Previous
Clarisse
Kronos is the Titan father of a number of gods and goddesses, most notably Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Kronos ate his children, but they all escaped. Then, Zeus cut Kronos into pieces and imprisoned him in Tartarus, a hellish pit in the Underworld. Though the gods generally seem to believe that Kronos is old news and not worth worrying about, Percy’s dreams—and his realization that Kronos is controlling both Ares and Luke through their dreams—suggest that Kronos is trying to rise and take over again.
Kronos Quotes in The Lightning Thief
The The Lightning Thief quotes below are all either spoken by Kronos or refer to Kronos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 22 Quotes
“That’s not an easy quest,” I said. “Hercules did it.”
“Exactly,” Luke said. “Where’s the glory in repeating what others have done? [...] and when I came back, all I got was pity. I wanted to pull Olympus down stone by stone right then, but I bided my time. I began to dream of Kronos.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Lightning Thief LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Kronos Character Timeline in The Lightning Thief
The timeline below shows where the character Kronos appears in The Lightning Thief. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...asks Percy to explain the pictures on the stele. Percy explains that it’s the Titan Kronos eating his kids, but someone hid baby Zeus and when Zeus grew up, he tricked...
(full context)
...Disappointed, Mr. Brunner finishes the story of what happened: Zeus and the other gods defeated Kronos, sliced him up, and threw him into Tartarus in the Underworld. Then, Mr. Brunner sends...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...and what it was like. Chiron isn’t old enough to remember, but he says that Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age—but he didn’t care for...
(full context)
Chapter 21
...theater. Percy awkwardly asks what was in the pit and then answers his own question: Kronos. The name seems to darken the room. Poseidon explains that Zeus cut Kronos into a...
(full context)
Chapter 22
...a disease; they must burn it down and start over. Percy says that Luke serves Kronos: Kronos got Luke to steal the bolt and the helm, and he speaks to Luke...
(full context)
Percy asks why Luke didn’t take the items to Kronos. Luke says that he got overconfident and that Ares caught him, but Kronos helped Luke...
(full context)
...to go after Luke immediately, and he gripes that the gods won’t even talk about Kronos. Chiron insists that Percy isn’t ready. Percy asks if Chiron’s prophecy was about Kronos, Annabeth,...
(full context)
Chiron explains that Kronos wants Percy to lose his mind and become bitter, but Percy must wait and train—and...
(full context)
