54 UNIVERSITY OF COLOKADO STUDIES 



''Illimitable ocean without bound 

 Without dimension, where length and breadth and height 

 And time and place are lost, where eldest night 

 And chaos, ancestors of nature, hold 

 Eternal anarchy." 



The first step in the creation of the world is taken when 



"•At last the sacred influence of light appears, 

 And from the walls of heaven, 

 Shoots far into the bosom of dim night, 

 A glimmering dawn." 



The Chaos with which Hesiod starts' is virtually the "Illimit- 

 able Ocean" of Milton "Where eldest night and chaos hold eternal 

 anarchy." - 



From tills Chaos are born Erebos and Nux, both powers of dark- 

 ness; then are born ^Ether and Ilemera, 'AiOrjp koX 'H/xepa, male and 

 female principles of light. 



In the Orphic cosmogony according to Eudemus, Night is the 

 starting point, ^ but unfortunately we have no account of anything 

 further in this version. 



In the Orphic cosmogony known as the Rhapsodic cosmogony, 

 we start practically with Chaos and ^ther. The Orphic Chaos is, 

 like the Hesiodic, the great yawning gulf filled with dark misty 



' Theog. 116 ff. 



'Scholiast to Apoll. Rhod. I. 498. Kai Ztjvcov koI to wap 'Yiaiohw 

 yao'i vBcop eivai (f>T]aiv, ov avvi^dvovro^ , l\vv yivecrdai, r}<; Tnjyvu- 

 fievT]^ lyr) crrepefiviovTaL. cf. Theog. 814. )(deo<; ^o(f)€poto. cf. 

 for much the same conception, Genesis I, 2. "And darkness was 

 upon the face of the deep." cf. Vedic Hymn R. V. X, 129, con- 

 taining the germ of all Yedic cosmogonical theories. " Darkness 

 existed; originally enveloped in darkness the universe was in- 

 distinguishable water." Trans. John Muir, original Sanscrit 

 Texts, IV, p. 4. 



''Abel, Orphica, frag. 30. 



