Crius
Pillar of the South
KRY-us
The least-storied of the twelve, a corner-post of the sky whose sons mattered far more than he did.
Domains
ConstellationsThe Southern AxisHerds
Symbols
Ram's HornsSouthern PillarStar Chart
The Story
Crius held the southern pillar of heaven and almost nothing else is told of him directly; his name means the ram, and later writers linked him to the constellation and to the turn of the seasons.
He is in the record mostly as a father. By Eurybia he sired Astraeus, who fathered the winds and the stars; Pallas, whose children are Victory, Strength, Force, and Rivalry; and Perses, father of Hecate. Every one of those descendants outranks him in the stories.
Did You Know?
- He has no surviving myth of his own, no cult, and no temple. Everything recorded about him is a genealogy.
- His name means ram, which later writers connected to the constellation Aries and the spring point where the sun once crossed the celestial equator.