Chronos & the Chronology of Time - LexiLine Journal 435

Few elements of ancient history have been as severely botched by mainstream scholarship as ancient chronology. But we write about this all the time.

What about the term "chronology" itself?

The etymology of the word chronology is generally traced back by mainstream linguists to the Greek term chronos viz. khronos meaning "time" as combined with the word logos meaning "discourse".

But in fact, the term chronos can be traced back further to more basic terms in other Indo-European languages, such as e.g. the archaic Latvian language, which has the word gariens (= khronos) meaning "length (of time)". Similarly, Greek aeon "a longer segment of time" can be traced back to older Indo-European terms such as Latvian gājien- "passage (of time)".

The mainstream view can be summarized as written below:

"In Greek mythology, Chronos ... in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. He emerged from the primordial Chaos. He is often mythologically confused with the Titan Cronus ....

He was depicted in Greco-Roman mosaics as a man turning the zodiac wheel. Often the figure is named Aeon (Eternal Time), a common alternate name for the god. His name actually means "Time", and is alternatively spelled Khronos (transliteration of the Greek), Chronos, Chronus (Latin version). Some of the current English words which show a tie to khronos/chronos and the attachment to time are chronology, chronic, and chronicle."

Chronos is a late development as a Greek concept. In the fragments of the pre-Homeric ancient Greek Mousaios (Mousaeus, Musaeus ), which deal with Time and the Sphere of the world, the term Chronos does not appear. As written by the Presocratics Study Group :

"Thus in the conception of Mousaios time in the sense of the succession of day and night played an important role. This warrants the suspicion that it came up for discussion in his work, too. In the fragments the Greek word for time—chronos—does not occur. "

As written by Eric S. Gruen , who - erroneously and without the slightest shred of probative evidence - calls such tales fables:

"For the Greeks, according to Artapanus, Moses was a revered figure, identified with the mythical Greek poet Mousaios, reckoned as the teacher of Orpheus, and even made equivalent to Hermes in his capacity as patron of literature and the arts (Eus. PE 9.8.1-2; Clement, Strom. 1.154.2-3). So Moses emerges here as culture hero, a source of inspiration to Hebrews, Greeks, and Egyptians alike."

Many misguided classical scholars such as Gruen denigrate and wrongly assess such historical information as legends without substance, apparently because such tales contradict their own personal erroneous historical views, which diverge from the historical accounts. There is in fact not one piece of probative evidence to indicate that the historical account of Artapanus is not true. In fact, as we have been writing for years, Artapanus is a pillar of veracity and reliability, whose biography of Moses contains important basic chronological foundations for reconstruction of the true chronology of the ancient world, including a redating of Exodus to conform to the eruption of Santorini.

The previously mentioned emphasis on the succession of day and night as an early concept of time is found in the Greek term dyna- as embedded in the word dynasty. The term Dyna- is nothing more than a variant of ancient Indo-European word for "day", e.g. the Latvian term diena "day".

A better understanding of ancient chronological terms will help to bring about a better understanding of ancient chronology.