Cronus

“ The youngest child of the Greek Heaven and Earth was ‘Cronus of crooked counsel, who ever hated his mighty sire.’ Now even as the children of the Maori Heaven and Earth were ‘concealed between the hollows of their parents’ breasts,’ so the Greek Heaven used to ‘hide his children from the light in the hollows of Earth.’ Both Earth and her children resented this, and, as in New Zealand, the children conspired against Heaven, taking Earth, however, into their counsels. ”

“ Cronus is often represented as an old man leaning on a scythe, with an hour-glass in his hand. The hour-glass symbolizes the fast-fleeting moments as they succeed each other unceasingly; the scythe is emblematical of time, which mows down all before it.
SATURN.
The Romans, according to their custom of identifying their deities with those of the Greek gods whose attributes were similar to their own, declared Cronus to be identical with their old agricultural divinity Saturn. ”

“ The myth of the swallowing and disgorging of his own children by Cronus was another of the stumbling-blocks of Greek orthodoxy. The common explanation, that Time (Κρόνος) does swallow his children, the days, is not quite satisfactory. Time brings never the past back again, as Cronus did. Besides, the myth of the swallowing is not confined to Cronus. Modern philology has given, as usual, different analyses of the meaning of the name of the god. ”

“ Krāna means, it appears, der für sich schaffende, he who creates for himself, and Cronus is compared to the Indian Pragapati, about whom even more abominable stories are told than the myths which circulate to the prejudice of Cronus. According to Kuhn, the ‘swallow-myth’ [Pg 60] means that Cronus, the lord of light and dark powers, swallows the divinities of light. But in place of Zeus (that is, according to Kuhn, of the daylight sky) he swallows a stone, that is the sun. When he disgorges the stone (the sun) , he also disgorges the gods of light whom he had swallowed. ”

“ Müller does not appear to explain, though he started by declaring that myths like these were precisely what wanted explaining. "Among the lowest tribes of Africa and America we hardly find anything more revolting." [28]
Among explanations of Cronus and his legend which do not regard him as a myth or allegory of time, we have our choice between two leading and contradictory hypotheses. To the mind of Schwartz, Cronus is a storm-god, a god of the dark tempest. ”

“ This, then, is our interpretation of the exploit of Cronus. It is an old surviving nature-myth of the severance of Heaven and Earth, a myth found in China, India, New Zealand, as well as in Greece. Of course it is not pretended that Chinese and Maoris borrowed from Indians and Greeks, or came originally of the same stock. Similar phenomena, presenting themselves to be explained by human minds in a similar stage of fancy and of ignorance, will account for the parallel myths. ”

“ We are forced to listen and to admit that his method of working is in principle both simple and sound. Thus when he finds a civilized people in possession of a savage myth or a savage rite, he tries to find, for the purposes of comparison, the like myth or the like rite cherished by savages, among whom the meaning of the same is well known or easy to ascertain. This has been successfully done [5] with the Greek myth of Cronus, which is not only instructive as an instance of the true method, but important to us as bearing on one of the subjects of this lecture. ”

“ All Greek temples had their fetich-stones, and each stone had its legend. This was the story of the Delphian stone, and of the fetichism which survived the early years of Christianity. A very pretty story it is. Savages more frequently smear their fetich-stones with red paint than daub them with oil, but the latter, as we learn from Theophrastus’s account of the ‘superstitious man,’ was the Greek ritual. *⁠*⁠* This anecdote about Cronus was the stumbling-block of the orthodox Greek, the jest of the sceptic, and the butt of the early Christian controversialists. ”

“ The highest place is given to Infinite Time, without sex or passions, or properly without even a name, although in order to bring him within the vulgar ken, he may be called Cronus or Saturn and imaged in stone as a lion, wrapped in the coils of a snake.3099 He is the author of life and death; he carries the keys of heaven, and in his limitless sway, he is identified with the unbending power of Fate. ”

