Uncommon · Knowledge
Geras
Son of Night and personification of Old Age in Greek mythology
In Greek mythology, Geras (Ancient Greek: Γῆρας, romanized: Gêras, lit. 'old age') is the god of old age. He was typically depicted as a tiny, shriveled old man. Gēras's opposite was Hebe, the goddess of youth.
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In Latin, he is referred to as Senectus. He is known primarily from vase depictions that show him with the hero Heracles; the mythic story that inspired these depictions has been lost. Otherwise, Geras has a very limited role in both religion and mythology. The Greek word γῆρας (gĕras) means "old age" or in some other literature "dead skin" or "slough of a snake"; this word is the root of English words such as "geriatric" and "progeria". According to Hesiod, Geras is one of the many sons and daughters that the night goddess Nyx produced on her own parthenogenetically. However, later authors Hyginus and Cicero both add Erebus, Nyx's consort, as the father. In the myth of Tithonus, the mortal prince received immortality, but not agelessness, from the gods so when old age came to him he kept aging and shrinking but never dying.
Text: Wikipédia, CC BY-SA 4.0. · Image: Geras Painter (CC BY 3.0) ·