Kronos...
Kronos was a Greek god, one of the Titans, father of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Demeter, and Chiron. His father was Uranus (the Sky) and his mother was Gaia (the Earth). He overthrew his father to become ruler, and was likewise overthrown by his children for Zeus to become ruler. My belief is that Uranus, Kronos, and Zeus fulfilled the same role and that Uranus was the head of the gods of the earliest Greek, but later Greeks overthrew the leadership and made Kronos the head god, and likewise with Zeus. I could be wrong in this, however. No one really knows. He was Saturn to the Greeks.
Kronos' symbol is the sickle. He used it to castrate his father. The sickle represents the harvest, for he is the Harvester. Even after Kronos was deposed, there was a harvest festival to him in Athens every year. There are other Indo-European myths where someone castrates the Sky, which creates a gap between the Sky and the Earth, allowing for Time and life to start.
Cronus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:A theory debated in the 19th century, and sometimes still offered somewhat apologetically, holds that Kronos is related to "horned", assuming a Semitic derivation from qrn. Andrew Lang's objection, that Cronus was never represented horned in Hellenic art, was addressed by Robert Brown, arguing that in Semitic usage, as in the Hebrew Bible qeren was a signifier of "power". When Greek writers encountered the Levantine deity El, they rendered his name as Kronos.
In the White Goddess, Robert Graves equates him with Time (which was Chronos, a very similar name). If we use this, we can look at some interesting things. The idea of Father Time came from the sickle of Kronos combined with Chronos as Time.
Robert Cochrane has some interesting things to say about time:
Third Letter to Norman Giles:In the beginning there was only Night, and She was alone. Being was absolute, movement was there none. Being force without form, She desired form, and since She desired, that form was created .. Woman. Being Woman, She desired union, and created Man from Her North side.
Having created Man, She discovered love, and so all things began. Here was the first of all sins, Desire. From desire sprang all movement, all Life, all Time, all Death, joy and sorrow alike.
and
Third Letter to Norman Giles:There is a great river flowing and twining round all creation. Rushing out of Annwn, binding the seven kingdoms together, and returning to Annwn in a great waterfall, under which all must pass eventually. The name of that river is Time and the place of Darkness to which it returns is not only Hell, but Heaven also. It is time and time alone that binds us to blindness, and it is love and love alone that will let us see the golden heart of the mysteries.
and (a paraphrase of Robert Grave's translation of the Song of Amergin, originally from the Book of Invasions, translated in the White Goddess)
Fourth Letter: "I am a Stag Who -- survived the Flood,
I am a Flood -- That destroyed the world,
I am a Wind -- Of God moving across the
desolate world,
I am a Tear --The sorrow of Fate,
I am a Hawk -- The Child who survived the
Flood,
I am a Thorn -- The beginning of Fate (Death),
I am a Wonder- For I alone transform."
and
Fourth Letter:The Flood is again symbolic and represents Time.
Time functions within Fate, as all other things do. They are the two things that always bind us. I think Fate is Mari and Time is Twr.
FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss
Kronos' symbol is the sickle. He used it to castrate his father. The sickle represents the harvest, for he is the Harvester. Even after Kronos was deposed, there was a harvest festival to him in Athens every year. There are other Indo-European myths where someone castrates the Sky, which creates a gap between the Sky and the Earth, allowing for Time and life to start.
Cronus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:A theory debated in the 19th century, and sometimes still offered somewhat apologetically, holds that Kronos is related to "horned", assuming a Semitic derivation from qrn. Andrew Lang's objection, that Cronus was never represented horned in Hellenic art, was addressed by Robert Brown, arguing that in Semitic usage, as in the Hebrew Bible qeren was a signifier of "power". When Greek writers encountered the Levantine deity El, they rendered his name as Kronos.
In the White Goddess, Robert Graves equates him with Time (which was Chronos, a very similar name). If we use this, we can look at some interesting things. The idea of Father Time came from the sickle of Kronos combined with Chronos as Time.
Robert Cochrane has some interesting things to say about time:
Third Letter to Norman Giles:In the beginning there was only Night, and She was alone. Being was absolute, movement was there none. Being force without form, She desired form, and since She desired, that form was created .. Woman. Being Woman, She desired union, and created Man from Her North side.
Having created Man, She discovered love, and so all things began. Here was the first of all sins, Desire. From desire sprang all movement, all Life, all Time, all Death, joy and sorrow alike.
and
Third Letter to Norman Giles:There is a great river flowing and twining round all creation. Rushing out of Annwn, binding the seven kingdoms together, and returning to Annwn in a great waterfall, under which all must pass eventually. The name of that river is Time and the place of Darkness to which it returns is not only Hell, but Heaven also. It is time and time alone that binds us to blindness, and it is love and love alone that will let us see the golden heart of the mysteries.
and (a paraphrase of Robert Grave's translation of the Song of Amergin, originally from the Book of Invasions, translated in the White Goddess)
Fourth Letter: "I am a Stag Who -- survived the Flood,
I am a Flood -- That destroyed the world,
I am a Wind -- Of God moving across the
desolate world,
I am a Tear --The sorrow of Fate,
I am a Hawk -- The Child who survived the
Flood,
I am a Thorn -- The beginning of Fate (Death),
I am a Wonder- For I alone transform."
and
Fourth Letter:The Flood is again symbolic and represents Time.
Time functions within Fate, as all other things do. They are the two things that always bind us. I think Fate is Mari and Time is Twr.
FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss