KRONOS A son of Uranos, and father to Zeus, Kronos was 'the ripener', 'the harvester god'. Deposing his father from the throne of Olympus, Kronos married his own sister, Rhea, thus siring not only Zeus, but Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. Fearing that the prophecy that warned him that his youngest born would dethrone him, Kronos swallowed his first five children, but when it came to Zeus' turn, Rhea gave her husband a stone shaped like an infant, and secretly conveyed the baby away to Mount Ida, in Crete. There he was looked after by the nymphs Ida and Adrastea, with Rhea's servants, the Kuretes, being appointed to carry on a continual noise by dancing and clashing their swords and shields, lest the infant's cries be heard by his father.