୨⎯ Krios ⎯୧

KRIOS (Crius) was one of the elder Titanes (Titans), sons of Ouranos (Uranus, Sky) and Gaia (Gaea, Earth). Led by Kronos (Cronus), the brothers conspired against their father and prepared an ambush as he descended to lie with Earth. Krios, Koios (Coeus), Hyperion and Iapetos (Iapetus) were posted at the four corners of the world where they seized hold of the sky-god and held him firm, while Kronos, hidden in the centre, castrated him with a sickle.

In this myth the four brothers probably represent the four cosmic pillars separating heaven and earth which are described in near-Eastern cosmogonies. Krios was likely the southern pillar, while his brothers Koios, Iapetos, and Hyperion were the pillars of the north, east and west respectively. Krios' connection with the south is found both in his name and family connections:-he is "the Ram," the constellation Aries, whose springtime rising in the south marked the start of the Greek year; his eldest son is Astraios (Astraeus), god of the stars; and his wife is Eurybia, a daughter of the sea.

The Titanes (Titans) were eventually deposed by Zeus and cast into the pit of Tartaros (Tartarus). Hesiod describes this as a void located beneath the foundations of all, where earth, sea and sky have their roots. Here the Titanes shift in cosmological terms from being holders of heaven to bearers of the entire cosmos. According to Pindar and Aeschylus (in his lost play Prometheus Unbound) the Titanes were eventually released from the pit through the clemency of Zeus.