Caerus
Encyclopedia
In Greek mythology
, Caerus (Greek
: Καιρός, Kairos) was the personification of opportunity, luck and favorable moments. He was depicted with only one lock of hair. His Roman
equivalent was Occasio or Tempus. Caerus is called the youngest child of Zeus
.
Caerus is the due measure that achieves the aim. This god brings about what is convenient, fit, and comes in the right moment. Sometimes it could be the critical or dangerous moment, but more often Caerus represents the advantageous, or favorable occasion. Hence, what is opportune, or "Opportunity". In the Hellenistic age (as P. Chantraine informs us), the term was also used as "time" or "season" (the good time, or good season).
According to Pausanias
, there was an altar of Caerus close to the entrance to the stadium at Olympia
, for Opportunity is regarded as a divinity and not as a mere allegory. This indefatigable traveler also tells us that Caerus was regarded as the youngest child of Zeus in a hymn by Ion of Chios (ca. 490-425 BC).
Caerus is represented as a young and beautiful god. Opportunity obviously never gets old, and beauty is always opportune, flourishing in its own season. Caerus stands on tiptoe because he is always running, and like Hermes, he has wings in his feet to fly with the wind. He holds a razor, or else scales balanced on a sharp edge—attributes illustrating the fleeting instant in which occasions appear and disappear.
A. Fairbanks (translator of Callistratus) suggests that the type of the statue of Opportunity was developed out of the form of the Hermes that granted victory in athletic contests. And if someone were to think of other resemblances between Opportunity and Hermes, he might also ask the proverbial question: "Who makes the thief?" For just as Hermes has been taken to be the protector of thieves, Opportunity has been called their maker. And persuaded that Caerus has a bad influence in the matter of thefts, humans spent huge resources and efforts in perfecting locks and keys and passwords and every kind of safety measures, with the help of which they hope to outwit Opportunity. But as they lock some doors they inevitably leave others open. And as expected, the god goes on flying as swiftly as ever, providing amazing surprises to everyone, and making not only thieves but also lovers. In addition, he produces every kind of such humans as are nicknamed "opportunists" on account of their ability to quickly seize whatever advantage the great seducer Caerus appears to offer them.
On the other hand, a man of sober judgment usually thinks that things such as "opportunity" are not entities, or powers, let alone divinities, but the produce of diligent men. And being such their nature (he reasons), they could be arranged or put under control. That is also what Francis Bacon
appears to tell us when he writes: "A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it".
Caerus can easily be seized by the hair hanging over his face ("creeping down over the eyebrows") when he is arriving. But once he has passed by, no one can grasp him, the back of his head being bald. The moment of action is gone with his hair: a neglected occasion cannot be recovered. The author of Ekphráseis (Descriptions) found that the statue of Caerus at Sicyon resembled Dionysus
, with his forehead glistening with graces and a delicate blush on his cheeks: "... though it was bronze, it blushed; and though it was hard by nature, it melted into softness".
And like the statue is Opportunity himself, he melts into softness if caught by the forelock, but once he has raced by, he assumes his hard nature and seldom grants a second chance.
A bronze statue of Kairos is known in literature, made by the famous Greek sculptor Lysippos
. It stood at his home, in the Agora of Hellenistic Sikyon. The following epigram by Poseidippos was carved on the statue:
This statue was the original model for the various representations of Kairos made in ancient times and Middle Ages as well. John Tzetzes
wrote about it, as well as Himerius
. The image of hair hanging on the forehead and a bald nucha was associated in Roman times to the goddess Fortuna, the personification of good and bad luck. Several authors referred to this. For instance Disticha Catonis II, 26 refer to the Latin concept of Occasio (a female word which can be considered as a literal translation of the Greek Kairos; see also Caerus
) in these terms: "Rem tibi quam scieris aptam dimittere noli: fronte capillata, post haec occasio calva", which means "Don't let that what you consider good for you escapes by; chance has hair over her forehead, but behind she's bald". Phaedrus (V,8) has a similar writing and he himself admits that the theme was not his own but more ancient. Callistratus
(Descriptions, 6) has a long text describing the statue by Lysippos.
In Trogir (the ancient Roman Tragurium), Croatia, in the Convent of the Benedictine Nuns, was displayed a marble bas-relief of Kairos from the 3rd century B.C., as a young man, running.
