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66 CHAPTER 10 Zeus’ enemies that lie in Tartarus (Θ 479), but in all likelihood their team should also include Hyperion (identified with the Sun, e.g. Θ 480, Odyssey · 8), Themis (O 84-95), Rhea (O 187, Ξ 203) and the rest of those mentioned in the well-known catalogue, apart from Ocean and Tethys. These last two are the Father and Mother of Gods, Ξ 201, 301: \øÎÂ·ÓfiÓ ÙÂ ıÂáÓ Á¤ÓÂÛÈÓ Î·d ÌËÙ¤Ú· TËı‡Ó. 25 Cf. Virgilius, Georgicon IV, 382: Oceanumque patrem rerum. In Ξ 246 the Ocean is presented as the cause and root from which all things come to be: \øÎÂ·ÓÔÜ ¬˜ appleÂÚ Á¤ÓÂÛÈ˜ apple¿ÓÙÂÛÛÈ Ù¤Ù˘ÎÙ·È. Crates made the idea even more explicit by inserting (guided whether by an ancient reading or his own intuitive emendation, we do not know) the following verse (246a): àÓ‰Ú¿ÛÈÓ ä‰b ıÂÔÖ˜, appleÏÂ›ÛÙËÓ âappled Á·Ö·Ó úËÛÈÓ. Hence Ocean and Tethys precede Heaven and Earth and we thus find the following succession: Ocean-Heaven-Cronos-Zeus. From the primordial gush and flow of Water (according to Homer the Ocean is a deep-bedded river but this may suit the present situation more as an orderly movement) Heaven and Earth are created by splitting apart those waters of commotion. An example is afforded by the Book of Genesis although the process there follows two stages which should be combined (I, 6-10). The biblical image, moreover, leaves some gaps: the Firmament of the Sky can by no means separate absolutely the waters above the firmament from the waters below it unless it is continued, completed and concluded below by the Earth (it is of course meaningless to assume an unlimitedly large or expanding firmament). In Egypt the idea was generally accepted that at the beginning of cosmogony an Ur-Earth as Hill emerges in the mist of
MONISM OF DARKNESS - DUALISM OF LIMIT AND INDETERMINACY 67 Watery Abyss. In the Babylonian Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish) the primordial Liquidity of the Sea (Tiamat, Tiwawat or Tamtu which was possibly pronounced like Tethys in Ionia) after her defeat in the struggle against Bel-Marduk (the Babylonian Zeus, heavenly god of atmospheric phenomena) is dissected and her body moulded by the victor into Heaven-Earth and the World (Tablet IV, 218- V, 66). In the so-called Vatican Mythographers (Vat. Myth. I, 204) we find the succession sequence Ophion-Sky-Cronos with the additional note that the philosophers call the Ophion Sky. In the Commentaria in Arati Phaenomena 16 is attested the view of some (ÙÈÓáÓ) that the ‘preceding generation’ (appleÚÔÙ¤ÚË ÁÂÓÂ‹) in Aratus’ text refers to ÙÔf˜ appleÂÚd \OÊ›ˆÓ· Î·d EéÚ˘ÓfiÌËÓ Î·d OéÚ·ÓfiÓ KÚfiÓÔÓ. The series is the one discussed: Ophion-Ouranos (Heaven)-Cronos. Ophion or Ophioneus is well known from the logico-mythical system of Pherecydes (where he competes with Cronos =Time for the celestial kingship and rule of the world, but is defeated and falls into Ogenus=Ocean B4 DK. Ophioneus made an attempt but did not succeed in gaining the royal sceptre) and from poetic texts and commentaries. Here however Ophion and Eurynome did possess the kingdom before they were driven away and precipitated to the Ocean by Cronos. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica I, 503-6, where the narration is characteristically put into the mouth of the singing Orpheus. Cf. Nonnus, Dionysiaca VIII, 158-61 (cf. II, 573-4). In Lycophron’s Alexandra, Zeus is called ôÓ·Í ÙáÓ \OÊ›ÔÓÔ˜ ıÚfiÓˆÓ (v. 1192), and as for Rhea it is said that she gave birth to Zeus in secret, ÙcÓ appleÚfiÛı’ ôÓ·ÛÛ·Ó âÌ‚·ÏÔÜÛ· T·ÚÙ¿Úˇˆ (v. 1197), i.e. Eurynome (cf. Tzetzes Scholia ad vv. 1191 and 1196). Defeat is here accompanied by precipitation into Tartarus, not by a simple falling into the Ocean. In Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 955-9 there is a mention of ‰ÈÛÛáÓ Ù˘Ú¿ÓÓˆÓ that have fallen from Olympus prior to the third succession to power, i.e. Zeus kingship. An ancient scholium comments ad loc.: appleÚÒÙÔ˘˜ ÙÔf˜ appleÂÚd \OÊ›ÔÓ· Î·d EéÚ˘ÓfiÌËÓ, ‰Â‡- ÙÂÚÔÓ ÙÔf˜ appleÂÚd KÚfiÓÔÓ. Aeschylus uses the idea again in his Agamemnon 167-74. Here the first Lord of Olympus and the World is described as ¬ÛÙÈ˜ apple¿ÚÔÈıÂÓ qÓ Ì¤Á·˜, apple·ÌÌ¿¯ˇˆ ıÚ¿ÛÂÈ ‚Ú‡ˆÓ, Ôé‰b Ï¤ÍÂÙ·È appleÚdÓ üÓ, something that suits the primordial and once omnipotent but now forgotten Ophion better than Ouranos; the second Master is referred to with n˜ ‰’ öappleÂÈÙ’ öÊ˘, ÙÚÈ·ÎÙÉÚÔ˜ Ôú¯ÂÙ·È
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