chronos

In Greek mythology, Chronos (often mystically confused with the Titan Cronus) was the personification of time. He emerged from the primordial chaos. He is often depicted as an elderly, gray-haired man with a long beard. His name actually means "Time" (khronos in Greek), and is altenatively spelled Khronos, Chronos, Chronus (Latin version). Some of the current English words which show a tie to khronos/chronos and the attachment to time are chronology, chronic, and chronicle. In astronomy, the planet we now call Saturn because of Roman influence was called Khronos by the Greeks. It was the outermost planet god/diety, and was considered the seventh of the seven heavenly objects that are visible with the naked eye. Given that it had the longest observable repeatable period in the sky, which is currently around 30 years, it was thought to be the keeper of time, or Father Time, since no other objects had been seen or recorded to have a longer period. That's why it is often depicted as an elderly man with a long gray beard, as mentioned above. The planet with the next longest period of revolution is Jupiter, which has a 12 year period. It was called Zeus by the Greeks, and Zedek by other middle-eastern people, and it was believed to be born of or fathered by the planet Khronos/Saturn, because its visually recordable period is 18 years less than that of its supposed father planet god or diety.

Chronos

See also