CHRONOS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chronos is Time. The name appears on many occasions, and is sometimes identified with that of Cronos, who once ruled the universe but now is said to rule Elysium. Chronos (but not Cronos) is called the father of the Horae (regarded as Hours rather than Seasons), of Aether (Upper Sky), and of Eros.

Chronos rules perception: all-consuming Time, who for the human mind increases endlessly, cannot be separated from the orderly experience of life, which is not conceivable without him. Therein lies the power of this god, who rules not only the appearance of things—making them look newer or older—but also the soul, which would not be capable of apprehending anything without his gifts. That is why it has been said that “ever-ageing Time teaches all things” (Prometheus to Hermes. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 982, tr. Herbert Weir Smyth).

Time plants in the human mind the basic sequence of past, present and future, without which there would be neither “before” nor “after”, nor anything depending on these (such as “causes” and “effects”). Without this sequence, all things would be perceived at once, and the human mind would fall into confusion. The greatness of Time is such that nothing can be done about him, except to take him for granted just in the way he pleases to appear. For if he shortened the length of the day, no one would notice, as there is no way of checking Time by means of comparison. Similarly, if he reversed his course, the whole physical world would be altered, because causes and effects are dependent on Time’s direction; and so death would come before birth, and old age would precede youth and childhood.

The immensity of the power of Time is such that some—Orpheus, for instance (in “his”  Argonautica)—have asserted that Time was the first to exist. They could not imagine any beginnings without him, reasoning that whatever happens must happen according to Time, and that nothing could ever take place as an event, without the acquiescence of this god, “father of days” (Euripides, Suppliants 786, tr. E. P. Coleridge). But Time cannot be found in the physical world, except for the effects of his actions.

The 20th-century theorists who described the Big Bang appear to think, almost like Orpheus, that Time was the first to exist, as they seem to associate the origin of the universe with the birth of Time. But whereas Orpheus says that Time was the first to exist, those narrating the story of the Big Bang think rather that something took place, or was, just before the appearance of Time. For the universe, they say, begins with a singularity, or is itself one, and it is not until this singularity expands that Time comes into being. Furthermore, this event may be thought to have taken place nowhere, because not only Time but the other three coordinates needed for every event to occur, were absent. Accordingly, the universe-as-singularity is described as “infinitesimally small and infinitely dense,” a curious condition recalling the idea of nothing.

In recent years, scientists have caught Time running slower or faster, depending on physical conditions. This discovery has been considered a milestone. Until it was made Time had been seen to run irregularly only in the realm of the human mind, and this experienced time, recognized to be distinct from physical time, had often been regarded as an illusion, and therefore its meaning, with regard to human life and experience, usually discarded. Yet nothing could be said to stand closer to Time than the mind. This nearness is such that some have believed Time to exist just within, to be, basically, the way the mind observes the world. But others believe that Time has his own existence without, independent of the mind and even independent of events. In the light of this debate the line separating within and without is blurred.

Time can be perceived only through events, some of which happen before, and some after. Both what took place before (the past) and what is yet to happen (the future) are usually regarded as non-existing. Past and future cannot be retrieved at will, except by Memory, or in the claims of seers and prophets, or in the accounts of descents to the Underworld, or in the inventions of fiction. But because perception has been found, on the ground of physical observation, to be not instantaneous but delayed, some emphasize that it is not the present that is perceived at any moment, but the past, even though we perceive it “now.” As for the present, common experience says it vanishes instantly and cannot be grasped, suggesting that Time does not exist. Yet Memory confirms his existence at every moment, by recalling old events, and thereby re-establishing the certainty that new ones will soon come forth. This is how Memory, sister of Time, cooperates with her brother within the human mind.

Besides the three sequential dimensions of Time—past, present and future—all of which belong to the experience of the human mind, a fourth may be added through reasoning, speculation, intuition, or other means. This is eternity, and in this form Time ceases to express himself as the agent of the transient, for what is eternal is forever. So, what only happens temporarily in our world, in eternity happens always or just is. The eternal is therefore a world in which becoming has turned into being, change into sameness, part into all, perishable existence into unending life, somewhere into everywhere, and so on:

“was and will be … are terms properly applicable to the Becoming which proceeds in Time, since both of these are motions; but it belongs not to that which is ever changeless in its uniformity to become either older or younger through time, nor ever to have become so, nor to be so now, nor to be about to be so hereafter, nor in general to be subject to any of the conditions which Becoming has attached to the things which move in the world of Sense, these being generated forms of Time, which imitates Eternity” (Plato, Timaeus 38a, tr. W.R.M. Lamb).

And because eternity is not divided into segments, as the temporal is, there is no need in that world for Memory as such. For she is the necessary giver of knowledge in the temporal dimension, whereas in eternity knowledge is absolute. Likewise, the eternal could be said to be Time’s absolute form, whereas the temporal represents his relative form. The role attributed to Time, “the all-seeing” (Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 1212, tr. Sir Richard Jebb), in both the eternal and the temporal dimensions, justifies what is said of him: “Time sees all things forever” (Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1454, tr. Sir Richard Jebb).¹

In the Chronos paintings, Time is presented, symbolically, in all four of its dimensions: as the sequence of past, present and future, and as eternity. The past, the segment of Time that cannot undergo change, except by the variations of Memory (on which it entirely depends), is represented by charred newspaper, the words and images of the day-by-day chronicle of events, reduced to ash, hence rendered inert and incommunicable. The present, which vanishes incessantly without ever exhausting itself, is given as the accumulation of dust and other accidental matter on the painting’s surface, which is rendered lightly adhesive by the use of special oils. The Future, the segment of Time that is unknown, and for that reason is awaited with hope or anxiety, or is not awaited at all (for it may not come) is produced in the eye of the viewer as the projection of the present: it is the appearance the paintings will be imagined to have beneath the layers of ambient matter that they, like so many rare wines in a cellar, may be expected to accumulate over the years. Eternity, finally, is suggested by the appearance the paintings assume when they have reached equilibrium with their environment—when the adhesive capacity of the surface has been exhausted and no further accumulation of ambient matter can occur. As in life the events brought by Time constitute what actually happens, so in the Chronos paintings the accidental accrual of elements with the passage of the hours and days completes the unfinished works. How Time and the events he brings are met, constitutes both the way in which life is lived and the way the painting approaches its destiny. In both cases, how the outcome is perceived depends completely on the disposition of the soul of the perceiving subject.

1. Genealogy of Chronos by Carlos Parada (http://www.maicar.com/GML/Chronos.html).

 

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