DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14697#0201
Orphic Theogonies and Cosmogonic Eros 1039
primary position to cosmic Desire or Love. According to the Catapatha Brah-
mana {supra p. 1035) the golden egg was caused by the desire of the waters for
reproduction ; according to The Laws of Manu {supra p. 1036) it was occasioned
by similar desire on the part of the divine Self-existent. Eudemos {supra p. 1036)
spoke of Pothos as uniting with Mist to beget Air and Breeze; Sanchouniathon
{supra p. 1038) applied the same term Pothos to the love of the primeval Wind.
These conceptions are akin to that of Eros, who in the early Orphic scheme
sprang from the wind-egg laid by Nyx. True, the theogony of Hellanikos
dropped the name Eros and substituted for it Protogonos or Zeus or Pan. But
the Rhapsodies retained both Eros and Protogonos as alternative appellations
of their Phanes or Metis or Erikepaios. It looks as though Eros were in some
sense the very soul or self of a deity variously named. Hence his intimate con-
nexion with Wind—a common form of soul (W. H. Roscher Hermes der Wind-
gott Leipzig 1878 p. 54 ff., Rohde Psyche'^ i. 248 n. 1, ii. 264 n. 2, C. H. Toy
Introduction to the History of Religions Boston etc. 1913 p. 22 f., S. Feist Kuitur
Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen Berlin 1913 p. 99, W. Wundt
Volkerpsychologie Leipzig 1906 ii. 2. 40 ff., id. Elements of Folk Psychology
trans. E. L. Schaub London 1916 p. 212 f., infra § 7 (a)). Miss J. E. Harrison
Proleg. Gk. Pel.2 p. 625 n. 3 rightly suspected that a definite doctrine underlay
Aristophanes' travesty of the 'wind-egg.' We must, I think, conclude that the
Orphic cosmogonies rest in part upon a primitive psychology, which explained
desire {epos, epcos) as the issuing of the soul from the mouth in the form of a
small winged being. That the early Greeks should have entertained such a
belief is well within the bounds of possibility: cp. A. E. Crawley The Idea of the
Soul London 1909 pp. 278 and 280 ' In order to see the spiritual world, the
savage either anoints his eyes to acquire an extension of sight, or "sends out
his soul" to see it. The latter occurs as a theory of imagination1. (x De Groot,
The Religious System of China, iv. 105)....' 'The savage holds that when a
man desires a thing his soul leaves his body and goes to it. The process is
identical with imagination and with magic'... Homeric diction still shows traces
of analogous notions. The stock phrase eVea irrepoevra together with certain
less frequent expressions {Od. 17. 57, 19. 29, 21. 386, 22. 398 rfj 5' airrepos eVXero
p,vdos, and perhaps Od. 7. 36 coneiai cos el irrepov rje vor/p,a) presupposes the view
that words had actual wings and flew across from speaker to listener, while the
formula ttoctlos nal edr/rvos e£ i'pov evro {II. I. 469, 2. 432, 7. 323, 9. 92, 23. 57, 24.
628, Od. 1. 150, 3. 67, 473, 4. 68, 8. 72, 485, 12. 308, 14. 454, 15. 143, 303, 501,
16. 55, 480, 17. 99, h. Ap. 513, cp. Od. 24. 489, h. Ap. 499) or the like (//. 13.
636 ff., 24. 227, Theog. 1064) implies, if pressed, a physical expulsion or dis-
missal of desire. Not improbably, therefore, the Hesiodic idea that Eros had
issued from Chaos {supra p. 315), could we trace it to its ultimate origin in the
mind of unsophisticated folk, would be found to involve the conviction that the
vast void between heaven and earth was a gaping or yawning mouth (^dos for
*XaFos connected with ^aivos, ^do-Kw, etc. : cp. ovpavos, ovpavicncos in the sense
of 'the mouth's palate' with the remarks of Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. v.
2405 B—c) from which the divine soul, desirous to create, had flown forth in
the guise of Eros. Since winged things in general emerge from eggs, such a
belief would naturally, though illogically, be fused with an egg-cosmogony.
