Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

it was generated as are things generable, and not that it for ever was as are things ingenerable.

" Orpheus also likens Chaos to an Egg in which was the con-fusion of the primordial elements.1

"This is what Hesiod supposes by Chaos, what Orpheus calls an Egg — a thing generable, projected from the infinity of Matter (Hyle), and brought into being as follows :

IV. " Both fourfold Matter 2 being ensouled and the whole Infinitude being as though it were a Depth (BufloV), flowing perpetually and indistinguishably moving, and over and over again pouring forth countless imperfect mixtures, now of one kind and now of another, and thereby dissolving them again owing to its lack of order, and engulphing so that it could not be bound [together] to serve for the generation of a living creature — it happened that the infinite Sea itself, being driven round3 by its own peculiar nature, flowed with a natural motion in an orderly fashion from out of itself into itself, as it were a vortex,4 and blended its essences, and thus involuntarily the most developed part of all of them,6 that which was most serviceable for the generation of a living creature, flowed, as it were in a funnel, down the middle of the universe, and .was carried to the bottom

1 Orpheus apparently does nothing of the kind, but draws a distinction between Chaos and the Egg.

2 Of. the Pythagorean Tetraktys, in the famous oath— "The Fourfold Root of Ever-flowing Nature."

3 Or impelled or pushed in every direction.

4 Thus forming the Vortex Atom of the Cosmos.

5 The text reads : ical oSrus t£ aitovffrov ruv trkvieoiv rb yoffTintararov. As e'£ a.Kovffrov has hitherto proved insoluble for all editors, I would suggest «f£ aKovffiov. As to voffnutiararov, L. and S. are of little assistance unless it is taken in the sense of " ripest." Sophocles gives " essential, valuable, perfect, the best part of any thing."

by means of the vortex that swept up everything, and drew after it the surrounding Spirit,1 and so gathering itself together as it were into the most productive [form of all], it constituted a discrete state [of things].

" For just as a bubble is made in water, so a spherelike hollow form gathered itself together from all sides.

" Thereupon, itself being impregnated in itself, carried up 2 by the Divine Spirit that had taken it to itself as consort, it thrust forth its head (TrpoeKv\fsev) into the Light — this, the greatest thing perchance that's ever been conceived, as though it were out of the Infinite Deep's universe a work of art had been conceived and brought to birth, an ensouled work [in form] like unto the circumference of eggs, [in speed] like to the swiftness of a wing.4

V. "I would therefore have you think of Cronus (KpoVoy) as Time (X/ooW 6), and of Ehea (*Pea) as the flowing (TO pe'ov) of the Moist Essence ; for the whole of Matter being moved in Time brought forth, as it were, an Egg, the whole surrounding sphere-like Heaven ('Qvpavos), which in the beginning was full of the productive marrow,6 so that it might be able to bring forth elements and colours of all kinds ; and yet the manifold appearances which it was ever presenting, all came from One Essence and One Colour.

1 This probably means the Spirit that ensouled Matter ; or to use a more familiar expression, the Spirit of God which " brooded over the Deep."

2 Sc. out of the Depth of Matter or Darkness, on to the surface of it, where was the Light.

3 Of. G. H., i. 14 : " bent his face downwards " (irapfKvtytv), and note thereon.

4 According to Basilides the " wings " of the Sonship are the Holy Spirit. This symbolism is presumably to be connected with the Egyptian " Winged Globe." See F. F. F., p. 26.

6 A very ancient word-play.

6 Sometimes used for brain. Of. C.H., x. (xi.) 11, and the Jewish Commentator in the Naassene Document. This is the Spermatic Essence of the Logos.