The bas-relief is now kept at the Municipal Museum of Trogir.
The theme of Kairos was felt as extremely important during the Middle Ages
. Carmina Burana
16, a famous poem about Fortune, mentions Kairos in this way: "verum est quod legitur, fronte capillata, sed plerumque sequitur occasio calvata"; which means "it is true what is read, that Occasio has the forehead with hair, but that almost always she passes being bald". Several representations of Kairos survive; a relief (about 160 C.E.) is kept at the Museum of Antiquities of Turin (Italy); another relief was kept (now lost) at Palazzo Medici in Florence; an onyx gem (originally from the collection of the Duc de Blacas
, 1st-2nd century C.E.) with an incision of the god Tempus with attributes of Kairos is kept now at the British Museum
; a marble relief showing Kairos, Bios (the Life), and Metanoia (Afterthought, the female Latin Paenitentia) is in the cathedral of Torcello (11th century C.E.); a monochrome fresco by Mantegna
at Palazzo Ducale in Mantua
(about 1510 C.E.) shows a female Kairos (most probably Occasio) with a young man trying to catch her and a woman representing Paenitentia.
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, Caerus (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: Καιρός, Kairos) was the personification of opportunity, luck and favorable moments. He was depicted with only one lock of hair. His Roman
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
equivalent was Occasio or Tempus. Caerus is called the youngest child of Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
.
Caerus is the due measure that achieves the aim. This god brings about what is convenient, fit, and comes in the right moment. Sometimes it could be the critical or dangerous moment, but more often Caerus represents the advantageous, or favorable occasion. Hence, what is opportune, or "Opportunity". In the Hellenistic age (as P. Chantraine informs us), the term was also used as "time" or "season" (the good time, or good season).
According to Pausanias
Pausanias (geographer)
Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
, there was an altar of Caerus close to the entrance to the stadium at Olympia
Olympia, Greece
Olympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. Both games were held every Olympiad , the Olympic Games dating back possibly further than 776 BC...
, for Opportunity is regarded as a divinity and not as a mere allegory. This indefatigable traveler also tells us that Caerus was regarded as the youngest child of Zeus in a hymn by Ion of Chios (ca. 490-425 BC).
Caerus is represented as a young and beautiful god. Opportunity obviously never gets old, and beauty is always opportune, flourishing in its own season. Caerus stands on tiptoe because he is always running, and like Hermes, he has wings in his feet to fly with the wind. He holds a razor, or else scales balanced on a sharp edge—attributes illustrating the fleeting instant in which occasions appear and disappear.
A. Fairbanks (translator of Callistratus) suggests that the type of the statue of Opportunity was developed out of the form of the Hermes that granted victory in athletic contests. And if someone were to think of other resemblances between Opportunity and Hermes, he might also ask the proverbial question: "Who makes the thief?" For just as Hermes has been taken to be the protector of thieves, Opportunity has been called their maker. And persuaded that Caerus has a bad influence in the matter of thefts, humans spent huge resources and efforts in perfecting locks and keys and passwords and every kind of safety measures, with the help of which they hope to outwit Opportunity. But as they lock some doors they inevitably leave others open. And as expected, the god goes on flying as swiftly as ever, providing amazing surprises to everyone, and making not only thieves but also lovers. In addition, he produces every kind of such humans as are nicknamed "opportunists" on account of their ability to quickly seize whatever advantage the great seducer Caerus appears to offer them.
On the other hand, a man of sober judgment usually thinks that things such as "opportunity" are not entities, or powers, let alone divinities, but the produce of diligent men. And being such their nature (he reasons), they could be arranged or put under control. That is also what Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
appears to tell us when he writes: "A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it".
Caerus can easily be seized by the hair hanging over his face ("creeping down over the eyebrows") when he is arriving. But once he has passed by, no one can grasp him, the back of his head being bald. The moment of action is gone with his hair: a neglected occasion cannot be recovered. The author of Ekphráseis (Descriptions) found that the statue of Caerus at Sicyon resembled Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
, with his forehead glistening with graces and a delicate blush on his cheeks: "... though it was bronze, it blushed; and though it was hard by nature, it melted into softness".
And like the statue is Opportunity himself, he melts into softness if caught by the forelock, but once he has raced by, he assumes his hard nature and seldom grants a second chance.
