Father Time

Father Time is a personification of time. In recent centuries he is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, sometimes with wings, dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device.

This article is about the personification of time. For the weathervane at Lord's Cricket Ground, see Father Time (Lord's). For other uses, see Father Time (disambiguation).

A 19th-century Father Time with Baby New Year
Detail of Father Time in the Rotunda Clock (1896)
Father Time in Fountain of Time

As an image, "Father Time's origins are curious." The ancient Greeks themselves began to associate chronos, their word for time, with the god Chronos, who had the attribute of a harvester's sickle. The Romans equated Cronos with Saturn, who also had a sickle, and was treated as an old man, often with a crutch. The wings and hourglass were early Renaissance additions and he eventually became a companion of the Grim Reaper, personification of Death, often taking his scythe. He may have as an attribute a snake with its tail in its mouth, an ancient Egyptian symbol of eternity.

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