Chronos

Chronos
Time Clipping Cupid's Wings (1694), by Pierre Mignard
Symbolzodiac wheel
OffspringAether, Phanes, Chaos

Chronos (/ˈkrnɒs, -s/; Ancient Greek: Χρόνος, romanizedKhronos, lit.'Time' , [kʰrónos]), also spelled Chronus, is a personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature.[1]

Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Titan, Cronus, in antiquity, due to the similarity in names.[2] The identification became more widespread during the Renaissance, giving rise to the iconography of Father Time wielding the harvesting scythe.[3]

Greco-Roman mosaics depicted Chronos as a man turning the zodiac wheel.[4] He is comparable to the deity Aion as a symbol of cyclical time.[5] He is usually portrayed as an old callous man with a thick grey beard, personifying the destructive and stifling aspects of time.[6]

  1. ^ LSJ s.v. Κρόνος.
  2. ^ LSJ s.v. Κρόνος; Meisner, p. 145.
  3. ^ Macey, p. 209.
  4. ^ Delaere, p. 97.
  5. ^ Levi, p. 274.
  6. ^ Marcus Tullius, Cicero. "De Natura Deorum, § 2.64".