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Aion (deity)

December 03, 2023

This article is about the Hellenistic deity. For the Gnostic concept of God, see Aeon (Gnosticism).

Aion (Greek: Αἰών) is a Hellenistic deity associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the universe, and the zodiac. The "time" which Aion represents is perpetual, unbounded, ritual, and cyclic: The future is a returning version of the past, later called aevum (see Vedic Sanskrit Ṛtú). This kind of time contrasts with empirical, linear, progressive, and historical time that Chronos represented, which divides into past, present, and future.[2]: 274 

Aion depicted as a young man with wings attached to his temples, standing in the circle of the zodiac, with Terra and four putti (representing the seasons) nearby, Roman mosaic, Sentinum, c. 200–300 AD[1]

Aion is thus a god of the cyclic ages, and the cycle of the year and the zodiac. In the latter part of the Classical era he became associated with mystery religions concerned with the afterlife, such as the mysteries of Cybele, the Dionysian mysteries, Orphic religion, and the Mithraic mysteries. In Latin, the concept of the deity may appear as Aeternitas, Anna Perenna, or Saeculum.[2]: 274  He is typically in the company of an earth or mother goddess such as Tellus or Cybele, as on the Parabiago plate.[2]: 274 

Iconography and symbolism edit

Aion is usually identified as the nude or mostly nude young man within a circle representing the zodiac, symbolic of eternal and cyclical time. Examples include two Roman mosaics from Sentinum (modern–day Sassoferrato) and Hippo Regius in Roman Africa, and the Parabiago plate. But because he represents time as a cycle, he may also be presented as an old man. In the Dionysiaca, Nonnus associates Aion with the Horae and says that he:

changes the burden of old age like a snake who sloughs off the coils of the useless old scales, rejuvenescing while washing in the swells of the laws [of time].[3]

The imagery of the twining serpent is connected to the hoop or wheel through the ouroboros, a ring formed by a snake holding the tip of its tail in its mouth. The 4th century CE Latin commentator Servius notes that the image of a snake biting its tail represents the cyclical nature of the year.[5]

 
Detail from the Parabiago plate depicting Aion; Ajax is shown holding up the zodiac from below, and Tellus (not shown) appears on the plate outside of this image, just past the bottom left of the picture, reclining among her children by Aion.

In his 5th century work on hieroglyphics, Horapollo makes a further distinction between a serpent that hides its tail under the rest of its body, which represents Aion, and the ouroboros that represents the kosmos, which is the serpent devouring its tail.[6]

Identifications edit

Martianus Capella (5th century CE) identified Aion with Cronus (Latin Saturnus), whose name caused him to be theologically conflated with Chronos ("Time"), in the way that the Greek ruler of the underworld Plouton (Pluto) was conflated with Ploutos (Plutus, "Wealth"). Martianus presents Cronus-Aion as the consort of Rhea (Latin Ops) as identified with Physis.[4]: 137 

In his highly speculative reconstruction of Mithraic cosmogony, Franz Cumont positioned Aion as Unlimited Time (sometimes represented as Saeculum, Cronus, or Saturn) as the god who emerged from primordial Chaos, and who in turn generated Heaven and Earth. Modern scholars call this deity the 'leonto‑cephaline' figure – a winged, lion-headed, nude male, whose torso is entwined by a serpent. He typically holds a sceptre, keys, and / or a thunderbolt. Nobody knows for sure who he was or what he represented, but aside from the lion-head, depictions of him have Aion's icons; in rare instances, his statue appears in mithrea with the human head, and with the lion-head gone, he is indistinguishable from Aion.[7]: 78 

The figure of Time "played a considerable, though to us completely obscure, role" in Mithraic ritual and theology.[7]: 128 

Aion is identified with Dionysus in Christian and Neoplatonic writers, but there are no references to Dionysus as Aion before the Christian era.[8] Euripides, however, does call Aion a 'son of Zeus'.[9]

The Suda identifies Aion with Osiris and Adonis (probably because originally Adonis had been a god who was later downgraded to the status of "mortal" since he was believed to have died). In Ptolemaic Alexandria, at the site of a dream oracle, the Hellenistic syncretic god Serapis was identified as Aion Plutonius.[11][12] The epithet Plutonius marks functional aspects shared with Pluto, consort of Persephone and ruler of the underworld in the Eleusinian tradition. Epiphanius says that at Alexandria Aion's birth from Kore the Virgin was celebrated 6 January:[10]: 306–307  "On this day and at this hour the Virgin gave birth to Aion." The date, which coincides with Epiphany, brought new year's celebrations to a close, completing the cycle of time that Aion embodies.[13]

