Chrono (primal)

Crono waiting in the monumental cemetery of Staglieno, Genoa.

In Greek mythology, Crono, Chrono or Chronos (in ancient Greek, χρόνος; romanization, Khrónos; pronunciation, Classical: kʰrónos, Koine: kʰrˈo̞no̞s, Byzantine: xrˈonos; meaning: 'general abstract time, determinate time or period'; literally 'Time') was the personification of time, according to what is said in the pre-Socratic philosophical works. Some authors currently choose to use a purely Hispanic phonetic transcription for the Greek letter Χ (Ji), thus adopting the form Jronos. He was also called Aeon or Aion (Αίών, 'eternal time'). Still others, to avoid confusion between spellings, recommend transcribing the theonym Chronos directly as the proper noun Time, as it is a transparent term and equivalent to Latin (tempus ) in all Romance languages.

In Greek myths, Cronus (Chronos) was the god of the Ages (from Golden to Bronze) and of the zodiac. He is a god in the form of a serpentine being with three heads: a man, a bull and a lion. He entwined with his partner Ananké (Inevitability) in a spiral around the primeval egg and separated it, forming the ordered universe of earth, sea and sky.

Chronos remained the remote and incorporeal god of time that surrounded the universe, driving the rotation of the heavens and the eternal passage of time. He occasionally resembled Zeus in the form of an old man with long white hair and beard.

In Orphic lore, Chronos was the son of either Gaia or Hydros (primal Ocean) and Thesis (primal Tethys). Along with Ananké, he was the father of Ether and Erebo or Phanes. Other sources state that he was the father of the Horas and, with Nix, of Hemera. Other Greek sources mention Kairos (the god of opportune time) as the son of Crono (Chronos) and in other cases as his brother.

In Greco-Roman mosaics he was represented as a man turning the zodiacal wheel.

Chronos versus Chrono

Often confused Chronos, personification of time, with Cronos (Κρόνος), king of the Titans and god of the calendar, seasons and harvests, younger son of Uranus and Gaia, and father of Zeus.

The confusion between the two is due to the translation from Latin of their names: Κρόνος is Cronus in Latin, and χρονος is translated as Khronos. In Spanish the 'K' of Khronos, giving rise to Chronos. The mistake is that often 'Cronus', the Titan, is translated as 'Cronos' (when according to the rules of evolution 'us' becomes 'o', and therefore should be 'Chrono'). Thus it is easily confused with 'Chronos' (god of time) and the erroneous 'Cronos' (father of Zeus). Such confusion appears in a variety of later sources, and today many scholarly works and encyclopedias conflate both figures or completely ignore the existence of Chronos as a separate and different personification of time.

Origin

In astronomy, the planet we know today as Saturn due to Roman influence, was called Chronos by the Greeks, who in turn borrowed this tradition from the East. It was the outermost god-planet, and was considered the seventh of the seven celestial objects that are visible to the naked eye. Since it had the longest observable reproducible period in the sky, which is currently about 30 years, it was thought to be the keeper of time, or Father Time, since no other object seen or recorded had a longer period. This is why he was often depicted as an old man with long beards, as mentioned above.