Crius

KRIOS (or Crius) was one of the elder Titan gods, sons of Ouranos (the Sky) and Gaia (the Earth). Led by Kronos, the brothers conspired against their father and prepared an ambush for him as he descended to lie with Earth. Krios, Koios, Hyperion and Iapetos were posted at the four corners of the world where they seized hold of the Sky-god and held him firm, while Kronos, hidden in the centre, castrated him with a sickle.

In this myth the four brothers probably represent the four cosmic pillars found in near-Eastern cosmogonies which separated heaven and earth. In this case, Krios was surely the Titan of the pillar of the south, while his brothers Koios, Iapetos, and Hyperion were gods of the pillars of the north, east and west respectively. Krios' connection with the south is found both in his name and family connections--he is "the Ram," the constellation Aries, whose springtime rising in the south marked the start of the Greek year; his eldest son is Astraios, god of the stars; and his wife is Eurybia, a daughter of the sea.

The Titanes were eventually deposed by Zeus and cast into the pit of Tartaros. Hesiod describes this as a void lying beneath the foundations of the cosmos, where earth, sea and sky all have their roots. Here the Titanes shift in cosmological terms from being holders of heaven to bearers of the entire cosmos. According to Pindar and Aeschylus (in his lost play Prometheus Unbound) the Titanes were eventually released from the pit through the clemency of Zeus.

Krios was probably associated with the constellation Aries, which was Greeks namedKrios ("the Ram"). This was the first of the constellations whose springtime rising marked the start of the new year in the ancient Greek calendar. Krios was in this sense also the primordial god of the constellations who ordered the measures of the year, just as his brother Hyperion--father of sun, dawn and moon--ordered the days and months. His mythical descent into Tartaros may have represented the descent of setting constellations beneath the horizon into the netherworld.
Krios' sons Pallas and Perses may have presided over specific constellations : Perses"the Destroyer" name associates him with either Perseus or the scorching dog-star Sirios, and the sometimes goat-skinned Titan Pallas "the spear-brandishing one" over Auriga (the Charioteer) and the storm-bringing, goat-star Capella. Perses' daughterHekate was also connected with Sirios. The third son Astraios was the god of stars in general and the seasonal winds. In the guise of the rustic Aristaios he summoned the Etesian Winds which eased the scorching heat of midsummer brought on by the dog-star.
Krios amy also be related to the old Euboian divinities Karystos and Sokos, fathers of the honey-men Aristaios and Melisseus. Indeed, Pausanias mentions a legend describing Krios as an Euboian god.
Krios was perhaps imagined as a ram-shaped god, or at least with ram-like features such as curled horns like the Libyan god Ammon. His sons also appear to have possessed animal-like features--Pallas, whose skin became Athene's aigis or goat-skin shield, was goatish, Perses father of the dogish Hekate, was perhaps dog-like, and Astraios, father of horse-shaped wind-gods, may have been equine in form.
Krios' brothers Koios and Iapetos, and sons Pallas and Astraios, also occur in lists of combatants from the Gigantomakhia (War of the Giants), suggesting his presence also in the conflict, perhaps under another name.