Representations
According to ancient Greeks, Kairos was the god of the "fleeting moment"; "a favorable opportunity opposing the fate of man". Such a moment must be grasped (by the tuft of hair on the personified forehead of the fleeting opportunity); otherwise the moment is gone and can not be re-captured (personified by the back of head being bald).A bronze statue of Kairos is known in literature, made by the famous Greek sculptor Lysippos
Lysippos
Lysippos was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period. Problems confront the study of Lysippos because of the difficulty of...
. It stood at his home, in the Agora of Hellenistic Sikyon. The following epigram by Poseidippos was carved on the statue:
"Who and whence was the sculptor? From Sikyon.
And his name? Lysippos.
And who are you? Time who subdues all things.
Why do you stand on tip-toe? I am ever running.
And why you have a pair of wings on your feet? I fly with the wind.
And why do you hold a razor in your right hand? As a sign to men that I am sharper than any sharp edge.
And why does your hair hang over your face? For him who meets me to take me by the forelock.
And why, in Heaven's name, is the back of your head bald? Because none whom I have once raced by on my winged feet will now, though he wishes it sore, take hold of me from behind.
Why did the artist fashion you? For your sake, stranger, and he set me up in the porch as a lesson."
This statue was the original model for the various representations of Kairos made in ancient times and Middle Ages as well. John Tzetzes
John Tzetzes
John Tzetzes was a Byzantine poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century.Tzetzes was Georgian on his mother's side...
wrote about it, as well as Himerius
Himerius
Himerius , Greek sophist and rhetorician. 24 of his orations have reached us complete, and fragments of 12 others.- Life and works :...
. The image of hair hanging on the forehead and a bald nucha was associated in Roman times to the goddess Fortuna, the personification of good and bad luck. Several authors referred to this. For instance Disticha Catonis II, 26 refer to the Latin concept of Occasio (a female word which can be considered as a literal translation of the Greek Kairos; see also Caerus
Caerus
In Greek mythology, Caerus was the personification of opportunity, luck and favorable moments. He was depicted with only one lock of hair. His Roman equivalent was Occasio or Tempus. Caerus is called the youngest child of Zeus....
) in these terms: "Rem tibi quam scieris aptam dimittere noli: fronte capillata, post haec occasio calva", which means "Don't let that what you consider good for you escapes by; chance has hair over her forehead, but behind she's bald". Phaedrus (V,8) has a similar writing and he himself admits that the theme was not his own but more ancient. Callistratus
Callistratus (sophist)
Callistratus, Greek sophist and rhetorician, probably flourished in the 3rd century AD. He wrote Ekphraseis , descriptions of fourteen works of art in stone or brass by distinguished artists...
(Descriptions, 6) has a long text describing the statue by Lysippos.
In Trogir (the ancient Roman Tragurium), Croatia, in the Convent of the Benedictine Nuns, was displayed a marble bas-relief of Kairos from the 3rd century B.C., as a young man, running.
The bas-relief is now kept at the Municipal Museum of Trogir.
The theme of Kairos was felt as extremely important during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...
16, a famous poem about Fortune, mentions Kairos in this way: "verum est quod legitur, fronte capillata, sed plerumque sequitur occasio calvata"; which means "it is true what is read, that Occasio has the forehead with hair, but that almost always she passes being bald". Several representations of Kairos survive; a relief (about 160 C.E.) is kept at the Museum of Antiquities of Turin (Italy); another relief was kept (now lost) at Palazzo Medici in Florence; an onyx gem (originally from the collection of the Duc de Blacas
Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas
Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas d'Aulps, first comte, then duc, and finally prince de Blacas d'Aulps was a French antiquarian, nobleman and diplomat during the Bourbon Restoration.-Youth:He was baptized at Avignon on 11 January 1771...
, 1st-2nd century C.E.) with an incision of the god Tempus with attributes of Kairos is kept now at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
; a marble relief showing Kairos, Bios (the Life), and Metanoia (Afterthought, the female Latin Paenitentia) is in the cathedral of Torcello (11th century C.E.); a monochrome fresco by Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality...
at Palazzo Ducale in Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
(about 1510 C.E.) shows a female Kairos (most probably Occasio) with a young man trying to catch her and a woman representing Paenitentia.
External links
- Relief of Caerus at mlahanas.de
