# Chronos > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Chronos > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Chronos.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos > Source revision: 1353135097 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Ancient Greek personification of time}} {{Greek deities (primordial)}} {{Distinguish|text=[Cronus](/source/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](/source/Pierre_Mignard)]] '''Chronos''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|r|oʊ|n|ɒ|s|,_|-|oʊ|s}}; {{Langx|grc|Χρόνος|translit=Khronos|lit=Time}}; {{IPA|el|kʰrónos|}}, Modern Greek: {{IPA|el|'xronos|}}), also spelled '''Chronus''', is a [personification](/source/personification) of time in [Greek mythology](/source/Greek_mythology), who is also discussed in [pre-Socratic philosophy](/source/pre-Socratic_philosophy) and later literature.''[LSJ](/source/A_Greek%E2%80%93English_Lexicon)'' s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*kro%2Fnos Κρόνος]. His consort is the goddess [Ananke](/source/Ananke). Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the [Titan](/source/Titans) [Cronus](/source/Cronus) in antiquity, due to the similarity in names.''[LSJ](/source/A_Greek%E2%80%93English_Lexicon)'' s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*kro%2Fnos Κρόνος]; Meisner, p. 145. The identification became more widespread during the Renaissance, giving rise to the iconography of [Father Time](/source/Father_Time) wielding the harvesting scythe.Macey, [https://books.google.com/books?id=waRlAgAAQBAJ&q=site%3A+edu+cronus+as+renaissance+father+of+time&pg=PA209 p. 209]. Greco-Roman mosaics depicted Chronos as a man turning the [zodiac wheel](/source/zodiac_wheel).Delaere, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ypdoE4w2P1gC&q=Greco-Roman+mosaics+as+a+man+turning+the+Zodiac+Wheel&pg=PA97 p. 97]. He is comparable to the [deity Aion](/source/Aion_(deity)) as a symbol of cyclical time.Levi, p. 274. He is usually portrayed as an old, callous man with a thick grey beard, personifying the destructive and stifling aspects of time.{{Cite web |last=Marcus Tullius |first=Cicero |title=De Natura Deorum, § 2.64 |url=https://topostext.org/work.php?work_id=137}} ==Name== [[File:Romanelli Chronos and his child.jpg|thumb|200px|''Chronos and His Child'' by [Giovanni Francesco Romanelli](/source/Giovanni_Francesco_Romanelli), [National Museum](/source/National_Museum%2C_Warsaw) in [Warsaw](/source/Warsaw), a 17th-century depiction of Chronos as Father Time, wielding a harvesting scythe]] During antiquity, Chronos was occasionally interpreted as [Cronus](/source/Cronus).''[LSJ](/source/A_Greek%E2%80%93English_Lexicon)'' s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*kro%2Fnos Κρόνος]. According to [Plutarch](/source/Plutarch), the Greeks believed that Cronus was an allegorical name for Chronos.Plutarch, ''On Isis and Osiris'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-moralia_isis_osiris/1936/pb_LCL306.77.xml 32]. ==Mythology== In the [Orphic](/source/Orphic) tradition, the unaging Chronos was "engendered" by "earth and water", and produced [Aether](/source/Aether_(mythology)), [Chaos](/source/Chaos_(mythology)), and an egg.West, p. 178. The egg produced the hermaphroditic god [Phanes](/source/Phanes_(mythology)) who gave birth to the first generation of gods and is the ultimate creator of the [cosmos](/source/cosmos). [Pherecydes of Syros](/source/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](/source/Zeus)) and ''Chthonie'' (the [chthonic](/source/chthonic)). The semen of Chronos was placed in the recesses of the Earth and produced the first generation of gods.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]. ==See also== * [Kairos](/source/Kairos) * [Father Time](/source/Father_Time) ==Notes== {{Reflist}} ==References== * Delaere, Mark, ''Unfolding Time: Studies in Temporality in Twentieth-century Music'', [Leuven University Press](/source/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](/source/Cambridge_University_Press); 2 edition (February 24, 1984). {{ISBN|0521274559}}. * [Liddell, Henry George](/source/Henry_George_Liddell), [Robert Scott](/source/Robert_Scott_(philologist)). ''[A Greek-English Lexicon](/source/A_Greek-English_Lexicon)'', revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, [Clarendon Press](/source/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]. * [Levi, Doro](/source/Doro_Levi), "Aion," ''[Hesperia](/source/Hesperia_(journal))'' 13.4 (1944). * Macey, Samuel L., ''Encyclopedia of Time'', Routledge. {{ISBN|9781136508905}}. * Meisner, Dwayne A., ''[Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods](/source/Orphic_Tradition_and_the_Birth_of_the_Gods)'', [Oxford University Press](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Loeb_Classical_Library) No. 306. Cambridge, MA: [Harvard University Press](/source/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]. * [West, M. L.](/source/Martin_Litchfield_West) (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}} {{Ancient Greek personifications}} {{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 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Chronos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.