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What actions did Cronus take against his father, Uranus?
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Cronus, urged by his mother Gaia, conspired with his siblings to overthrow his father, Uranus. He ambushed Uranus and castrated him with a sickle, a brutal act that led to the creation of the Furies from Uranus's blood. This act also indirectly led to the birth of Aphrodite from the sea foam. Cronus then became the ruler, setting a pattern of familial violence and rebellion that continued with his own eventual overthrow by his son Zeus.
Cronus and his siblings had been imprisoned in the Earth by their father, Uranus. Uranus had feared that his son Cronus, in particular, would usurp his throne, and in a theme often seen in Greek mythology (think of Oedipus, cast out and left to die for similar reasons), his father wished to do everything he could to protect himself. Cronus, however, was as ambitious and ruthless as his father, and he conspired with his siblings and his mother (Gaia, the earth goddess) to destroy Uranus. The consequences of this were brutal and bloody. Cronus surprised his father and castrated him with a sickle. Uranus bled profusely, and his blood from the horrible wound gave rise to the Furies, the children of Gaia. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, also arose from the sea after this incident. Cronus fathered Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, and Hades with his sister Rhea, and he swallowed them...
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all except for Zeus, who was hidden by his mother. Instead of Zeus, Rhea tricked him into swallowing a large rock that caused him to vomit up the other children. Together they overthrew Cronus (as he had done to Uranus) and consigned him to imprisonment in Hades. This story, bizarre to the modern reader, has been described by one scholar as a "prototype of adolescent rebellion against tyrannical authority," a very common trope in Western literature.
References
I'lll take a shot at answering three of your questions and let others do their share! (Just be aware that myth cycles often have some variant forms. Individual stories may differ slightly, even when the names are the same. Sometimes the names even change as you move from one version to another.)
Q: What did Cronus do to his father, Uranus?
A: At his mother's bidding, Cronus castrates his father (Uranus) while the latter slept. He then takes his father's place as the ruler and, in a vain attempt to prevent being overthrown himself, eats his children as they are born. Ever wonder how Freud came up with some of his theories? Now you know!
Q: What are the Furies?
The Furies are avenging female spirits, sometimes appearing as three winged women, who hound wrongdoers (especially murderers of family members) to the point of insanity. They're sort of like our guilty conscience! According to some versions of the Greek myths, these sisters were born from the blood spilled when Cronus deposed his father, Uranus.
Q: What's the story of Aphrodite's birth?
Uranus' severed genitals fell in the ocean, causing the water to bubble over. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was born of this sea foam. Boticelli's famous painting "Birth of Venus" takes up this story of her origins.