In Greek mythology, Chronos (Ancient Greek: Χρόνος) in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. His name actually means “time,” and is alternatively spelled Khronos (transliteration of the Greek) or Chronus (Latin version). Not to be confused with Cronus, a Titan.
Chronos was imagined as an incorporeal god, serpentine in form, with three heads–that of a man, a bull, and a lion. He and his consort, serpentine Ananke (Inevitability), circled the primal world-egg in their coils and split it apart to form the ordered universe of earth, sea and sky.
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.
Chronos is usually portrayed through an old, wise man with a long, gray beard, such as “Father Time.”
Chrono can relate to the control of time and space, sometimes even referred to as an alchemical element.
Xenon is the chemical element that has the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It comes from the Greek word ξένον [xenon], neuter singular form of ξένος [xenos].
Xenos (Greek: ξένος, xénos, plural xenoi) is a word used in ancient Greek from Homer onwards that has a wide gradient of meaning, signifying such divergent concepts as “enemy stranger” as well as “ritual friend”.
Xenos can be translated to both foreigner (in the sense of a person from another Greek state) as well as a foreigner or traveler brought into a relationship of long distance friendship. Xenos can also be used simply to assert that someone is not a member of your community, that is simply foreigner and with no implication of reciprocity or relationship.
The ambiguity of the meaning of xenos is not a modern misunderstanding, but was in fact present in ancient Greece. Sophocles uses the vagueness of the word xenos in his tragedy Philoctetes , with Neoptolemus using the word exclusively for Philoctetes to indicate the uncertain relationship between the two characters. Xenos can be used to refer to guest-friends whose relationship is constructed under the ritual of xenia (“guest-friendship”). In this usage it is commonly translated as “guest-friend” to distinguish it from the Greek word philos, which was used to refer to local friends and to relatives not strictly bound by xenia.
Thus I am chronoxenos, a stranger and guest of time.
(or xe for short)
