Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

464 The Olympians [oh.
Different though the style is, vaguer and more Ouranian the
outlook, it is clear that here, as in Melanippe, we have the old
Orphic cosmogony which lent to Empedokles his Neikos and
Philia, and to philosophy in general to ttolovv and to irda^ov.
It is a cosmogony that knows no Olympians. To Melanippe
Earth and Sky are the causes, the beginnings, of all things. The
Olympians are there ; they may be, as Helen said, ' to blame
(aiTtoi), but they are only spokes in the great wheel 1 of nature, not
the driving force that sets and keeps her going, not alrlai' 2 .
Varro 3 tells us expressly that
Earth and Sky, as the mysteries of Samothrace teach, are the Great Gods,
and Samothrace was the natural bridge between Orientalized
Asia Minor and the mainland. Most conclusive of all is the
avowal of the Orphic mystic, his avowal of race and parentage.
He claims to be the child of no Olympian, he goes back to
potencies earlier, more venerable
I am the child of Earth and of Starry Heaven 4 .
:
The avowal of the initiate Orphic does not end here. A second
clause is added, not wholly untinged, I think, by protest
But my race is of Heaven (alone) 5 .
The creed he adopts is definitely opposed to that of Xeno-
phanes 6 :
From earth all things rise, and all things in earth have their ending.
Again Xenophanes says
:
All things are earth and water that grow and come into being ;
and again
:
For we all are born of earth and are born of water,
where the fire element is intentionally disallowed.
1
Infra, p. 523.
2
II. in. 164 ov rl fxoi airly) eo~ai, Oeoi vv fioi airioi eiaiv.
3 De Ling. Lat. v. 58 Terra enim et Caelum ut Saruothracum initia docent,
sunt Dei Magni.
4 Petelia Tablet. See Prolegomena, p. 574.
5 avrap e^bv yevos ovpd.vi.ov. Even if we take the avrdp as having but slight
adversative force and translate 'moreover' the emphasis is the same.
6 Diels, Frg. 27, 29 and 33. Prof. Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy*, p. 135,
thinks that certain expressions used by Xenophanes 'can only be meant to make
the heavenly bodies ridiculous. ' But though Xenophanes may have distrusted the
worship of the heavenly bodies, he revered Ouranos as a whole.
:
'