Chronos

Not to be confused with Cronus, the Titan father of Zeus.
For other uses, see Chronos (disambiguation).
Chronos
Time Clipping Cupid's Wings (1694), by Pierre Mignard
Symbolzodiac wheel
OffspringAether, Phanes, Chaos

Chronos (/ˈkroʊnɒs, -oʊs/; Ancient Greek: Χρόνος, romanized: Khronos, 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".