#I'm just finding it interesting that kronos has this other side beyond the whole ''eating his kids'' thing

[pink-lemonade-rose]

In addition, ideas relating to the state of the ancestral god Kronos, whether he is bound or free, awake or asleep, and sober or not, recur in philosophical texts. Plato uses the figure of Kronos to evoke an era of happiness and perfect government, and along the same lines he writes about Kronos as the ‘archon’ of the world who is responsible for cosmic harmony: such harmony depends on two phases, one in which the god is involved in the government of the world affairs, and another in which he withdraws, bringing on an inevitable state of chaos. The motif cannot be separated from more general concepts about power and leadership, for which we cite only the evocative words of Aischylos’ opening in the Seven against Thebes (1–3): “it is the lot of him who guards the state affairs to say the appropriate things, guiding the helm of the city upon the stern, not resting his eyes in slumber.” Plutarch also follows this cosmologic elaboration on the role of Kronos in his De facie, where he alludes to an oracle of Kronos that operates in dreams, and describes the god as a “transmitter of mantic knowledge essential for the government of the cosmos.” The same idea emerges in the Phoenician History of Philon of Byblos (1st–2nd centuries AD), where Kronos is deliberately merged with the Canaanite god El, and where the god’s vigilance or negligence of the world is represented in the description of Kronos’ ‘insignia,’ in which the god is represented as ever-vigilant, with eyes that look in two directions, forwards and backwards, that is, to the future and past simultaneously (again, compare the association of Kronos with a Time deity): “Kronos saw even when he slept and slept while alert.”

Carolina López-Ruiz, "A Hangover of Cosmic Proportions" (in Tracing Orpheus)

#carolina lopez ruiz #tracing orpheus #kronos #titans #hellenic deities #plato #aiskhylos #plutarch #sleeping #dreaming #oracles #harmony #ancient greece #cosmos #quotes #time #yes I'm still here on tumblr and yes I'm still a nerd thanks for asking #I'm just finding it interesting that kronos has this other side beyond the whole ''eating his kids'' thing #plus a dream oracle #who loves a dream oracle? me. I love a dream oracle.