page_title: Chronos
section_title: Name and etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Chronos / Name and etymology
context_page_description: Chronos, also spelled Khronos or Chronus, is the personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature.
  Chronos already was confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Titan Cronus in antiquity due to the similarity in names. The identification became more widespread during the Renaissance, giving rise to the allegory of "Father Time" wielding the harvesting scythe.
  He was depicted in Greco-Roman mosaics as a man turning the Zodiac Wheel. Chronos might also be contrasted with the deity Aion as cyclical Time. Chronos is usually portrayed as an old, wise man with a long, grey beard, similar to Father Time. In some Greek sources, Kairos is mentioned as a brother of Chronos. However, other sources point out that it is his son.
context_section_description: During antiquity, Chronos was occasionally interpreted as Cronus. According to Plutarch, the Greeks believed that Cronus was an allegorical name for Chronos. In addition to the name, the story of Cronus eating his children was also interpreted as an allegory to a specific aspect of time held within Cronus' sphere of influence. According to this theory, Cronus represented the destructive ravages of time which consumed all things, a concept that was expressed literally when the Titan king devoured the Olympian gods — the past consuming the future, the older generation suppressing the next generation. During the Renaissance, the identification of Cronus and Chronos gave rise to "Father Time" wielding the harvesting scythe.
  The original meaning and etymology of the word chronos are uncertain. English words derived from it include chronology, chronometer, chronic, anachronism, synchrony, and chronicle.
caption: Chronos and his Child by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, National Museum in Warsaw, a 17th-century depiction of Titan Cronus as "Father Time," wielding a harvesting scythe
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