Chronos Is Not Dead...

In Ancient Greek mythology, there are a myriad of stories used to convey lots of different things. Sometimes, the stories are world history in disguise, such as the stories of Helen of Troy. Other times, their allegories for the human condition. All of them are really interesting and creating, and they make you rethink the history we all think is "objective" (remember, the Greeks don't have a different word for "history" and "story").

One of my favorite stories is that of Chronos, Zeus's titan father. Chronos, you see, had a tendency to eat all of his children in order to maintain his authority and not be overthrown by his Olympian children. Rhea, Chronos's mate, became angry that her offspring were being gobbled up, so with the help of Ouranos and Gaia (the Sky and the Earth), she hid away her son Zeus and fed Chronos a rock instead. When Zeus became powerful enough, he destroyed Chronos and freed his brothers and sisters from his belly. Thus, the Ancient Greek Pantheon we know of today begins.

There are a lot of different morals to be ascertained through the reading of this story. The one I want to focus on today focuses on the relationship between Chronos and Zeus. Chronos represents time. Time eats us all, you see. The idea is that Zeus has slayed time, has freed us from the constraints of being fleeting characters and turned us into immortals (or has at least given us the opportunity to become immortal). Thus, Zeus is to be revered as the head of the Pantheon by allowing us the ultimate gift: the opportunity for eternity.

Here's what I find interesting: I have traveled through the ancient ruins. I have seen the statues of our hero Zeus crumbling and weathered. I have seen the remains of the civilizations which once revered this character for opening eternity to them. I'm not exactly sure what to make of it all, but it is interesting. Chronos has the last laugh after all. His son enjoyed prosperity here for a while, but Zeus's temples on Olympus are collapsing and no one remains to worship at them.

Again, it helps put things in perspective. Right now is nothing but a minuscule dot in the grander scheme of history. We think everything we have is the epoch of culture, thought, knowledge, etc. We especially think this about religion with our closed-off monotheism.

Keep in mind that I say this from the perspective of a young man striving to be a follower of Christ. I am not saying that our religions aren't valuable and true in some senses. What I am saying is that we could probably stand to lose a bit of our huberus. What do we have to gain from declaring ourselves the ultimate authority on everything? Nothing, I argue. We deprive ourselves of the ability to grow by closing our minds to new and challenging ideas about faith, religion, philosophy, life.

I know lots of people are going to argue with me on these points. We all want to believe we're absolutely right in our beliefs at all times. Maybe some of us are - though I highly doubt it. All I'm saying is that at one time, entire civilizations thought that Zeus had slain Chronos. I've seen their remains.