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

70 CHAPTER 10
The image of a serpent fits rivers and the Ocean is the very first
river, source of rivers and of all unsalted waters and of the sea.
Acheloous is thus represented, Sophocles, Trachiniae, 11-2, Ovid,
Metamorphoses IX, 62 sqq. (In the red-figured stamnos of British
Museum (B471) we see the battle between Hercules and Acheloous in
which the latter is painted as a snake with human head, arms and
hands and a fish tail; Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Br. Mus. 3, III
1C, Plate 19, 1b). The continuous flowing of rivers resembles the
continuous legless movement of serpents. Already in the Homeric
cosmic geography the Ocean is a river (Ilias Ξ 245-6, Σ 607), a current
(ÚfiÔ˜ O 151) with no source, but one that comes back to itself in a
full circle (as it is represented in the famous iconography of Achilles’
shield at the outer cirmumference thereof, Ilias Σ 606-7:
\EÓ ‰b Ù›ıÂÈ (sc. ≠HÊ·ÈÛÙÔ˜) appleÔÙ·ÌÔÖÔ Ì¤Á· Ûı¤ÓÔ˜ \øηÓÔÖÔ
ôÓÙ˘Á· appleaÚ apple˘Ì¿ÙËÓ Û¿ÎÂÔ˜ apple‡Î· appleÔÈËÙÔÖÔ.
The adjective à„fiÚÚÔÔ˜ that characterizes the Ocean Σ 399,
Odyssey ˘ 65, signifies the coming-back-to-itself of the current that
encloses the earth (cf. Eustathius, In Dionysium Periegetam 1, GG II
217, 15). Crates rightly insisted on the flowing-riverness of the whole
Ocean against some rationalistic tendencies à la Poseidonius which
assumed that the Homeric image refers to the oceanic ebb and flow (v.
Strabo, Geographica, A, 1, 7).
According to the Gnostic text Pistis-Sophia 319 sqq. (p. 207 sq. ed.
W. Till, German translation of the Coptic original), the outer
Darkness that envelops the World is a Large Dragon whose tail is in
his mouth. He is of course the acclaimed Uroboros whom we also find
in the Magical Papyri (cf. Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae 2 , VII,
586 sqq. vol. II p. 26 and picture in Table I, 4). Cf. Pap. Gr. Mag. IV,
2769-71 vol. I, p. 160: ëappleÙa ñ‰¿ÙˆÓ ÎÚ·ÙÂÖ˜ ηd Áɘ ηd ÛÎfiÙÔ˘ nÓ
Î·Ï¤Ô˘ÛÈÓ ‰Ú¿ÎÔÓÙ· ̤Á·Ó (with Wuensch’s emendation ηd ÛÎfiÙÔ˘
instead of the meaningless papyrus reading ηÈÛÎ (j ¯)ÔÔÓÔÓ.
Dieterich, Abraxas p. 123, presents —building upon Miller— a verse
in hexametre: ≤Êı’ ñ‰¿ÙˆÓ ÎÚ·Ù¤ÂȘ ηd Á·›Ë˜ ä‰b ÛÎfiÙÔÈÔ).
The Orphic theology according to Hieronymus and Hellanicus
(OF 54 from Damascius De primis principiis 123 bis, I 317, 15