Aion (deity)

Aeon or Aion (from the Greek ὁ αἰών (ho eon ) from archaic Greek ὁ αἰ ϝ ών; aiwón ) is a term of ancient philosophy and religion, are the ( personalized ) World time or eternity.

Greek Literature and Philosophy

In Greek literature Aion designated life or the life time, also transmit a very long time or eternity. In the medical context Aion was a name for the spinal cord ( as the lifeblood ).

In Greek philosophy the Aion first appears in the doctrine of the Logos of Heraclitus:

" Aion is a boy who plays the board pieces back and forth continues. A boy is the kingdom "

With the game here is meant the succession of cyclical periods (days, seasons, world age). The game ends, the stones are reorganized and a new cycle begins.

In contrast to the use in Heraclitus, the term appears in Plato 's Timaeus 37d in not as a designation of a cycle, but as opposite and contrast the cyclic progressive time that Plato identified with the god Chronos. The sky with the movement cycles of the heavenly bodies and spheres is a symbol of eternity, but not eternity (Aion ) itself

In Aristotle the Aion is described as follows:

" The telos ( the biological and spiritual perfection and power amp ), each which includes the lifetime individual, is called Aion. In the same way, but is also the telos of the whole sky ( with the stars ) Aion, a word that is formed by aei ( forever ), immortal and divine. "

Aion as a deity in ancient syncretism

Attempts have been made to establish links the notion of Aion in Plato and Aristotle to Iranian sources, in particular to Zurvan, the God the Creator personalized time and eternity in the zurvanistischen special form of Zoroastrianism.

Undetectable the worship of a deity Aion is but only in nachhellenistischer time. A single, found at Eleusis inscription (SIG 1125) with a dedication to Aion, which probably dates from the time of Augustus, can not be taken as evidence for a somewhat widespread worship of Aion as a deity. That Aion in the context of the Roman imperial cult appears (eg on the front relief of the Column of Antoninus Pius, where the winged Aion with snake and globe in his left hand the deified emperor and empress Antoninus Pius and Faustina up wearing ), can not prove the existence of worship are concerned, since it could also be a purely allegorical figure.

May have been Whatever the connection between the zoroastischen God Zurvan and Aion procure that the representation Zurvans ( traditionally known as winged human figure with a lion's head to their feet a serpent writhes ) has on the Aion iconography worked, is obvious. Such portraits were often found in mithraea. However, a differentiation from the depictions derived from the Orphic Phanes, which is also often shown together with a snake, difficult. In the context of the Mithras cult often are portraits in which Aion is shown as a young, standing in a Zodiac man, about the same today as shown in the Munich Glyptothek, from a Roman villa at Sentinum (today Sassoferrato in Umbria ) derived mosaic.

End of the 4th century Epiphanius of Salamis reported that in Alexandria on the night of 5th commemorating the birth of Aion Plutonios through the Virgin Kore was celebrated even in his time on the 6th of January. This birth took place in an underground shrine in Koreum, the temple of Kore, instead. There was a statue of Aion of wood, which, after all night hymns were sung, the break of day, adorned with five golden crosses, was carried about in procession. The parallels to the Christian Epiphany are obvious and have already noticed in ancient times. But also to other deities, the feast of Aion on relationships, namely through the Nilwasserschöpfen the festival of discovery ( heuresis ) of Osiris, and the date for the Feast of the Epiphany of Dionysus.