The Alexandrian Aion may be a form of Osiris-Dionysus, reborn annually;[10]: 309  his image was marked with crosses on his hands, knees, and forehead.[10]: 306–307, 311  Quispel (2008) conjectured that the figure resulted from integrating the Orphic Phanes, who like Aion is associated with a coiling serpent, into Mithraic religion at Alexandria, and that he "assures the eternity of the city."[14]: 258 

In the art of the Roman era, Aion was often conflated with the primordial sky god Uranus / Caelus.[citation needed]

Roman Empire edit

This syncretic Aion became a symbol and guarantor of the perpetuity of Roman rule, and emperors such as Antoninus Pius issued coins with the legend Aion,[10]: 314  whose (female) Roman counterpart was Aeternitas.[15] Roman coins associate both Aion and Aeternitas with the phoenix as a symbol of rebirth and cyclical renewal.[2]: 307–308 

Aion was among the virtues and divine personifications that were part of late Hellenic discourse, in which they figure as "creative agents in grand cosmological schemes".[16] The significance of Aion lies in his malleability: He is a "fluid conception" through which various ideas about time and divinity converge in the Hellenistic era, in the context of syncretic and monotheistic tendencies.[2]: 307–308 ff 

References edit

  1. ^ LIMC 9450 (Aion 13).
  2. ^ a b c d e f Levi, Doro (1944). "Aion". Hesperia. 13 (4): 274, 306–308 ff.
  3. ^ Nonnus. Dionysiaca. 41.180 ff. cited by Levi (1944)[2]: 306 
  4. ^ a b c Shanzer, Danuta (1986). A Philosophical and Literary Commentary on Martianus Capella's De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii Book 1. University of California Press.
  5. ^ Maurus Servius Honoratus. Note to the Aeneid. 5.85. according to the Egyptians, before the invention of the alphabet, the year was symbolized by a picture of a serpent biting its own tail, because it recurs on itself" (annus secundum Aegyptios indicabatur ante inventas litteras picto dracone caudam suam mordente, quia in se recurrit) cited byShanzer (1986)[4]: 154 
  6. ^ Horapollo (1940). Hieroglyphica. Sbordone. 1.1 & 1.2. cited by Shanzer (1986)[4]: 154 
  7. ^ a b The iconography of Aion is summarized in Ezquerra, Jaime Alvar (2008). Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, salvation, and ethics in the cults of Cybele. Brill. pp. 78 & 128.
  8. ^ Guthrie, W.K.C. (1979). A history of Greek philosophy: The earlier presocratics and the Pythagoreans. Cambridge University Press. p. 478. ISBN 978-0-521-29420-1.
  9. ^ Euripides. Heracleidae. 899 ff.
  10. ^ a b c d e Fossum, Jarl (1999). "The Myth of the Eternal Rebirth: Critical notes on G.W. Bowersock, Hellenism in Late Antiquity". Vigiliae Christianae. 53 (3): 306–314.
  11. ^ Pseudo-Callisthenes. Alexander romance. I.30–33. cited by Fossum (1999).[10]: 309, note 15 
  12. ^ On the oracle and for the passage in which Aion Plutonius is named, see
    Malkin, Irad (1987). Religion and Colonization in Ancient Greece. Brill. p. 107, especially note 87.
  13. ^ Forsythe, Gary (2012). Time in Roman Religion: One thousand years of religious history. Routledge. p. 122.
  14. ^ "Hermann Hesse and Gnosis". Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica: Collected Essays. Brill. 2008. p. 258.
  15. ^ Gradel, Ittai (2002). Emperor Worship and Roman Religion. Oxford University Press. pp. 310–311.
  16. ^ Fears, J.R. (1981). "The cult of virtues and Roman imperial ideology". Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. II.17.2, page 939.

