8. Kairos/Occasio—Vicissitudes of Propitious Time from Antiquity to the Renaissance

Abstract

It is remarkable that the image of Kairos, opportune time or the propitious moment, never fell into the oblivion that obscured other classical personifications of time-concepts in the literature and art of the Middle Ages. The theoretical concept of irreversible time, its ephemerality and volatility, and the flight of the expedient or decisive moment, had crystallized in antiquity into the personified image of Kairos. The famous bronze statue of Kairos, now lost, was created by the sculptor Lysippos and placed near the Agora of Sikyon. The Greek and Latin literary tradition of airos/Occasio continually emphasized and expounded the moralistic connotations of the prosopopaic image. A fascinating relic of medieval Kairos is imbedded in the base of the pulpit at Santa Maria Assunta, the Cathedral of Torcello. This allegorical marble relief has been assigned to the late eleventh or twelfth century, but its derivation is still shrouded in mystery.Keywords: Kairos; Lysippos; propitious moment; Santa Maria Assunta; time-concepts