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

78 CHAPTER 10
iii. Moreover, according to the Scholia ad Theocritum XIII 1/2c p.
258, 8 Wendel, Eros in Acousilaus’ theology derives from Night and
Aether. Such variations in the formulation of parentage do not alter
the basic congruence of the underlying accounts.
11. The congress of Erebos and Nyx is a dualistic formulation
(under the guise of male-female sexual intercourse) of a projection,
procession or emanation from and by Night in Erebos, exactly as in
the Aristophanic theogony, Aves (414 B.C.) 694-5:
\EÚ¤‚Ô˘˜ ‰’ âÓ àapple›ÚÔÈÛÈ ÎfiÏappleÔȘ
Ù›ÎÙÂÈ appleÚÒÙÈÛÙÔÓ ñappleËÓ¤ÌÈÔÓ NfÍ ì ÌÂÏ·ÓfiappleÙÂÚÔ˜ ˇèfiÓ,
âÍ Ôy appleÂÚÈÙÂÏÏÔ̤ӷȘ œÚ·È˜ ö‚Ï·ÛÙÂÓ òEÚˆ˜ ï appleÔıÂÈÓfi˜,
ÛٛςˆÓ ÓáÙÔÓ appleÙÂÚ‡ÁÔÈÓ ¯Ú˘Û·ÖÓ, ÂåÎg˜ àÓÂÌÒÎÂÛÈ ‰›Ó·È˜.
We have here the derivation of Light (golden-winged glittering and
brilliance) from Darkness (black-winged Night), the spiritual (breathlike)
nature of the creative principle (Eros being like a windy whirl and
mighty spin) and the maleless generation of the cosmic egg 33 . The
locative significance of Erebos’ existence is more emphatically stressed
in the phantastic genealogy of the birds which Aristophanes later plays
with (698 sqq.):
ÔyÙÔ˜ (sc. òEÚˆ˜) ‰b X¿ÂÈ appleÙÂÚfiÂÓÙÈ ÌÈÁÂd˜ Ó˘¯›ˇˆ ηÙa
T¿ÚÙ·ÚÔÓ ÂéÚfÓ
âÓÂfiÙÙ¢ÛÂÓ Á¤ÓÔ˜ ì̤ÙÂÚÔÓ Î·d appleÚáÙÔÓ àÓ‹Á·ÁÂÓ Âå˜ Êá˜.
(ÙÂÚfiÂÓÙÈ is employed because of the general ornithological
emphasis on feathers and wings in this passage which is uttered by
birds. A true theogony would have äÂÚfiÂÓÙÈ, air as dark, thick mist, as
in Homer). If we make exception for Tartarus and Chaos which are
used only sportively in this humorous Ornithology (and which satirize
the over-elaborate duplications and multiplications of similar
coordinated principles that we find in cosmogonic and theogonic
genealogies), we are left, as the basic scheme of the Aristophanic
Cosmogony, with Night (and Erebos), the Egg, Eros and the
formation of the fundamental structures and parts of the World that