Further reading edit

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aion.
  • "entries naming Aion". Suda On Line. Archived from the original on 5 July 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2020 – via archive.today.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  • "Images of the Aion mosaic at Munich Glyptothek". pbase.com.
  • The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Aion)

December 03, 2023
aion, deity, this, article, about, hellenistic, deity, gnostic, concept, aeon, gnosticism, aion, greek, Αἰών, hellenistic, deity, associated, with, time, circle, encompassing, universe, zodiac, time, which, aion, represents, perpetual, unbounded, ritual, cycli. This article is about the Hellenistic deity For the Gnostic concept of God see Aeon Gnosticism Aion Greek Aἰwn is a Hellenistic deity associated with time the orb or circle encompassing the universe and the zodiac The time which Aion represents is perpetual unbounded ritual and cyclic The future is a returning version of the past later called aevum see Vedic Sanskrit Ṛtu This kind of time contrasts with empirical linear progressive and historical time that Chronos represented which divides into past present and future 2 274 Aion depicted as a young man with wings attached to his temples standing in the circle of the zodiac with Terra and four putti representing the seasons nearby Roman mosaic Sentinum c 200 300 AD 1 Aion is thus a god of the cyclic ages and the cycle of the year and the zodiac In the latter part of the Classical era he became associated with mystery religions concerned with the afterlife such as the mysteries of Cybele the Dionysian mysteries Orphic religion and the Mithraic mysteries In Latin the concept of the deity may appear as Aeternitas Anna Perenna or Saeculum 2 274 He is typically in the company of an earth or mother goddess such as Tellus or Cybele as on the Parabiago plate 2 274 Contents 1 Iconography and symbolism 2 Identifications 3 Roman Empire 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External linksIconography and symbolism editAion is usually identified as the nude or mostly nude young man within a circle representing the zodiac symbolic of eternal and cyclical time Examples include two Roman mosaics from Sentinum modern day Sassoferrato and Hippo Regius in Roman Africa and the Parabiago plate But because he represents time as a cycle he may also be presented as an old man In the Dionysiaca Nonnus associates Aion with the Horae and says that he changes the burden of old age like a snake who sloughs off the coils of the useless old scales rejuvenescing while washing in the swells of the laws of time 3 The imagery of the twining serpent is connected to the hoop or wheel through the ouroboros a ring formed by a snake holding the tip of its tail in its mouth The 4th century CE Latin commentator Servius notes that the image of a snake biting its tail represents the cyclical nature of the year 5 nbsp Detail from the Parabiago plate depicting Aion Ajax is shown holding up the zodiac from below and Tellus not shown appears on the plate outside of this image just past the bottom left of the picture reclining among her children by Aion In his 5th century work on hieroglyphics Horapollo makes a further distinction between a serpent that hides its tail under the rest of its body which represents Aion and the ouroboros that represents the kosmos which is the serpent devouring its tail 6 Identifications editMartianus Capella 5th century CE identified Aion with Cronus Latin Saturnus whose name caused him to be theologically conflated with Chronos Time in the way that the Greek ruler of the underworld Plouton Pluto was conflated with Ploutos Plutus Wealth Martianus presents Cronus Aion as the consort of Rhea Latin Ops as identified with Physis 4 137 In his highly speculative reconstruction of Mithraic cosmogony Franz Cumont positioned Aion as Unlimited Time sometimes represented as Saeculum Cronus or Saturn as the god who emerged from primordial Chaos and who in turn generated Heaven and Earth Modern scholars call this deity the leonto cephaline figure a winged lion headed nude male whose torso is entwined by a serpent He typically holds a sceptre keys and or a thunderbolt Nobody knows for sure who he was or what he represented but aside from the lion head depictions of him have Aion s icons in rare instances his statue appears in mithrea with the human head and with the lion head gone he is indistinguishable from Aion 7 78 The figure of Time played a considerable though to us completely obscure role in Mithraic ritual and theology 7 128 Aion is identified with Dionysus in Christian and Neoplatonic writers but there are no references to Dionysus as Aion before the Christian era 8 Euripides however does call Aion a son of Zeus 9 The Suda identifies Aion with Osiris and Adonis probably because originally Adonis had been a god who was later