Learning Classics is a bit like putting on a magic pair of 3-D glasses. Once you start delving into the language and the culture, you'll start to see it all around you. This blog is a record of the club's journey through the worlds and language of ancient Rome and Greece... and through modern times, too, searching for the influence of classics all around us. You'll also be able to find vocab, home tasks, links and generally enlightening info here, too.

19 October 2014

Nasty, very nasty

We talked very briefly about the Titan Kronos in our last lesson and a few of you commented on the nastiness of his backstory. So, in the spirit of Classics Club giving you the warts-and-all perspective on all things ancient, here, point-by-point, is why Kronos really is a nasty piece of work:

1. Kronos came to power by cutting off certain parts of his dad, Ouranos, that would ensure Ouranos would not be having any more children. Nice.

2. Winning Bad Father of the Year award, he wanted to get rid of his children in case they stole his power.

3. Ensuring he kept the title, he decided the best way to get rid of his kids was to eat them. Which seems a little extreme.

Fortunately, Rhea, wife of Kronos and mother of the child-flavoured snacks took a stand and fed Kronos a rock when he went to munch on Zeus. Zeus then grew up to lead a revolt against Kronos, and banished him to Tartarus.

The particularly gruesome picture of Kronos here is by Francisco Goya. Although it looks like it could have come out of a modern horror movie, it was painted nearly 200 years ago. Some more of Goya's grisly 'black paintings' can be seen here.