“ Like the Cronos of the Greeks, he (Baal, Moloch, the sun-god) slew his own son Sadid" (which, however, Cronus did not do) "and cut off his daughter's head with the sword, while he rent his father, the sky, into pieces, filling the streams and rivers with the blood that flowed from the mangled corpse. Here" (says Professor Sayce) "the veil of the legend can be easily lifted. The blood of the sky is the rain which is poured upon the earth before the sun-god pierces the dark storm-cloud that covers his face." [32] As a matter of fact, the "piercing" comes first in the myth, the drops afterwards ”

“ The assertion of Herodotus further obliges us to take into consideration the fact, that in the earliest Greek theology the gods do not appear in any de- finite forms, whereas Hesiod strives to anthropo- morphise all of them, the ancient elementary gods as well as the later dynasties of Cronus and Zeus. Now both the system of the gods and the forms under which he conceived them afterwards became firmly established in Greece, and, considered in this way, the assertion of Herodotus is perfectly correct. ”

“ He could only see the glory of their trial, the martyr’s crown given to so many, the noble endurance, the faithfulness and steadfastness of heart which they had shown. For him to rejoice at tribulation was no new thing, and he now stood so near to the kingdom of God that he realised more than ever how small are the ‘sufferings of this present time’ when compared with the glory that shall be revealed.
His aged eyes flashed as he heard of weak women standing firm in face of death and danger ”

“ CORDENIUS.
If thou would'st spare my life, and to that grace
Add all the wealth of Rome, and all the power
Of Rome's great Lord, I would not for the bribe
Be other than I am, or what I am
Basely deny.
NERO.
Thou art a Christian, then? Thou art a maniac!
CORDENIUS.
I am a man, who, seeing in the flames
Those dauntless Christians suffer, long'd to know
What power could make them brave the fear of death,
Disgrace, and infamy.—And I have learnt
That they adore a God,—one God, supreme,
Who, over all men, his created sons,
Rules as a father ”

“ By love are blest the gods on high,— Frail man becomes a deity When love to him is given; 'Tis love that makes the heavens shine With hues more radiant, more divine, And turns dull earth to heaven! . . . . . The gods their days forever spend In banquets bright that have no end, In one voluptuous morning-dream, And quaff the nectar's golden stream. Enthroned in awful majesty Kronion wields the bolt on high: In abject fear Olympus rocks When wrathfully he shakes his locks. To other gods he leaves his throne, And fills, disguised as earth's frail son, The grove with mournful numbers ”

“ What admonition given by Christ teaches the same truth?
“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Rev. 3:11.
Note.—Crowns have been prepared for each of the finally redeemed. Every soul is a candidate in the race for eternal life, and hence for a crown. Faith in Jesus, and perseverance to the end, will hold it fast. 3. Upon what condition is the crown of life promised?
“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Rev. 2:10.
4. In whom, and from what time, have we been chosen unto holiness and salvation? ”

“ There is a tradition of a golden age, in which all things were spontaneous and abundant. Cronos, then lord of the world, knew that no mortal nature could endure the temptations of power, and therefore he appointed demons or demi-gods, who are of a superior race, to have dominion over man, as man has dominion over the animals. ”

“ There is a clear line of light from a throne shining down into the darkness in which we sit [Page 35] and move. It shines from the face of a crowned Man. In the light of that light we can see clearly to do a difficult bit of crowning work,—to crown the Christ in our lives and to keep Him crowned.
As our eyes follow that line of upper light we may catch glimpses of His wondrous Face up there in the glory. So we shall be steadied and cheered in the darkness as we stick to our glad crowning work. ”

“ The crown of thorns—the transfixed hands and feet, from which the blood seemed flowing—the wounded side—the sorrowful eyes, appealed to her. "For thee!" whispered the angel conscience; "it was all for thee!—this ignominy—this suffering—this death—oh, erring one! It was all for thee Divine Jesus assumed the anguish and bitterness of the cross! Oh, wanderer! why add new thorns to that awful crown of agony? Why insult the son of God, who suffers for you, by your derelictions and betrayal?" ”