downgraded to the status of mortal since he was believed to have died In Ptolemaic Alexandria at the site of a dream oracle the Hellenistic syncretic god Serapis was identified as Aion Plutonius 11 12 The epithet Plutonius marks functional aspects shared with Pluto consort of Persephone and ruler of the underworld in the Eleusinian tradition Epiphanius says that at Alexandria Aion s birth from Kore the Virgin was celebrated 6 January 10 306 307 On this day and at this hour the Virgin gave birth to Aion The date which coincides with Epiphany brought new year s celebrations to a close completing the cycle of time that Aion embodies 13 The Alexandrian Aion may be a form of Osiris Dionysus reborn annually 10 309 his image was marked with crosses on his hands knees and forehead 10 306 307 311 Quispel 2008 conjectured that the figure resulted from integrating the Orphic Phanes who like Aion is associated with a coiling serpent into Mithraic religion at Alexandria and that he assures the eternity of the city 14 258 In the art of the Roman era Aion was often conflated with the primordial sky god Uranus Caelus citation needed Roman Empire editThis syncretic Aion became a symbol and guarantor of the perpetuity of Roman rule and emperors such as Antoninus Pius issued coins with the legend Aion 10 314 whose female Roman counterpart was Aeternitas 15 Roman coins associate both Aion and Aeternitas with the phoenix as a symbol of rebirth and cyclical renewal 2 307 308 Aion was among the virtues and divine personifications that were part of late Hellenic discourse in which they figure as creative agents in grand cosmological schemes 16 The significance of Aion lies in his malleability He is a fluid conception through which various ideas about time and divinity converge in the Hellenistic era in the context of syncretic and monotheistic tendencies 2 307 308 ff References edit LIMC 9450 Aion 13 a b c d e f Levi Doro 1944 Aion Hesperia 13 4 274 306 308 ff Nonnus Dionysiaca 41 180 ff cited by Levi 1944 2 306 a b c Shanzer Danuta 1986 A Philosophical and Literary Commentary on Martianus Capella sDe Nuptiis Philologiae et MercuriiBook 1 University of California Press Maurus Servius Honoratus Note to theAeneid 5 85 according to the Egyptians before the invention of the alphabet the year was symbolized by a picture of a serpent biting its own tail because it recurs on itself annus secundum Aegyptios indicabatur ante inventas litteras picto dracone caudam suam mordente quia in se recurrit cited byShanzer 1986 4 154 Horapollo 1940 Hieroglyphica Sbordone 1 1 amp 1 2 cited by Shanzer 1986 4 154 a b The iconography of Aion is summarized in Ezquerra Jaime Alvar 2008 Romanising Oriental Gods Myth salvation and ethics in the cults of Cybele Brill pp 78 amp 128 Guthrie W K C 1979 A history of Greek philosophy The earlier presocratics and the Pythagoreans Cambridge University Press p 478 ISBN 978 0 521 29420 1 Euripides Heracleidae 899 ff a b c d e Fossum Jarl 1999 The Myth of the Eternal Rebirth Critical notes on G W Bowersock Hellenism in Late Antiquity Vigiliae Christianae 53 3 306 314 Pseudo Callisthenes Alexander romance I 30 33 cited by Fossum 1999 10 309 note 15 On the oracle and for the passage in which Aion Plutonius is named seeMalkin Irad 1987 Religion and Colonization in Ancient Greece Brill p 107 especially note 87 Forsythe Gary 2012 Time in Roman Religion One thousand years of religious history Routledge p 122 Hermann Hesse and Gnosis Gnostica Judaica Catholica Collected Essays Brill 2008 p 258 Gradel Ittai 2002 Emperor Worship and Roman Religion Oxford University Press pp 310 311 Fears J R 1981 The cult of virtues and Roman imperial ideology Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt II 17 2 page 939 Further reading editle Glay Marcel Aion in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae LIMC I 1 Artemis Verlag Zurich and Munich 1981 ISBN 3 7608 8751 1 Kakosy Laszlo 1964 Osiris Aion Oriens Antiquus 3 full citation needed Nock Arthur Darby January 1934 A vision of Mandulis Aion The Harvard Theological Review 27 1 page needed Zuntz Gunther 1989 Aion Gott des Romerreichs in German Heidelberg DE Carl Winter Universitatsverlag ISBN 3533041700 Zuntz Gunther 1992 AIWN in der Literatur der Kaiserzeit in German Vienna Austria Austrian Academy of Sciences Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften ISBN 3700119666 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aion entries naming Aion Suda On Line Archived from the original on 5 July 2013 Retrieved 27 May 2020 via archive today a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Images of the Aion mosaic at Munich Glyptothek pbase com The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database images of Aion Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Aion deity amp oldid 1172451053, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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