Kairos: Greek God of the Opportune Moment

The Story of Kairos

Kairos was the god of the opportune moment, the fleeting chance that must be seized. The traveler Pausanias says that the poet Ion of Chios called him the youngest child of Zeus. His name means the right or critical time, as different from Chronos, which means time in its ordinary flow.

The most famous image of Kairos was a bronze statue by the sculptor Lysippus at Sicyon. It showed a young man running on tiptoe with wings on his feet, holding a razor and a pair of scales, with a long lock of hair hanging over his forehead and the back of his head bald. A poem by Posidippus explained the meaning: you can seize opportunity by the forelock as it comes toward you, but once it has passed, there is nothing left to grab.

Kairos had an altar at Olympia near the entrance to the stadium, where athletes knew how much one perfect moment could matter. Greek speakers, doctors and generals all valued kairos, the skill of acting at exactly the right time. The idea still lives on whenever people speak of seizing an opportunity.