Hourglass
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An hourglass is a device used to measure the passage of time. It comprises two glass bulbs connected vertically by a narrow neck that allows a regulated flow of a substance from the upper bulb to the
German half-hour sand glass, first quarter of the 16th century, bronze-gilt and silver-gilt, height: 8.3 cm, diameter: 8.4 cm, Metropolitan of Art (New York City)
Antique sandglasses
Sarcophagus dated c. 350, representing the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (with magnification of an hourglass held by Morpheus)
Temperance bearing an hourglass; detail Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good Government, 1338
Tempus fugit
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Tempus fugit is a Latin phrase, usually translated into English as "time flies". However, the literal translation of 'fugit' is 'flees' not 'flies'. The expression comes from line 284 of book 3 of Vir
Hourglass
…tombstones or other monuments, from antiquity to the present day. The form of a winged hourglass has been used as a literal depiction of the Latin phrase tempus fugit ("time flies"). The origin of the hourglass is unclear. Its predecessor the clepsydra, or water clock, is known to have existed in Babylon and Egypt…
A winged hourglass representing time flying, designed for gravestones and monuments
An example of the phrase as a sundial motto in Redu, Belgium