ABSTRACT
According to the author, there was in Greece a myth and ritual complex related to the transition from the old year to the new in which myth and rite have indeed been formed pari passu. This chapter deals with the myth and ritual complex of Kronos and the Kronia. The oldest version of the myth of Kronos is also the most complete. Apart from minor additions and variations in themselves often quite significant the myth as Hesiod tells it in the Theogony has not changed essentially in the course of time. A really old cult is attested only in Olympia, where Kronos priests are called hoi basilai a possible, but not certain, correlate of Kronos kingship. Oppositions within the myth of Kronos have close correspondences in ritual. At the Kronia and related festivals the slaves are set free. They sometimes are literally unfettered, then treated to a banquet, often even waited upon by their masters.
