Editing Caerus (section)

==Representations==
According to ancient Greeks, [[Kairos]] was the god of the "fleeting moment"; "a favorable opportunity opposing the fate of man". Such a moment must be grasped (by the tuft of hair on the personified forehead of the fleeting opportunity); otherwise the moment is gone and can not be re-captured (personified by the back of head being bald).

A bronze statue of Kairos is known in literature, made by the famous Greek sculptor [[Lysippos]]. It stood at his home, in the Agora of Hellenistic [[Sikyon]]. The following epigram by [[Posidippus (epigrammatic poet)|Poseidippos]] was carved on the statue:

<blockquote>
Who and whence was the sculptor? From Sikyon.<br />
And his name? Lysippos.<br />
And who are you? Time who subdues all things.<br />
Why do you stand on tip-toe? I am ever running.<br />
And why you have a pair of wings on your feet? I fly with the wind.<br />
And why do you hold a razor in your right hand? As a sign to men that I am sharper than any sharp edge.<br />
And why does your hair hang over your face? For him who meets me to take me by the forelock.<br />
And why, in Heaven's name, is the back of your head bald? Because none whom I have once raced by on my winged feet will now, though he wishes it sore, take hold of me from behind.<br />
Why did the artist fashion you? For your sake, stranger, and he set me up in the porch as a lesson.</blockquote>

This statue was the original model for the various representations of Kairos made in ancient times and Middle Ages as well. [[John Tzetzes]] wrote about it, as well as [[Himerius]]. The image of hair hanging on the forehead and a bald back of the head. For instance [[Disticha Catonis]] II, 26 refer to the [[Latin (language)|Latin]] concept of Occasio (a female word which can be considered as a literal translation of the Greek Kairos) in these terms: "Rem tibi quam scieris aptam dimittere noli: fronte capillata, post haec occasio calva", which means "Don't let that what you consider good for you escape by; chance has hair over her forehead, but behind she's bald". [[Phaedrus (fabulist)|Phaedrus]] (V,8) has a similar writing and he himself admits that the theme was not his own but more ancient. [[Callistratus (sophist)|Callistratus]] (Descriptions, 6) has a long text describing the statue by Lysippos.

In Trogir (the ancient Roman Tragurium), Croatia, in the Convent of the Benedictine Nuns, was displayed a marble bas-relief of Kairos from the 3rd century B.C., as a young man, running.
The bas-relief is now kept at the Municipal Museum of Trogir.

The theme of Kairos was felt as extremely important during the [[Middle Ages]]. [[Carmina Burana]] 16, a famous poem about Fortune, mentions Kairos in this way: "verum est quod legitur, fronte capillata, sed plerumque sequitur occasio calvata"; which means "As it is read, it is true that that a forehead may have hair, but it is usually followed by the arrival of baldness". Several representations of Kairos survive; a relief (about AD 160) is kept at the Museum of Antiquities of Turin (Italy); another relief was kept (now lost) at Palazzo Medici in Florence; an onyx gem (originally from the collection of the [[Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas|Duc de Blacas]], 1st-2nd century AD) with an incision of the god Tempus with attributes of Kairos is kept now at the [[British Museum]]; a marble relief showing Kairos, Bios (the Life), and Metanoia (Afterthought, the female Latin Paenitentia) is in the cathedral of Torcello (11th century); a monochrome fresco by [[Andrea Mantegna|Mantegna]] at Palazzo Ducale in [[Mantua]] (about 1510) shows a female Kairos (most probably Occasio) with a young man trying to catch her and a woman representing Paenitentia.

''[[Kairos (novel)|Kairos]]'' is a novel by German author [[Jenny Erpenbeck]] published in 2021. The novel tells the story of a doomed love affair, set against the backdrop of the collapse of the [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] with the two lovers seemingly embodying East Germany's crushed idealism. The title refers to the Greek god of opportunity.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/29/books/review/kairos-jenny-erpenbeck.html| title = In Cold War Berlin, an Affair Born of Chaos and Control| author = [[Dwight Garner]]| date = May 29, 2023| access-date = July 9, 2024|newspaper = The New York Times}}</ref>