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In Greek mythology, Crius, Kreios or Krios (ancient Greek: Κρεῖος,[1] Κριός) was one of the Titans in the list given in Hesiod's Theogony, a son of Uranus and Gaia. The least individualized among them,[2] he was overthrown in the Titanomachy. M.L. West[3] has suggested how Hesiod filled out the complement of Titans from the core group— adding three figures from the archaic tradition of Delphi, Koios, Phoibe, whose name Apollo assumed with the oracle, and Themis. Among possible further interpolations among the Titans was Kreios, whose interest for Hesiod was as the father of Perses and grandfather of Hekate, for whom Hesiod was, according to West, an "enthusiastic evangelist".


Joined to fill out lists of Titans to form a total that made a match with the Twelve Olympians, Crius was inexorably involved in the eleven-year-long war between the Olympian gods and Titans, the Titanomachy, however without any specific part to play. When the war was lost, Crius/Kreios was banished along with the others to the lower level of Hades called Tartarus.


  1. Etymology uncertain: traditionally considered a variation of κρῑός "ram"; the word κρεῖος was also extant in Ancient Greek but only in the sense of "type of mussel" [1][2].
  2. "About the other siblings of Kronos no close inquiry is called for," observes Friedrich Solmsen, in discussing "The Two Near Eastern Sources of Hesiod", Hermes 117.4 (1989:413-422) p. 419. "They prove useful for Hesiod to head his pedigrees of the gods", adding in a note "On Koios and Kreios we have to admit abysmal ignorance."
  3. M.L. West, "Hesiod's Titans," The Journal of Hellenic Studies 105 (1985), pp. 174-175.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Crius. The list of authors can be seen in the page history.

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