Geras

Geras was the personification of old age in Greek mythology, one of the children of Nyx, the goddess of Night. The Greeks regarded old age as a harsh and unwelcome part of mortal life, and Geras appears among the spirits that Hesiod lists beside Death, Strife and Deceit. The Romans called this spirit Senectus.

Parents and Siblings of Geras

In Hesiod’s Theogony, Geras is one of the many children that Night bore “lying with none of the gods”, that is, without a father. After Moros (Doom), the black Ker, Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep) and the tribe of Dreams, Night bore Momus (Blame) and painful Oizys (Misery), the Hesperides, the Moirai and the pitiless Keres, and Nemesis. Then she bore Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Affection), “baneful Geras” (Old Age), and strong-hearted Eris (Strife) (Hesiod, Theogony 211–225). Eris in turn bore Toil, Forgetfulness, Famine, the Sorrows and a long series of other troubles (Theogony 226–232).

A different tradition names Erebus, the god of darkness, as the father of Night’s children. The Latin writer Hyginus, in the list of primeval beings at the start of his Fabulae, makes Senectus, with Death, Sleep and Strife, a child of Erebus and Night. In Hesiod, Geras has no father.

Old Age in Greek Literature

Hesiod tells no story about Geras, but the Greeks described old age in strongly negative terms. Hesiod says that in the Golden Age, in the time of Cronus, people lived like gods, free from toil and misery, and that “no wretched old age came upon them” (Works and Days 109–116). In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aphrodite tells how the goddess Dawn asked Zeus to make her lover Tithonus immortal, but forgot to ask for youth for him, so that he was worn down by “hateful old age” (Hymn 5.218–238).

The Latin poet Virgil places Senectus at the threshold of the underworld, among the beings that live in the porch of Orcus. There he sees “pale Diseases and sad Old Age” (Aeneid 6.273–281).

Geras and the Word geras

The name should not be confused with another Greek word that looks the same in English letters: geras (γέρας), a prize or privilege of honor, is a different word from geras (γῆρας), “old age”. In the Iliad, Agamemnon demands a new geras to replace Chryseis so that he will not be the only Argive without a prize (Iliad 1.118–120). Geras the spirit is not connected with honor or virtue.

Geras Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 211–232 and Works and Days 109–116; Homeric Hymn 5 (to Aphrodite) 218–238; Homer, Iliad 1.118–120; Virgil, Aeneid 6.273–281; Hyginus, Fabulae, Preface.

See Also: Nyx, Erebos, Oizys, Apate, Nemesis, Philotes, Eris, Thanatos