Some support for the opinions here advanced is furnished, not indeed by the
painted tablet from Tarragona (on which see Addenda to ii. 2 n. 4), but by the
occasional numismatic representation of Desire or Love as a winged mannikin
proceeding out of the mouth. At Emporion {Ampurias) in Hispania Tarra-
primary position to cosmic Desire or Love. According to the Catapatha Brah-
mana {supra p. 1035) the golden egg was caused by the desire of the waters for
reproduction ; according to The Laws of Manu {supra p. 1036) it was occasioned
by similar desire on the part of the divine Self-existent. Eudemos {supra p. 1036)
spoke of Pothos as uniting with Mist to beget Air and Breeze; Sanchouniathon
{supra p. 1038) applied the same term Pothos to the love of the primeval Wind.
These conceptions are akin to that of Eros, who in the early Orphic scheme
sprang from the wind-egg laid by Nyx. True, the theogony of Hellanikos
dropped the name Eros and substituted for it Protogonos or Zeus or Pan. But
the Rhapsodies retained both Eros and Protogonos as alternative appellations
of their Phanes or Metis or Erikepaios. It looks as though Eros were in some
sense the very soul or self of a deity variously named. Hence his intimate con-
nexion with Wind—a common form of soul (W. H. Roscher Hermes der Wind-
gott Leipzig 1878 p. 54 ff., Rohde Psyche'^ i. 248 n. 1, ii. 264 n. 2, C. H. Toy
Introduction to the History of Religions Boston etc. 1913 p. 22 f., S. Feist Kuitur
Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen Berlin 1913 p. 99, W. Wundt
Volkerpsychologie Leipzig 1906 ii. 2. 40 ff., id. Elements of Folk Psychology
trans. E. L. Schaub London 1916 p. 212 f., infra § 7 (a)). Miss J. E. Harrison
Proleg. Gk. Pel.2 p. 625 n. 3 rightly suspected that a definite doctrine underlay
Aristophanes' travesty of the 'wind-egg.' We must, I think, conclude that the
Orphic cosmogonies rest in part upon a primitive psychology, which explained
desire {epos, epcos) as the issuing of the soul from the mouth in the form of a
small winged being. That the early Greeks should have entertained such a
belief is well within the bounds of possibility: cp. A. E. Crawley The Idea of the
Soul London 1909 pp. 278 and 280 ' In order to see the spiritual world, the
savage either anoints his eyes to acquire an extension of sight, or "sends out
his soul" to see it. The latter occurs as a theory of imagination1. (x De Groot,
The Religious System of China, iv. 105)....' 'The savage holds that when a
man desires a thing his soul leaves his body and goes to it. The process is
identical with imagination and with magic'... Homeric diction still shows traces
of analogous notions. The stock phrase eVea irrepoevra together with certain
less frequent expressions {Od. 17. 57, 19. 29, 21. 386, 22. 398 rfj 5' airrepos eVXero
p,vdos, and perhaps Od. 7. 36 coneiai cos el irrepov rje vor/p,a) presupposes the view
that words had actual wings and flew across from speaker to listener, while the
formula ttoctlos nal edr/rvos e£ i'pov evro {II. I. 469, 2. 432, 7. 323, 9. 92, 23. 57, 24.
628, Od. 1. 150, 3. 67, 473, 4. 68, 8. 72, 485, 12. 308, 14. 454, 15. 143, 303, 501,
16. 55, 480, 17. 99, h. Ap. 513, cp. Od. 24. 489, h. Ap. 499) or the like (//. 13.
636 ff., 24. 227, Theog. 1064) implies, if pressed, a physical expulsion or dis-
missal of desire. Not improbably, therefore, the Hesiodic idea that Eros had
issued from Chaos {supra p. 315), could we trace it to its ultimate origin in the
mind of unsophisticated folk, would be found to involve the conviction that the
vast void between heaven and earth was a gaping or yawning mouth (^dos for
*XaFos connected with ^aivos, ^do-Kw, etc. : cp. ovpavos, ovpavicncos in the sense
of 'the mouth's palate' with the remarks of Stephanus Thes. Gr. Ling. v.
2405 B—c) from which the divine soul, desirous to create, had flown forth in
the guise of Eros. Since winged things in general emerge from eggs, such a
belief would naturally, though illogically, be fused with an egg-cosmogony.
Some support for the opinions here advanced is furnished, not indeed by the
painted tablet from Tarragona (on which see Addenda to ii. 2 n. 4), but by the
occasional numismatic representation of Desire or Love as a winged mannikin
proceeding out of the mouth. At Emporion {Ampurias) in Hispania Tarra-