The Titan Kronos ate his children to prevent them from overthrowing him from "summary" of Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods by Rick Riordan

Poor Rhea. She was the Titaness wife of Kronos. When she became pregnant with her first child, she probably thought she was pretty lucky. But Kronos wasn’t happy about the baby. You see, he had received a prophecy that said one of his children would eventually overthrow him. So what did he do? He did the most logical thing a Titan would do – he ate the baby. Yeah, he just swallowed that poor little godlet whole. Rhea was horrified, of course. But what could she do? She was married to the guy. So she just had to watch as Kronos ate each of their children, one by one. It would have been a pretty depressing family show, if you ask me. I’m guessing there was no popcorn involved. Now, you might be wondering how Rhea managed to have any children left if Kronos was gobbling them up as soon as they were born. Well, she came up with a plan. She managed to save one of her babies – Zeus. Instead of giving Kronos the real baby, she wrapped a stone in baby blankets and handed that over. Kronos, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, swallowed the stone whole. Zeus grew up in secret, hidden away from Kronos. When he was old enough, he returned to challenge his father. And you can bet that he wasn’t too happy about being on the menu all those years ago. With the help of his siblings, Zeus was able to defeat Kronos and free his swallowed brothers and sisters. It was a family reunion like no other, I’ll tell you that much. So that’s the story of how Kronos tried to prevent his children from overthrowing him by eating them. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad my family reunions don’t involve anyone getting swallowed whole.

Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods

Rick Riordan

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