Category Archives: Eternity
Father Time
Also Known As: Cronos, Saturn
Essentially Father Time is the personification of time, especially the concept of time that moves ever forward.
Depictions
The 18th century sees the formal introduction of the figure of Father Time that many are familiar with as an elderly man with a long flowing beard dressed in robes and carrying a scythe. Sometimes he is shown with wings or carrying an hourglass or other timekeeping device. An Egyptian influence to the image of Father Time is that some depictions show him with a snake in his mouth, said snake being a symbol of eternity.
Renaissance Influence – Both the wings and hourglass are additions from the early Renaissance era.
Ancient History
The origins of Father Time seem mysterious at first glance as if he might be a more modern convention. However, there are a couple of mythological origins.
Cronos – The Greeks associated their word for time, chronos with Cronos, the god of agriculture who incidentally carries a scythe or sickle for harvesting. For the cyclical nature of the year and agriculture, it’s easy to see how the two words chronos and Cronos would become intertwined and nearly synonymous.
Saturn – As typical of many of their deities, the Romans equated Cronos with the god Saturn who also carries a scythe. Saturn was represented as an old man who sometimes got around with the aid of a crutch. With Saturn, he is also associated with wealth and renewal.
Hourglass
The hourglass and other time devices that Father Time is shown with represent the constant progression and march of time, representing the forces of entropy and how eventually everything eventually comes to an end.
It’s not all doom and gloom, time does represent wisdom, especially the wisdom that comes from age and living life. Another thing that is notable, is that an hourglass can be turned over, representing the ability to start over or a new generation coming in.
Scythe
Or sickle, it is a harvester’s tool and is a symbol of the renewal of time as seen in the wheel of the year and cycles of life for birth, growth, and death.
Death’s Age-Old Companion
It’s notable how the imagery for both Father Time and the Grim Reaper are very similar in appearance. Both wear a robe and both carry a scythe. One just happens to be an old man while the other is a skeleton. Despite how similar the two look in certain details, they are not the same being.
New Year’s Day
Certain cartoons and editorials, most notably Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, will show Father Time as the Old Year welcoming in the Baby New Year as part of the neverending progression of years and time. In this role, Father Time will be wearing a sash showing the date of the old year on it.
Baby New Year – If Father Time is based on Cronos and Saturn, who is the Baby New Year based on? A couple sources dared to venture that this is Dionysus, in his role as a Dying and Reborn deity for the crops and harvest season.
The Legendary Council Of Guardians
In recent years, the figure of Father Time may appear alongside other legendary figures such as Mother Nature, Sandman, Cupid, and a few others.
Disney’s The Santa Clause trilogy is notable for the figure of Father Time appearing in the latter two movies.
Heh
Alternative Spellings: Hah, Hauh, Huh, Huah, Hu and Hahuh, Hehet
Other Names & Epitaphs: “The God of Millions of Years”
Etymology: “flood,” “million,” “millions” or “endless”
Heh or Huh, as I first came across this deity, is one of the oldest Egyptian gods. Effectively, they are the deification or personification of Eternity in the Ogdoad.
Ogdoad
Huh is a member of a group of eight deities known as the Ogdoad. All members of this group are genderless, having aspects of both male and female. Huh is the male aspect of this deity and Hauhet is the female aspect of this deity.
The male Ogdoads are depicted as men with the head of a frog or a frog outright. The female Ogdoads are depicted as women with the head of a snake or as just a snake.
Heh would sometimes be shown as crouching, holding a palm stalk in each hand, and a shen ring on the end of each palm stem. The shen ring symbolized long life or infinity.
These were four pairs of deities as follows:
Water – Nun and Naunet
Void – Amun and Amaunet
Infinite Time – Heh and Hauhet
Darkness – Kuk and Kauket
Temples & Worship
All eight of the Ogdoad were worshiped in their temple of Khmunu, later renamed to Hermopolis Magna.
The God Of Eternity
Huh is the god of infinity, time, long life, and eternity.
The image of Heh with his arms raised up is the hieroglyph for one million, the equivalent of infinity in Egyptian mathematics.
Heh’s iconography could be found on many amulets and items of prestige in which the owner or wearer would wish for a long life or rule. Eventually, Heh’s symbol would become associated with the Pharaoh. The most famous example we have was found with King Tut where Heh’s hieroglyph is found on two cartouches.
God Of The Air & Wind
Heh is also associated as an Air God and in this respect, identified with Shu. Both Shu and Heh are sometimes shown holding their arms up to hold up the sky.
As a wind god, Heh, he is linked to the four pillars believed in Egyptian mythology to hold up the sky.
In The Beginning…
Like many of the creation myths and stories, in the beginning, there was nothing, only chaos represented by a vast quantity of endless water. A formless nothing. No land.
In this void and chaos, there were four frog gods and four snake goddesses who were members of the Ogdoad who lived here.
Nun created the first land, raising it up out of the watery depths. From this mound of earth, the first god Atum would emerge. Shortly after, he would create or give birth/rise to all of the other gods of the Egyptian pantheon.
Hieroglyphics
In the Egyptian system of writing, Heh would be shown as a man with a beard and lappet wig, sometimes he is kneeling or he is in a basket. This would be the sign for “all.” The palm branches are the symbol for “year.”
Numerology
Surprisingly, the ancient Egyptians used the decimal system in their mathematics. Many deities would be used to represent numbers in this system.
Heh’s hieroglyph in his seated position, represented the number 1,000,000.
Hauhet
She is essentially the feminine of Heh. She is shown as a snake-headed woman or as just a snake. Otherwise, her symbolism and attributes are the same as Heh.
Brickthology 