Geras, detail of Athenian vessel, 480 a. C.-470 a. C. approx, Louvre Museum.
In Greek mythology Geras was the personification of old age and was held as a companion and inevitable prelude to Thanatos, death. Its opposite, logically, was Hebe, the goddess of youth. Its equivalent in Roman mythology was Senectus. Representation
He was represented as a shrunken and wrinkled man, and later as a sad woman leaning on a staff and with a glass that looks at a well where there is an hourglass, allegory of the little time left of life. Some vessels of the 5th century BC C. show a scene of Geras with Heracles. When losing the story that they tried to capture it has been interpreted as an allegory of the hero's victory over old age (Heracles died young) in the vessels in which he painted himself manifestly superior to Geras and even holding him by the hair; or as an attempt by the hero to know what it was to become old (in a vessel in which both appear speaking in an equal position). characteristics
Like many of the dark gods, he was the son of Nix, alone or with Erebus. The ancient authors emphasized their mercy, because only the gods were free from their destructive power and it was said that only Aphrodite knew how to postpone their effects. An example of this cruelty is the story of Titono, the lover whom Eos made immortal, but forgetting to make him eternally young. Over time Titono became a decrepit mass of bones and skin that begged to be killed. He was abandoned by his beloved and ended up becoming a cicada. This power of Geras over mortals influenced their love relationships with gods, such as that of Aphrodite, who did not allow herself to love Aeneas more than one night, or Marpesa, who refused Apollo not to abandon him when she became old. < / p>
The gods respected Geras, because they wanted to receive their honors and valued the experience brought by old age, that is why they allowed him to dwell on Olympus. He was also seen as the one who put an end to the tyrannies and unjust acts that Geras made that were not eternal. However, their logical effects of weakness and decay were feared and hated by all.
Some authors claim that when Zeus punished the men by sending Pandora, the first woman, he wanted to spread his curse and sent Geras with her, in such a way that the men, for fear of reaching old people without the help of their children, do not avoid contact with women and escape punishment.
Geras had a temple in Athens and an altar in Cádiz, where the deep religiosity of its inhabitants made them worship even death.
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