chapter 10 the monism of darkness and the dualism of limit and ...

58 CHAPTER 10
·ûÚ·, ıÂáÓ ù¯ËÌ· ÙÈÌÈÒÙ·ÙÔÓ
it is possible that a reference to the Breeze and the Air of Phoenician
theology (the Sidonian in particular according to Eudemus’ account)
is involved. To the end of the fourth century B.C. belongs also the
relevant and characteristic fragment of Philemon, Fr. 95 PC Gr. VII p.
278). The Hippocratic text ÂÚd º˘ÛáÓ grounds medicine in the
cosmology of Air (v. chapter III; cf. ÂÚd ^IÂÚɘ NfiÛÔ˘ I, pp. 612-4
Kuehn). The interpretation of Orphic poems contained in the famous
Derveni papyrus identifies Zeus with the all-subduing, omnipresent
Air, and Orphic fate with the spirit (the breath) of Air and the
Wisdom of Zeus 17 . According to the Stoics, everything is permeated
by Spirit as by a tone (tension) that unifies being, holds it together and
sustains it in existence; Spirit is the active factor of the world, the very
divinity in its activeness that binds together the Whole Universe and
con-sists each particular thing inside the world (V. A. Pierris, Excursus
III: On Spirit and Tension, to: First principles and the Beginning of
World-Formation in Stoicism, in K. Boudouris (ed.) Hellenistic
Philosophy vol. II, pp. 170-5). More specifically, the bonds (≤ÍÂȘ)
that constitute and hold fast the peculiar quality of inanimate things
are winds (à¤Ú˜) (cf. SVF II 449). The significance of Wind-Spirit is
also obvious in Greek mythology as testified by religious poetry.
According to the rhapsodic Orphic epics, the spirit-winds together
with cosmogonic Eros are begotten by primaeval Time (Kern OF 37).
Conversely, in the Phoenician account of Sanchouniathon we find
that the Wind-of-the-Bay or the Wind-of-the-Womb, ï KÔÏapple›·˜
ôÓÂÌÔ˜ (the basic wind, maybe Zephyr as would suit Phoenicia) and
Baan (which Philo interprets as Night, and signifies the primordial
Chaos) give birth to Aeon (Cosmogonical Time) and to Primogenitus,
ÚˆÙfiÁÔÓÔ˜, the First-Born (FGrH 790F2, 10§7). We are in the
origin of things, the beginning of cosmogony. Alcaeus (Fr. 327 Voigt)
makes Eros the offspring of Zephyr and Iris. One of the versions
mentioned in Antagoras’ poem (Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina,
120) assumes Eros to be the son of the Winds. The importance of the
Winds as life-generating and fertile principles of high ontological rank
was not only the product of logico-mythical symbolism but had also a
religious cult and ritual basis, especially in Attica. The Tritopatores (or
Trotopatreis) were worshipped as the founders of social groups