Kairos

Kairos (Greek Καιρός ) is a religious- philosophical term for the opportune moment a decision whose untapped lapse can be detrimental. In Greek mythology, the favorable time was personified as a deity.

Philosophy

In the older ancient Greek, the term kairos is recognized as the right time and is contrary to the long period of time Chronos ( χρόνος ) and day ( ἥμαρ ). For the first time this peculiarity of ältestgriechischen conception of time was problematized by an essay by Hermann Frankel ( 1931). Was continued critical debate, inter alia, by Michael Theunissen in dealing with the poetry of Pindar.

In biblical texts, the word kairos is used for a God-given time, a special chance and opportunity to fulfill the order.

Immanuel Wallerstein takes this concept in his book " Unthinking Social Science " again in order to formulate a post-modern theory of social change. For Giorgio Agamben Kairos is the time of the Messianic fulfillment / abrogation of the law, in the chronos " compressed" is repeated.

In philosophy it is the crucial moment even in religion Kairos is also available for the choice between belief and unbelief.

Mythology

Unlike Chronos, the Greek god of time, Kairos plays in Greek mythology, no or only a small supporting role. Although Ion of Chios ( 490-421 BC ) mentions in his traditional Roman citations by Triagmos the "youngest son of Zeus " a poetic invention, but no evidence for an Olympic genealogy. Only by the bronze sculpture of Lysippos, court sculptor of Alexander the Great, Kairos was a late inclusion in the Olympic pantheon.

A cult of Kairos is tied solely to the - handed altar of Cairo in Olympia, which was placed near a Hermes altar, as Pausanias reported - not preserved. However, evidence replicas of Lysipp'schen Kairos Kairos of a widespread cult of the Hellenistic period until Byzantine times. In the iconology of Cairo is increasingly not only in the vicinity of Hermes, the messenger of the gods fast but also of Tyche, the addition of chance, and the Nemesis, who punishes human hubris.

Poseidippos of Pella ( 3rd century BC) has also written a dialogue with the viewer Kairos in his epigrams from Olympia:

" Who are you? I'm in Cairo, who defeats all! Why are you running on tiptoes? I, the Kairos, run incessantly. Why do you have wings on foot? I fly like the wind. Why do you wear in your hand a sharp knife? To remind people that I 'm sharper than a knife. Why do you notice a lock of hair in the forehead? This can take me for who I met. Why are you on the back of the head bald? When I slid past once with flying feet, will catch me from behind and no so hard he tried. And what you, the artist created? You hikers for doctrine. "

The phrase, " at the opportunity " to pack is returned to this representation of the god: If the opportunity is gone, they can no longer grasp the bare back of the head. Accordingly, in psychology is called the fear of making decisions, as Cairo phobia.

Representation in the visual arts

Archetype of all representations of Kairos is the lost bronze statue of Lysippos from Olympia, from the fragments of a Roman marble copy are still preserved. A aufbewahrtes in Turin marble relief by Lysippos shows the god as far striding, naked youth with curly hair and shaved head. Wings grow from his shoulder and heel. In his left hand he carries a beam balance, pointed to the declining right pan while the index finger of the right hand. Based on this model some presentations on ancient seals and sarcophagi are preserved.

The relief differs in some respects from the description of Pausanias: it lacks the knife blades on the shoulder are not mentioned. Even when other attributes are in the course of time changes, so Kairos is occasionally shown on impellers, an attribute of Nemesis, or balancing on a ball as Fortuna.

During the Renaissance, Cairo could as Occasio the favorable opportunity - be depicts as a female personification - theologically, the " occasion of sin ". An example is Holbein printer brand for the Basel printer Andreas Cratander of 1522. Here a young woman is shown with a flowing hair and a bald head. She is armed with a knife and prances with wings shoes on a sphere. In this representation, the attributes of Fortuna and Cairo are combined.