Who is Hades 2 villain Chronos?

The main narrative angle of Hades 2 is that Titan Chronos has taken over the eponymous plane of existence and captured Melinoe’s family of Hades, Persephone, and Zagreus. However, just who Chronos is takes a bit of explanation.

First of all, while Hades 2 describes Chronos as being a Titan and also the personification of time, it is taking a bit of liberties with the Greek Pantheon of gods and their mythology. Not that it’s necessarily possible to present the mythology literally. Chronos is the amalgamation of two entities within their mythology: Chronos, the God (or personification) of Time, and Cronus, the leader of the Titans.

That’s not to say Supergiant Games got it wrong. The Greek Pantheon isn’t derived from some set in stone lore; they come from a number of different stories told by different people in different ways that have changed over time. The two figures of Chronos and Cronus have been crossed over many times in other places. It’s just important to know that Chronos in Hades 2 is both a Titan and the embodiment of time.

In the Greek Pantheon, Titans are a race of deities. They descended from the primordial Uranus and Gaia, and were overthrown by the Gods of Olympus. The Gods of Olympus themselves were descended from the Titans, specifically Cronus and Rhea. This is why Chronos will occasionally refer to Melinoe as his granddaughter. Zeus and Hades are among his offspring, making him the grandfather of Melinoe.

Cronus was, by most accounts, pretty awful during his tenure as King of the Gods. While he had six children with (his sister) Rhea, he soon got word that they would overthrow them. In response, he ate the five that had been born, prompting Rhea to give birth to Zeus in secret and hide him away.

Zeus grew up and used an emetic to force Cronus to barf out the previously consumed gods. The Gods then banded together and waged war against the Titans. According to some legends (and seemingly the one Hades 2 is following), Cronus and most of the Titans are then imprisoned in Tartarus.

As for Chronos, who the figure of Cronus was combined with to create the character in Hades 2, he’s a personification of time. While he’s been a figure in Greek philosophy, he doesn’t seem to feature as heavily in the mythology of the Gods and eventually grew to the concept of “Father Time.”

While many accounts have the Titans remaining imprisoned for all of time, Hades 2 presents a situation where Chronos has escaped from Tartarus, imprisoned Hades, Persephone, and Zagreus, and is now laying siege to Olympus. Because Melinoe was born around the time Chronos set his plan into action, Hecate was able to keep her hidden, and trained her from a young age to combat the Titan.