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

60 CHAPTER 10
winds: the Hecatoncheires as ʇϷΘ appleÈÛÙÔd ¢Èe˜ ·åÁÈfi¯ÔÈÔ
(Theogonia 735) watch over the imprisonment of Titans in Tartara
(ibid. 729 sqq.) standing by the gates of Chaos where primaeval
Indeterminacy bursts out in the full intensity of its power under the
form of typhonic winds (742). In this model the Tritopatores are
limit-imposing Winds that check the storm of Darkness.
The rhapsodic Theogony follows another pattern and exhibits a
different structure. At a high level and very ‘early’ in the ontological
succession Eros-Phanes-Protogonos and the Spirits-Winds are born
from the very first cause, Time, that stands at the peak of reality’s
pyramid (OF 37):
·éÙaÚ òEÚˆÙ· XÚfiÓÔ˜ ηd Ó‡̷ٷ apple¿ÓÙ âÙ¤ÎÓˆÛÂ.
There is a strong correspondence with the Phoenician Cosmogony
of Sanchouniathon, though a reversion of the positions of Time
(Aeon, there) and Spirits (Wind, there: FGrH 790 F10Λ7 mentioned
earlier) occurs. The Protogonos of the Phoenician cosmology
corresponds to the Orphic Eros. Eros is born as the first hypostasis and
becomes indirectly manifest through his radiance (OF 75 and 86).
The Spirits will therefore be indeed either the first directly revealed
realities and the first perceptible masters of generation; or (in their
hidden aspect that makes them invisible in themselves but visible
through their effects and results) fathers of the first tangible things.
Consequently, the Orphic Tritopatores will be the first Spirits or
offspring of Spirits. The latter is more likely to have happened in late
(rhapsodic) Orphism.
In early Orphism the position of Time as first cause and origin is
occupied by Night. The part of the rhapsodic Aether and Chaos is
played by the Ocean who also mediates for the conception of the Egg
and the emergence of Phanes-Eros. The mobility of the Ocean would,
probably, be accompanied by the mobility of the Spirits, in which case
the Tritopatores as sources of Winds would appear, according to the
Archaic consciousness, on the ontological level of the Ocean. But then
they will be third before Sky and Earth in the ancient Orphic teaching
to be restored (Night-Ocean-Phanes-Sky). (The enumeration is always
inclusive of both ends). This explains perfectly well the obscure
passage of Philochorus (FGrH 328 F182): ºÈÏfi¯ÔÚÔ˜ ‰b ÙÔf˜ TÚÈÙÔ-