Although "krios" was also the ancient Greek word for "ram",[3] the Titan'schthonic position in theunderworld means no classical association withAries, the ram of thezodiac, is ordinarily made.[citation needed] At the time of Ancient Greece, Aries was the first visible constellation in the sky at the spring season, marking the start of the new year in the ancient Greek calendar.
Joined to fill out lists of Titans to form a total matching theTwelve Olympians, Crius was inexorably involved in the ten-year-long[5] war between the Olympian gods and Titans, theTitanomachy, though without any specific part to play. When the war was lost, Crius was banished along with the others to the lower level ofHades calledTartarus.
As the least individualized among the Titans,[6] he was overthrown in theTitanomachy.M. L. West has suggested howHesiod filled out the complement of Titans from the core group—adding three figures from the archaic tradition ofDelphi,Coeus, andPhoebe, whose nameApollo assumed with the oracle, andThemis.[7] Among possible further interpolations among the Titans was Crius, whose interest for Hesiod was as the father ofPerses and grandfather ofHecate, for whom Hesiod was, according to West, an "enthusiastic evangelist".
^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]Archived 2012-02-19 at theWayback Machine[2][permanent dead link].
^"About the other siblings of Kronos no close inquiry is called for," observes Friedrich Solmsen, in discussing "The Two Near Eastern Sources of Hesiod",Hermes117.4 (1989:413–422) p. 419. "They prove useful for Hesiod to head his pedigrees of the gods", adding in a note "OnKoios and Kreios we have to admit abysmal ignorance."
^M.L. West, "Hesiod's Titans,"The Journal of Hellenic Studies105 (1985), pp. 174–175.
