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

62 CHAPTER 10
Anaximenes, Diogenes of Apollonia, the philosophical commentator
of the Orphic epics in the Derveni papyrus, and a group of thinkers of
fifth and fourth century B.C. 18 None of these seems to have adopted
the dualistic application of the initial experience since it was
considered, after Anaximenes, that all the other elements can be
produced by means of rarefaction and condensation from the air
whereas at the same time the necessary active mobility of the one first
principle was guaranteed by the very windy-spiritual nature of the air.
Nothing else needed to be presupposed. The Wind-Spirit initially thus
expresses the dynamism of Darkness in Greece, and is the
hypostasizing and life-generating movement of the Great Mighty
Invisible. Air is the physical basis of the Unlimited: that is why the
Anaximenean principle was the successor of the Anaximandrean
Unbounded. The Hesiodic Chaos, the great chasm below the roots of
the Universe, is marked by an unabated blow of ever-changing storms
and hurricanes (Theogonia 740-5):
¯¿ÛÌ· ̤Á’, Ô鉤 Πapple¿ÓÙ· ÙÂÏÂÛÊfiÚÔÓ Âå˜ âÓÈ·˘ÙeÓ
Ôs‰·˜ ¥ÎÔÈÙ’, Âå appleÚáÙ· apple˘Ï¤ˆÓ öÓÙÔÛı Á¤ÓÔÈÙÔ.
àÏÏ¿ ÎÂÓ öÓı· ηd öÓı· ʤÚÔÈ appleÚe ı‡ÂÏÏ· ı˘¤ÏÏFË
àÚÁ·Ï¤ËØ ‰ÂÈÓeÓ ‰b ηd àı·Ó¿ÙÔÈÛÈ ıÂÔÖÛÈ
ÙÔÜÙÔ Ù¤Ú·˜Ø N˘ÎÙe˜ ‰’ âÚ‚ÂÓÓɘ ÔåΛ· ‰ÂÈÓa
≤ÛÙËÎÂÓ ÓÂʤÏF˘ ÎÂÎ·Ï˘Ì̤ӷ ΢·Ó¤FËÛÈÓ.
The nethermost part of the World, namely Tartaros (Theogony,
725 sqq.), is enclosed and guarded by the Harpiae (daughters of
Boreas, the North-Wind) and Thyella (Storm), Pherecydes B5 DK:
ΛӢ ‰b Ùɘ ÌÔ›Ú·˜ öÓÂÚı¤Ó âÛÙÈÓ ì Ù·ÚÙ·Ú›Ë ÌÔÖÚ·Ø Ê˘Ï¿ÛÛÔ˘ÛÈ
‰’ ·éÙcÓ ı˘Á·Ù¤Ú˜ BÔÚ¤Ô˘ ≠AÚapple˘È·› Ù ηd £‡ÂÏÏ·Ø öÓı· ZÂf˜
â΂¿ÏÏÂÈ ıÂáÓ ¬Ù·Ó ÙȘ â͢‚Ú›ÛFË. Stoicism included the initial
dualism of elements in the cosmology of Creation 19 and applied its
basic kernel (mobility of first principle versus receptivity of the second)
to the theory of first principles (absolutely active deity versus
absolutely passive matter). 20 In the Babylonian poem of Creation
(Enuma Elish) the Winds are the chief weapons of Marduk (god of
the atmosphere = Zeus) who is the guarantor and sovereign deity of
the New Order after the defeat of the female first principle Tiamat, the
primordial Sea (Tablet IV).