“ At my misfortunes? Can thy spirit wonder,
A great man should decline? Nay, an you weep,
I am fall'n indeed.
Crom. How does your grace?
Wol. Why, well;
Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.
I know myself now; and I fed within me
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience. The king has cured me,
I humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken
A load would sink a navy!—too much honor:
Oh, 't is a burthen, Cromwell, 'tis a burthen,
Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven! ”

“ Ev'n but the distant verge, tho' dimly mark'd,
Of any other world, I would believe
That virtuous men deceased have in good truth
A destined place of rest.
CORDENIUS.
Believe it—O, believe it, brave Orceres!
ORCERES.
I'll try to do it. I'll become a Christian,
Were it but only to defy this tyrant.
CORDENIUS.
Thou must receive with a far different spirit
The faith of Jesus Christ. Perhaps thou wilt.
My heart leaps at the thought. When I am dead,
Remain in Rome no longer. ”

“ The “crown of life,” promised to those who are faithful unto death, is to be given at Christ's second coming, “who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom,” 2 Tim. 4:1: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing,” Ib. 8. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him,” Jam. ”

“ Love, with all thy debt accrueing?
[34] Time can give thee no renewing.
“Ask the hearts thy sceptre schooleth,
Seek the kings thy kingship ruleth,
Who is he that Time befooleth?
“Rest thee, Love, in thine own city,
But of my dominion quit ye,
Time is hard, and hath no pity.
“Erst for king didst thou disown me,
Wouldst thou o’er thy kingdom crown me? ”

“ Every one is familiar with the story of Kronos, who devoured his own children. Now, Kronos is a mere creation from the older and misunderstood epithet Kronides or Kronion, the ancient of days. When these days or time had come to be regarded as a person the myth would certainly follow that he devoured his own children, as Time is the devourer of the Dawns. ”

“ The crown would crumble and the cross decay,
And Mammon's bribes be counted worthless clay;
A world redeemed would roll in Heaven's smiles,
With plenty, peace and joy on every hand.
What shall it profit man the world to gain
And yield his soul thereby to hell's control? ”

“ He knew that the throne He was now hailed to was the cross, that His coronation was the reception on His own brows of all the thorns and stings and burdens that man’s sin had brought into the world. He did not fancy that the redemption of the world to God was an easy matter which could be accomplished by an afternoon’s enthusiasm. He kept steadily before His mind the actual condition of the men who were by His spiritual influence to become the willing and devoted subjects of God’s kingdom. ”

“ All shapes of evil and visions of terror vanished;—and as the morning broke, the Angel of the Light, alone and victorious, with snowy wings widespread, and fair face bright with God’s own eternal splendour, lifted the King’s Crown in both radiant hands towards Heaven, to meet the rays of the rising sun and the full golden glory of the Day! ”

“ Cronos was confounded with Chronos, Time, and the myth then comes to explain the tendency of time to destroy whatever it has brought into existence. ↑ Natural piety. Morality. ↑ "Sickness and sorrows come and go, but a superstitious soule hath no rest." ”

“ He that has this Crown upon his Head, is possest of Happiness, And which is more, ’tis of his own Growth too, without any Dependance upon his Neighbours. In earnest, ’tis glorious conquering at this rate. But how does the Man spend his time, and whither does he go, after he is thus Crown’d? ”

“ The crown proposed to thee is immortality, and eternal life: concerning which thou art also fully persuaded. I will be thy surety in all things, by my bonds, which thou halt loved.
13 Let not those that seem worthy of credit, but teach other doctrines, disturb thee. Stand firm and immoveable, as an anvil when it is beaten upon.
14 It is the part of a brave combatant to be wounded, and yet overcome. But especially we ought to endure all things for God's sake, that he may bear with us. ”

“ There was neither light nor help nearer than "The Crown" itself, and when her brain became clearer, she remembered this. Without light and assistance, she could do nothing; she could not even see what hurt he had sustained. Dead or dying, he must lie here until she had time to get help. ”