Chronos | Greek God

Chronos (Greek: Χρόνος, transl. Chrónos, "time"; Latin: Chronus) also called Aeon (Greek: Αίων, "eternity"; Latin: Aeon), in Greek mythology, was the personification of eternal and immortal time, and ruled over the fate of the immortal gods.

Chronos was a deity created by the Orphic sect, and was essentially a copy of the titan Kronos, who, in the popular cult of the ancient Greeks, was the god of time par excellence.

Etymology

During antiquity, Chronos was occasionally confused with the titan Cronos. According to Plutarch, the ancient Greeks believed that Chronos was an allegorical name for Chronos. Which is to say that, in fact, the figure of Chronos was fundamentally the same as that of the titan Cronos, the god of time in the Hesiodic theogony and the common cult of the Greeks.

Besides the name, the story of Chronos eating his children was also interpreted as an allegory of a specific aspect of time, Chronos' sphere of influence. Chronos represented the destructive characteristics of time, which consumed all things, a concept that was definitely illustrated when the titan king consumed the gods of Olympus - the past consuming the future, the older generation suppressed by the next.

During the Renaissance, the identification of Cronos and Chronos gave rise to "Father Time," an anthropomorphic representation of time wielding the harvest scythe. The original meaning and etymology of the word Chronos is still uncertain.

Concepts

The ancient Greeks had three concepts for time: khrónos, kairós and aíôn. Khrónos refers to chronological, or sequential, time that can be measured, associated with the linear movement of earthly things, with a beginning and an end. Kairós refers to an indeterminate moment in time when something special happens, the time of opportunity.

Aíôn was already a sacred and eternal time, without a precise measure, a time of creativity where hours do not pass chronologically, also associated with the circular movement of the stars, and that in modern theology would correspond to God's time.

Mythology

According to the Orphic theogony, Chronos appeared at the beginning of time, formed by himself, or born from the union of Hydros and Gaia.[6] He was an incorporeal and serpentine being having three heads, one of a man, one of a bull, and another of a lion.

He joined his mate Anank (inevitability) in a spiral around the firstborn egg separating it, then forming the ordered Universe with Gaia, Pontus (the deep sea) and Uranus (the starry sky).

With Anank he fathered Erebo or Skotos, Ether or Akmon and Chaos or Aer, as well as Phanes, born from the firstborn egg. Some authors make him father of Hemera or Amara and of the Moiras with Nix, as well as of the twelve Hours.[6]

He remained a remote, bodiless god of time who surrounded the universe, conducting the rotation of the heavens and the eternal walk of time, occasionally appearing before Zeus in the form of an old man with long hair and a white beard, though he remained most of the time in the form of a force beyond the reach and power of the younger gods.

One of the representations of Chronos, is that of a god who devours his own children. This representation is due to the fact that the ancient Greeks took Chronos as the creator of time, therefore, of everything that exists and can end, and for this reason they considered themselves as children of time (Chronos), and since it is impossible to escape time, everyone would sooner or later be defeated (devoured) by it.

Like the one and only creator God of Christians, Jews and Muslims, creator of the universe and final judge.

One possible explanation for this representation is the confusion with the titan Kronos, who ate his children so that they would not rebel against him and take over the Earth as he did with their father, Uranus.