Domain: The constellations and the heavenly measure Symbol: The ram of the southern sky, the turning stars, the measuring pole Roman Equivalent: Crius
Overview
Crius is the Titan of the constellations and the ordered measure of the heavens — the fixing of the stars into their patterns and the marking of the year by their risings and settings. Son of Gaia and Uranus, he is the least storied of the four Titan brothers who set the pillars of the sky, and his name was linked by the Greeks to the ram, so that he was associated with the southern quarter of heaven and with the constellation of the Ram that opens the celestial year. Where Coeus is the northern axis and Hyperion the eastern light, Crius holds the south — the Titan of the stars considered as a measure, the reckoning of time by the wheeling sky.
He acts almost not at all in the surviving myths; he is a genealogical pillar, present chiefly through his sons, who carry the powers of the heavens forward into the age of gods and giants. Yet through those sons his line touches the stars, the winds, the dawn's own consort, and the war against Zeus, so that the quiet Titan of the constellations stands behind a surprising sweep of the cosmos's moving powers.
Key Myths
Father of the star-powers. Crius, by Eurybia the daughter of the sea, fathered three sons: Astraeus, the god of the dusk and of the stars, who by Eos the dawn begot the winds and the wandering planets; Pallas, a Titan of warcraft; and Perses, the father of Hecate. Through Astraeus especially, Crius is grandfather to the very stars and winds — the Titan of the constellations whose line becomes the moving lights and airs of the sky.
The southern pillar. In the ordering of the world, Crius held the sky apart from the earth at the southern quarter, one of the four brothers — with Hyperion, Coeus, and Iapetus — who fixed the pillars of heaven at the corners of the world. His station is the south, and his measure the year the constellations count as they rise and set.
The fall of the star-Titan. Crius fell with his brothers in the Titanomachy, cast down when Zeus and the Olympians triumphed. His son Pallas fought and was slain; his line divided, some against the new gods and some, like the descendants of Perses through Hecate, honored under them. The measured heavens went on turning, but the Titan who held their southern pillar was bound below with the rest of the old order.
Related
- Hyperion — His brother, the eastern pillar of heavenly light
- Coeus — His brother, the northern axis of heaven
- Iapetus — His brother, the fourth pillar of the sky
- Hecate — His granddaughter, through his son Perses
- Eos — The dawn, who bore the winds and stars to his son Astraeus
- Gaia — His mother, the earth
- Uranus — His father, the sky
- Mythology
- Greek Mythology Index