View source for Chronos

{{Short description|Ancient Greek personification of time}}
{{Distinguish|text=[[Cronus]], the Titan father of Zeus}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Pierre Mignard (1610-1695) - Time Clipping Cupid's Wings (1694).jpg|thumb|''Time Clipping Cupid's Wings'' (1694), by [[Pierre Mignard]]]]
'''Chronos''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|r|oʊ|n|ɒ|s|,_|-|oʊ|s}}; {{Langx|grc|Χρόνος|translit=Khronos|lit=Time}}; {{IPA|el|kʰrónos|}}, <small>Modern Greek:</small> {{IPA|el|'xronos|}}), also spelled '''Chronus''', is a [[personification]] of time in [[Greek mythology]], who is also discussed in [[pre-Socratic philosophy]] and later literature.<ref>''[[A Greek–English Lexicon|LSJ]]'' s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*kro%2Fnos Κρόνος].</ref>  His [[consort]] is the goddess [[Ananke]].  

Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the [[Titans|Titan]] [[Cronus]] in antiquity, due to the similarity in names.<ref>''[[A Greek–English Lexicon|LSJ]]'' s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*kro%2Fnos Κρόνος]; Meisner, p. 145.</ref> The identification became more widespread during the Renaissance, giving rise to the iconography of [[Father Time]] wielding the harvesting scythe.<ref>Macey, [https://books.google.com/books?id=waRlAgAAQBAJ&q=site%3A+edu+cronus+as+renaissance+father+of+time&pg=PA209 p. 209].</ref>

Greco-Roman mosaics depicted Chronos as a man turning the [[zodiac wheel]].<ref>Delaere, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ypdoE4w2P1gC&q=Greco-Roman+mosaics+as+a+man+turning+the+Zodiac+Wheel&pg=PA97 p. 97].</ref> He is comparable to the [[Aion (deity)|deity Aion]] as a symbol of cyclical time.<ref>Levi, p. 274.</ref> He is usually portrayed as an old callous man with a thick grey beard, personifying the destructive and stifling aspects of time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marcus Tullius |first=Cicero |title=De Natura Deorum, § 2.64 |url=https://topostext.org/work.php?work_id=137}}</ref>

==Name==
[[File:Romanelli Chronos and his child.jpg|thumb|200px|''Chronos and His Child'' by [[Giovanni Francesco Romanelli]], [[National Museum, Warsaw|National Museum]] in [[Warsaw]], a 17th-century depiction of Chronos as Father Time, wielding a harvesting scythe]]

During antiquity, Chronos was occasionally interpreted as [[Cronus]].<ref>''[[A Greek–English Lexicon|LSJ]]'' s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*kro%2Fnos Κρόνος].</ref> According to [[Plutarch]], the Greeks believed that Cronus was an allegorical name for Chronos.<ref>Plutarch, ''On Isis and Osiris'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-moralia_isis_osiris/1936/pb_LCL306.77.xml 32].</ref>

==Mythology==
In the [[Orphic]] tradition, the unaging Chronos was "engendered" by "earth and water", and produced [[Aether (mythology)|Aether]], [[Chaos (mythology)|Chaos]], and an egg.<ref>West, p. 178.</ref> The egg produced the hermaphroditic god [[Phanes (mythology)|Phanes]] who gave birth to the first generation of gods and is the ultimate creator of the [[cosmos]].

[[Pherecydes of Syros]] in his lost {{Lang|grc-Latn|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.<ref>Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC&pg=PA24 24], [https://books.google.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC&pg=PA56 56].</ref>

==See also==
* [[Kairos]]
* [[Father Time]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Delaere, Mark, ''Unfolding Time: Studies in Temporality in Twentieth-century Music'', [[Leuven University Press]], 2009. {{ISBN|9789058677358}}.
* Kirk, G. S., J. E. Raven, M. Schofield. ''The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts''. [[Cambridge University Press]]; 2 edition (February 24, 1984). {{ISBN|0521274559}}.
* [[Henry George Liddell|Liddell, Henry George]], [[Robert Scott (philologist)|Robert Scott]]. ''[[A Greek-English Lexicon]]'', revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, [[Clarendon Press]] Oxford, 1940. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=E61EDD48E4F1A22F839AA4DC149C0955?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0057 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Doro Levi|Levi, Doro]], "Aion," ''[[Hesperia (journal)|Hesperia]]'' 13.4 (1944).
* Macey, Samuel L., ''Encyclopedia of Time'', Routledge. {{ISBN|9781136508905}}.
* Meisner, Dwayne A., ''Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2018. {{ISBN|978-0-190-66352-0}}. [https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190663520.001.0001/oso-9780190663520 Online version at Oxford University Press]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wgJfDwAAQBAJ Google Books].
* [[Plutarch]], ''Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris. The E at Delphi. The Oracles at Delphi No Longer Given in Verse. The Obsolescence of Oracles''. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 306. Cambridge, MA: [[Harvard University Press]], 1936. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99337-2}}. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL306/1936/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Martin Litchfield West|West, M. L.]] (1983), ''The Orphic Poems'', Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-814854-8}}.

==External links==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|date=2023-12-4|En-Chronos-article.ogg}}

{{Commons category}}
{{Time in religion and mythology}}
{{Greek mythology (deities)}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Greek gods]]
[[Category:Greek primordial deities]]
[[Category:Personifications in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Personifications]]
[[Category:Time and fate gods]]