Chronos

Chronos (/ˈkroʊnɒs, -oʊs/; Greek: Χρόνος, [kʰrónos], "time"), also spelled Khronos or 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

During antiquity, Chronos was occasionally interpreted as Cronus.^[7] According to Plutarch, the Greeks believed that Cronus was an allegorical name for Chronos.^[8]

Mythology

In the

Pherecydes of Syros in his lost Heptamychos ("The seven recesses"), around 6th century BC, claimed that there were three eternal principles: Chronos, Zas (Zeus) and Chthonie (the chthonic). The semen of Chronos was placed in the recesses of the Earth and produced the first generation of gods.^[10]

Notes

References

• Beekes, S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
• Delaere, Mark, Unfolding Time: Studies in Temporality in Twentieth-century Music,
  ISBN 9789058677358
  .
• Kirk, G. S., J. E. Raven, M. Schofield. The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts.
  ISBN 0521274559
  .
• Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
  .
• Levi, Doro, "Aion," Hesperia 13.4 (1944).
• Macey, Samuel L., Encyclopedia of Time, Routledge.
  ISBN 9781136508905
  .
• Meisner, Dwayne A., Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods,
  ISBN 978-0-190-66352-0. Online version at Oxford University Press. Google Books
  .
• ISBN 978-0-674-99337-2. Online version at Harvard University Press
  .
• ISBN 978-0-19-814854-8
  .

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