CRONIE. – Festivals in honour of Cronus in which social distinctions were abolished. We know of them in Attica, in Thebes, with a musical contest, and in Rhodes, where a man was sacrificed. The Romans identified them with the Saturnalia. Some consider them harvest festivals, others deny this; for others they were festivals in which customs and laws in force under a king were abolished, who, after being killed, was replaced by another, stronger one, but there is no trace of this in Greece. The festival seems ancient. Similar festivals are also found for other deities.
BIBL.: A. Lang, Magic and Religion, London 1901, pp. 82 ff.; M. Nilsson, Griechische Feste, Leipzig 1906, pp. 35 ff.; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., XI, London 1913, pp. 306 ff.; M. Nilsson, Gesch. der Griech. Religion, I, Munich 1941, pp. 481 ff.