« Aiôn en jeu ou la valeur symbolique du temps », in D. Bouvier and V. Dasen (eds), Héraclite : Le temps est un enfant qui joue, Collection Jeu/ Play/Spiel 1, Liège, Presses Universitaires de Liège, 2020, p. 239-255.

The child Aiôn of Heraclitus invites us to examine the metaphorical
relationship between play and destiny as it manifests itself in ancient astrological sources. In Late Antiquity, the image of a game board was used to explain complex astronomical theories as well as to represent metaphorically the life on earth. During the Greco-Roman era, games also inspired the methaporical representation of the notion of destiny on various miniaturized media, notably coinage and glyptics. The zodiacal ring takes the form of a hoop, in which stands a cosmocrator deity, master of the world. The engraving of this motif on gemstones which serve as a personal ornament, in contact with the body in the form of a ring or a pendant, seems to indicate the desire to appropriate this symbol of the cosmic cyclical rhythm. The travel of the Sun on his chariot through the ecliptic determines the time of seasons,
inseparable from the time of life. This idea comes with variants on the so-called magical gems that this article analyses.