An empty throne, solar gold and the representations of power
The judge, by the way, was the King; and as he wore his crown
the wig, he did not look at all comfortable, and it was
certainly not becoming.
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
§ 1.1. Lineage
The lineage of the sovereign is inseparable from heaven. According to Hesiod, in the beginning Chaos, a deep abyss, came into being, from which Gaia, the earth, arose. She gave birth to Ouranus, the sky, and the first generation of gods:
And Earth [Gaia] bore starry heaven, first, to be an equal to herself, to cover her all over, and to be a resting place, always secure, for the blessed gods […] And then she lay with heaven [Ouranos], and bore deep-whirling Oceanus and Koios; then Kreios, Iapetos, Hyperion, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, lovely Tethys, and Phoebe, golden-crowned. Last after this, most terrible of sons, the crooked-scheming Kronos came to birth, who has his father’s enemy.1
Kronos and his brothers' hatred for their father was justified. Whenever one of them was about to be born Ouranus “hid the child in a secret hiding place in Earth and would not let it come to see the light, and enjoyed this wickedness.”2 Together with his mother the Titans concocted a ruse to get rid of their heavenly father. Gaia created a huge sickle of “grey adamant” and instructed her children to kill Ouranus when the carefree god were about to possess her. Kronos was the only one who dared take on the task, which he carried out by cutting Ouranus’ genitals and throwing them behind his back. Gobbling or hiding their sons or daughters as a way to avoid succession will happen again with Kronos himself and with his son Zeus, who will be confronted by their more daring offspring.
In the hatred of these children for their parents we find the root of rebellion and the aspiration to the throne; parricide seems to embody the first struggle for supremacy and sovereignty.
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