Crius, also known as Krios or Kreios. In translation Krios means "the Ram" and in Latin it is called Aries
Show NotesNotes:
1. Crius was one of the titans born to Uranus(Hesiod, Clement, Diodorus Siculus) and Gaea(Hesiod, Diodorus Siculus). Alternatively, he was a descendant of Aether and Gaea(Apollodorus).
2. Crius was the father of Astraeus, Pallas and Perses(Apollodorus, Hesiod).
3. Although Krios and in latin Aries both mean Ram, there is no source that would directly link the titan with constellation.
4. If we take into account that Aries actually was Crius, the titan, then he could be referred as the pillar of the south pole as the spring time rising in the south marked the start of the Greek year. In this case, it was the first constellation of the year and therefore Crius could be interpreted as the god of constellations, measuring the year time until his constellation would reappear again in the south.
6. The titans were released by the clemency of Zeus from Tartarus and Prometheus is now describing his tortures to them(Aeschylus).
AESCHYLUS, PROMETHEUS UNBOUND (LOST PLAY), translated by H. W. SMYTH
PROMETHEUS LYOMENOS - Fragments 104, 105, 106 are from the parodus of the Chorus of Titans, now released from Tartarus by the clemency of Zeus. To them Prometheus describes his tortures (Frag. 107) and his benefits to man (Frag. 108).
Fragment 104 - Arrian, Voyage in the Euxine 99. 22, Anonymous in Müller, Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum v. 194.
"We have come to look upon these thy ordeals, Prometheus, and the affliction of thy bonds."
Fragment 105 - Strabo, Geography i. 2. 27. p. 33.
"[Leaving] the Erythraean Seas sacred stream red of floor, and the mere by Oceanus, the mere of the Aethiopians . . . that giveth nourishment unto all, where the all-seeing Sun doth ever, in warm outpourings of soft water, refresh his undying body and his wearied steeds."
Fragment 106 - Arrian, Voyage in the Euxine 99. 22, Anonymous in Müller, Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum v. 184.
"Here Phasis, the mighty common boundary of the land of Europe and Asia"
Fragment 107 - Cicero, Tusculan Disputations ii. 10. 23-25; ll. 14-15 sublime sanguinem in Nonius Marcellsu, Compediosa Doctrina 17. 9M.
"Ye race of Titans, offspring of Uranus, blood-kinsmen mine ! Behold me fettered, clamped to these rough rocks, even as a ship is moored fast by timid sailors, fearful of night because of the roaring sea. Thus hath Zeus, the son of Cronus, fastened me, and to the will of Zeus hath Hephaestus lent his hand. With cruel art hath he riven my limbs by driving in these bolts. Ah, unhappy that I am! By his skill transfixed, I tenant this stronghold of the Furies. And now, each third woeful day, with dreadful swoop, the minister of Zeus with his hooked talons rends me asunder by his cruel repast. Then, crammed and glutted to the full on my fat liver, the utters a prodigious scream and, soaring aloft, with winged tail fawns upon my gore. But when my gnawed liver swells, renewed in growth, greedily doth he return anew to his fell repast. Thus do I feed this guardian of my awful torture, who mutilates me living with never-ending pain. For fettered, as ye see, by the bonds of Zeus, I have no power to drive from my vitals the accursed bird. Thus, robbed of self-defence, I endure woes fraught with torment: longing for death, I look around for an ending of my misery; but by the doom of Zeus I am thrust far from death. And this my ancient dolorous agony, intensified by the dreadful centuries, is fastened upon my body, from which there fall, melted by the blazing sun, drops that unceasingly pour upon the rocks of Caucasus."
Fragment 108 - Plutarch, On Fortune 3. 98C (cp. On the Craftiness of Animals 7. 965A), Porphyry, On Abstinence 3. 18.
"Giving to them stallions horses and asses and the race of bulls to serve them as slaves and to relieve them of their toil."
APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 1, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[1.1.3] And again he begat children by Earth, to wit, the Titans as they are named: Ocean, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus, and, youngest of all, Cronus; also daughters, the Titanides as they are called: Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Dione, Thia.
[1.2.2] Now to the Titans were born offspring: to Ocean and Tethys were born Oceanids, to wit, Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis; to Coeus and Phoebe were born Asteria and Latona; to Hyperion and Thia were born Dawn, Sun, and Moon; to Crius and Eurybia, daughter of Sea (Pontus), were born Astraeus, Pallas, and Perses
CLEMENT, RECOGNITIONS, Book 10, translated by REV. THOMAS SMITH
Chapter [31] HESIOD COMOGONY - But to this Hesiod adds, that after chaos the heaven and the earth were made immediately, from which he says that those eleven were produced (and sometimes also he speaks of them as twelve) of whom he makes six males and five females. And these are the names that he gives to the males: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Chronos, who is also called Saturn. Also the names of the females are: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys. And these names they thus interpret allegorically. They say that the number is eleven or twelve: that the first is nature itself, which also they would have to be called Rhea, from Flowing; and they say that the other ten are her accidents, which also they call qualities; yet they add a twelfth, namely Chronos, who with us is called Saturn, and him they take to be time. Therefore they assert that Saturn and Rhea are time and matter; and these, when they are mixed with moisture and dryness, heat and cold, produce all things.
DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 5, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER
[5.66.3] The males were Cronus, Hyperion, Coeus, Iapetus, Crius, and Oceanus, and their sisters were Rhea, Themis, Mnemosynê, Phoebê, and Tethys. Each one of them was the discoverer of things of benefit to mankind, and because of the benefaction they conferred upon all men they were accorded honours and everlasting fame.
HESIOD, THEOGONY, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
[134] But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
[375] And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius and bare great Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses who also was eminent among all men in wisdom.
HYGINUS, ASTRONOMICA, Book 2, translated by MARY GRANT
Mercury is thought to have placed it above the head of Aries, so that the dimness of Aries might be marked by its brightness, wherever it should be, and that it should form the first letter in the name of Jove (in Greek, Dis).
NONNUS, DIONYSIACA, Book 38, translated by W. H. D. ROUSE
Just listen to me, and I will tell you everything. When I reach the Ram, the centre of the universe, the navel-star of Olympos, I in my exaltation let the Spring increase and crossing the herald of the west wind, the turning-line which balances night equal with day, I guide the dewy course of that
OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 10, translated by BROOKES MORE
[162] You also, Hyacinthus, would have been set in the sky! if Phoebus had been given time which the cruel fates denied for you. But in a way you are immortal too. Though you have died. Always when warm spring drives winter out, and Aries (the Ram) succeeds to Pisces (watery Fish), you rise and blossom on the green turf. And the love my father had for you was deeper than he felt for others. Delphi center of the world, had no presiding guardian, while the God frequented the Eurotas and the land of Sparta, never fortified with walls.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 7, translated by W. H. S. JONES
Rivers come down from the mountains above Pellene, the one on the side nearest Aegeira being called Crius, after, it is said, a Titan of the same name.
[7.27.12] There is another river called Crius, which rises in Mount Sipylus and is a tributary of the Hermus. Where the territory of Pellene borders on that of Sicyon is a Pellenian river Sythas, the last of the Achaean rivers, which flows into the Sicyonian sea.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 10, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[10.6.6] The poets say that the victim of Apollo was a dragon posted by Earth to be a guard for the oracle. It is also said that he was a violent son of Crius, a man with authority around Euboea. He pillaged the sanctuary of the god, and he also pillaged the houses of rich men. But when he was making a second expedition, the Delphians besought Apollo to keep from them the danger that threatened them.