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

100 CHAPTER 10
Eros is the moving force in Hesiod’s Theogony and the third among the
primary principles after Chaos and the first stable form which is the Earth
(with Tartarus located in Earth’s innermost nook, deepest bottom and root)
116-122. In Orphic Tradition, Eros=Phanes=Protogonus is the first creator.
The Primogenitus is Primocreator.
5. For an etymological clarification of the Semitic Mot v. A.B. Cook, Zeus II,
p. 1038. The suggested interpretations include: Arabic madda=matter,
substance (Ewald); water (Baudissin, Maspero); moch, mud, slime
(Bunsen); mot Phoenician tehomot = female depth, abyss;
mak=rottenness (Mclean). No matter how tentative these interpretations
and how hypothetical the assumed connections are they tend significantly
to corroborate the correctness of Philo’s view.
6. Eissfeld’s emendation (·ñÙÔÜ) is often accepted. However, ·éÙfi cannot
refer to anything other than ÓÂÜÌ·; if appleÏÔ΋ or applefiıÔ˜ were meant the
pronoun used would have been masculine or feminine. Moreover, if the
sense were that the Spirit did not know its own creation (the coming-intobeing
of itself), as the suggested emendation would want it, then we can in
a way respond to the objection that is based on the fact that Spirit as first
principle must be eternal, precisely by invoking a necessary breach as it were
in its continuity of everlastingness when the World’s existence is going to
start; but even this is not altogether correct, since it is not the Spirit per se
but Spirit’s Longing (fiıÔ˜) that determines the beginning of Time and
History. What is more, and more important, it is unlikely that the Spirit
remained ignorant or unaware of its own beginning since it was the Spirit
that longed for its own beginning and actually realized it precisely by its
very desire. If the Spirit is ignorant of anything, it is ignorant of the result of
its beginning, of the product of its realized desire not to remain infinite but
to acquire a beginning as a physical being.Manuscripts have ·éÙÔÜ and
·éÙ‹Ó.
7. It is extremely characteristic that Damascius gives the series of offspring in
the order Air-Breeze, and it is clear why: the principle of mobility occupies,
in all limit-friendly theories, a secondary position vis-à-vis the principle of
definiteness and unchangeableness. He writes: \A¤Ú· ÁÂÓ¤Ûı·È ηd AûÚ·Ó,
\A¤Ú· ÌbÓ ôÎÚ·ÙÔÓ ÙÔÜ ÓÔÂÚÔÜ apple·Ú·‰ËÏÔÜÓÙ˜, AûÚ·Ó ‰b Ùe âÍ
·éÙÔÜ ÎÈÓÔ‡ÌÂÓÔÓ ÙÔÜ ÓÔËÙÔÜ ˙ˆÙÈÎeÓ appleÚÔÙ‡appleˆÌ·. The terminology is
Neoplatonic; the experience and frame of mind primevally Greek.
8. The Orphic theogony according to the Sacred Doctrines in ΚΔ΄
Rhapsodies is directly related to this type of Cosmogony. The supreme
principle is Time. The primordial situation is characterized by ÛÎÔÙfiÂÛÛ·
çÌ›¯ÏË (OF 67) and à˙˯b˜ ÛÎfiÙÔ˜ (OF 66. p. 148). Aether (OF 66 etc.)