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

94 CHAPTER 10
because of which Cronos is absent from his position in the sequence,
then there is an inexplicable confusion in Alexander’s scheme. A fusion
of two distinct Orphic traditions (the older archaic-classical and the
hellenistic-Rhapsodic) properly interpreted suffices to clarify the
problem.
Order -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Old Orphism - Night Ocean (Egg) Phanes Heaven Cronos Zeus Dionysus
Rhapsodic Time Aether (Egg) Night Heaven Cronos Zeus Dionysus
Orphism Chaos Phanes
Alexander - Chaos Ocean Night Heaven Zeus
of Aphrodisias
(numbers indicate sequence of kingdom and generation)
Members 3-6 are all common. To position 2 Alexander assigns the
Night of the Sacred Doctrines. As to 0 and 1 he follows the Archaic
sequence with the difference that having used the Night in her
Rhapsodic position and function he substitutes, for the first principle
Nyx of early Orphic doctrine, Chaos as the ontological equivalent
which in fact partially (but extrinsically as remarked above) overlaps
with the level of first principle (of beginning) in the Rhapsodic
Theogony. From this mixture another paradox can be best explained,
namely that in an Orphic schema of the progression and production
of reality Phanes (and the accompanying Egg) may be absent. Phanes
and Egg being assigned to different stages of cosmic procession in the
two Orphic patterns, Alexander’s source, conflating both, omitted
incompetently the most characteristic Orphic feature (Cosmic Ovum
and Primogenitus) from either position in the sequence, adopting for
each the other occupant in the two series, i.e. Ocean from ancient
Orphism for place 1 and Night from Rhapsodic Orphism for place 2.
17. Poetic awareness preserved in the purest form the original
Orphic idea and experience that the Night as very first cosmogonic
principle expresses the abyssmal Darkness of aboriginal Chaos. On the