rate
high mountains in Thessaly; Zeus, with his brothers and sisters, took his
stand on Mount Olympus, where he was joined by Oceanus, and others of the
Titans, who had forsaken Cronus on account of his oppressions. Cronus and
his brother-Titans took possession of Mount Othrys, and prepared for
battle. The struggle was long and fierce, and at length Zeus, finding that
he was no nearer victory than before, bethought himself of the existence of
the imprisoned Giants, and knowing that they would be able to render him
most powerful assistance, he hastened to liberate them. He also called to
his aid the Cyclops (sons of Poseidon and Amphitrite),[5] who had only one
eye each in the middle of their foreheads, and were called Brontes
(Thunder), Steropes (Lightning), and Pyracmon (Fire-anvil). They promptly
responded to his summons for help, and brought with them tremendous
thunderbolts which the Hecatoncheires, with their hundred hands, hurled
down upon the enemy, at the same time raising mighty earthquakes, which
swallowed up and destroyed all who opposed them. Aided by these new and
powerful allies, Zeus now made a furious onslaught on his enemies, and so
tremendous was the encounter that all nature is said to have throbbed in
accord with this mighty effort of the celestial deities. The sea rose
mountains high, and its angry billows {17} hissed and foamed; the earth
shook to its foundations, the heavens sent forth rolling thunder, and flash
after flash of death-bringing lightning, whilst a blinding mist enveloped
Cronus and his allies.

And now the fortunes of war began to turn, and victory smiled on Zeus.
Cronus and his army were completely overthrown, his brothers despatched to
the gloomy depths of the lower world, and Cronus himself was banished from
his kingdom and deprived for ever of the supreme power, which now became
vested in his son Zeus. This war was called the Titanomachia, and is most
graphically described by the old classic poets.

[Illustration]

With the defeat of Cronus and his banishment from his dominions, his career
as a ruling Greek divinity entirely ceases. But being, like all the gods,
immortal, he was supposed to be still in existence, though possessing no
longer either influence or authority, his place being filled to a certain
extent by his descendant and successor, Zeus.

Cronus is often represented as an old man leaning on a scythe, with an
hour-glass in his hand. The hour-glass symbolizes the f