Ouranos, ruling
in might, the former king of the godsp. That he then took in his hands and
bestowed in his own belly, poor wretch, nor marked in his mind how that in
place of the stone his own son was left behind, unvanquished and unvexed, who
was soon like to overcome him by might and main and drive him forth from
honour, himself to rule over the immortals.

TAnd quickly2 thereafter waxed the strength and splendid limbs of the
prince; and as the year came round again, "beguiled by Gaia's prudent
Promptings", great Kronos of the crooked blade brought up again his offspring,

vanquished by the arts and might of his own sonb. And he vomited first the
stone that he swallowed last3. This Zeus set up in the wide-wayed earth at
goodly Pytho beneath the glens of Parnassos, to be a sign thenceforward and
a marvel to mortal men.

And he freed from their baleful bonds the brothers of his father, sons of
Ouranos whom his father in the Mightiness of his thoughts had bound. Grateful
they were to him and mindful of his benefits, for they gave him thunder and the
burning bolt and lightning, which ere that huge Gaia had hidden. Trusting in
these he rules over mortals and immortals.]

The swallowing of the stone by Kronos was variously located.

Some said that it happened on Mount Thaumasion in Arkadia4;
°thers, on a rocky summit called Petrachos at Chaironeia in

Boiotia5.

Be that as it may, the myth was accepted on the authority of
Hesiod and made a lasting impression on the writers and artists of
tne ancient world.

The fifth century minimised the horrors. A red-figured kratcr
w'th columnar handles, painted by one of the Attic ' Manieristen6'
c- 460—450 B.C., found in Sicily and now in the Louvre7, has for
°bverse design (fig. 775, af a noble figure of king Kronos9, originally

t Supra ii. 925 n. [.

he ^rae,:ernatural rapidity of growth is characteristic of gods (supra i. 647, 695) and

f°es and even of divine trees (supra p. 760).
foal • '1's Previ°us digestive feats we hear only that he swallowed a horse, or at least a
Vat' 10 P'ace °f Poseidon (supra i. 181 n. o). But a different account is given in Myth.

3- 15. 10 (infra p. 936 n. „,
Supra i. i5+ n. ,0. 5 Supra i. 154, ii. 901 n. 1.

''at.
4

(J » KJ-T -•----

p. ,tgBeazley Attic red-figured Vases in American Museums Cambridge Mass. 1918

7 p "'. Attisthe Vasenmalcr des rotfigurigcn Slils Tubingen 1925 p. 250 no. 39.
3"nc . ler *--at- Vases du Louvre iii. 1092 no. G 366, id. Vases antiques du Louvre
5 (obv*16 ^ar's I922 V- 23<> n°. G 366, id. in the Corp. vases ant. Louvre iii 1. d pi. 28,

8 Ter^' 6 (reverse), 7 (detail) with text p. 18 nos. 5—7.

fig. *t'. XVitte 'Cronos et Rhea' in the Gaz. Arch. 1875 1. 30—33 pi. 9 ( = my
^issov ' M" Mayer in Koscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1551 ff. fig. 3, M. Pohlenz in Pauly—

%• 436)' ''^t'1"century head of Kronos on a silver coin of Himera (supra ii. 558

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