SECTION II.

PHILO'S SECOND CLASS OF THEOGONIES.

THIS account follows immediately after the Môkh doctrine, and goes on as a more or less loosely connected whole down to the last and most celebrated group, the Uranos-Kronos theogony, and the rule of the Kronidæ, which is connected with it.

It is thoroughly mythological, for the most part speculative, but in an epic form; a prelude to the Greek cyclical poets, who also began with the marriage of Uranos and Ge.

It contains three, or strictly speaking five, separate theogonies or fragments.

The Text. (Chap. III.)

["Further on he says as follows:]

§1. "From the wind, Kolpia, and from his wife, Baau, which being interpreted is Light, there were born Æon and Protogonos, mortal men of that name. Æon taught mankind to live upon fruits.

"From them were descended Genos and Genea. They inhabited Phoenicia. Being plagued by the heat, they lifted up their hands to Elos (El). For him alone [he says] they honoured as the only God, and called him Belsamin, which means Lord of Heaven, as the Greeks call Zeus.

§2. ["Hereupon he reproaches the Greeks with abandoning the oldest traditions, and says:]

"It is not without reason that I have on several occasions so specifically mentioned this, but with a view to counteract the silly and false notions about the words

As the Greeks are

which are applied to real things. uncertain about them they have interpreted them erroneously, being led astray by the ambiguity of the way in which they are rendered.

§ 3. ["Immediately after he proceeds as follows:]

"Eon and Protogonos again begat mortal children: they were called Phôs, Pyr, and Phlox (light, fire, and flame).

"They [he says] invented fire by rubbing pieces of wood together, and taught the use of fire.

§ 4. "They begat sons, who surpassed the others in size and stature. Their names were given to the mountains of which they had possessed themselves; and they were named after them Kasion, Libanon and Antilibanon, and Thabry.

§ 5. "From these were born Semenrumos, the highcelestial, and Usôos.

"They were called after their mothers' names; women in that day without any shame yielded to any man whom they happened to meet.

§ 6. ["He then continues:]

"Hypsuranios inhabited Tyre, and invented the art of building huts with reeds and rushes and papyrus.22 He set himself up against his brother Usôos, who was the first who made clothes of the skins of animals which he slew. Very heavy torrents of rain and storms caused the trees at Tyre to rub against each other and catch fire, and so ignited the forest. Usôos took a tree,

22 Movers, singularly enough, considers the mention of the papyrus to be a proof that Philo falsified the Phoenician records by means of Egyptian (Hermetic) books. The stalk of the papyrus grows just as well on the Jordan and in Sicily as it does in the North of Egypt; and Byblus (the Greek name of the celebrated Phoenician city which is properly called Gebal, mountain) is the word by which it is usually expressed. Indeed the whole assumption does not square with Movers' own system a bit better; and it is only a remnant of the onesided view he took of Philo's work when he was a young man.

stripped it of its boughs, and was the first who launched a boat. He erected two columns or pillars to Fire and Wind (Pneuma), before which he fell down and sacrificed the blood of animals which he had caught.

§ 7. "Now when they (the two brothers) were dead, they consecrated to them staves, but the columns they worshipped, and celebrated an annual festival in their honour.

§ 8. "After a considerable time there proceeded from the race of the Highest Celestial Agreus (the hunter) and Halieus (the fisherman). They were the inventors of the chase, and from them hunters and fishermen took their names.

§ 9. "From them (the hunter and fisherman) were born two brothers, who discovered iron and the mode of working it. One of them, Khusôr, practised incantations, exorcisms, and soothsaying; he is Vulcan: he invented the fish-hook and bait, the line and the float. He was also the first who navigated ships. Hence it was that after his death they worshipped him as a God. He is also called MELEKH, Zeus-Meilichios (the friendly) of the Greeks. Others say that these brothers invented the art of building walls of bricks.

§ 10. "According to this there were born from the race of the latter two youths:

Tekhnites (Artificer)

and

Géinos, or Autokhthôn

(the Earth-formed

or Earthy, the Earth-born,
Primeval Father).

They understood the art of mixing straw with the clay, and of drying bricks in the sun. They even invented roofs also.

§ 11. "From these came others:

Agros and Agruêros, or Agrótes.

There is a sculptured figure of the latter which is highly venerated in Phoenicia, and a temple surrounded

by a team of oxen: he is called by the people of Byblus preeminently the Supreme God.

"They invented also courts attached to the houses, and inclosures and eaves.

§ 12. "From them came the Agrótai (tillers of land and Kynégoi (hunters with dogs). They are also called Alêtai (nomades) and Titans.

§ 13a. "From them came

Amynos and Magros.

They taught the art of building villages, and feeding cattle.

§ 136. "From them descended

Misôr and Sydyk,

which means the Redeemed and the Just.

§ 14a. "From Misôr descended

Taautos,

who invented written characters. him Thôôth; the Greeks, Hermes.

The Egyptians call

§ 146. From Sydyk came the Dioskuri, or Kabiri, or Korybantes, or Samothracians. They invented the ship. § 15. "From them others descended who discovered herbs for curing poisonous bites, and formulas for exorcising.

§ 16a. "In these times was born a certain

ELIUN,

or the Highest; and a woman,

BE'UTH (usually read Beruth).

§ 166. "These lived near Byblus. From them were begotten

Epigeios or Autokhthon"

(The Earthy or Earth-born).

A.

First Fragment of the Second Kosmogony of Philo.
(Chap. III. § 1, 2.)

KOLPIA, BAAU, BELSAMIN.

THIS fragment is a description complete in itself. In the first place, we have here, beyond any doubt, a new beginning; and we find a new phraseology employed for it. The style is mythological rather than philosophical; whereas in the Môkh kosmogony it was throughout of a philosophising tendency, and that, too, before Philo. Again, it does not conclude with the human race in general, but with the Phoenicians, as being the descendants of the most ancient races of man, and worshippers of the "Lord of Heaven," under the symbol of the sun.

Of the two principles brought prominently forward, we see at once that the female, Baau, is the Greek form of the Biblical word bohu, which means "void," that is, the pure non-existence of light as well as being: it corresponds to unlimited space. It is not wonderful, therefore, that it has been interpreted "Night," although it is not a literal translation. I think, however, that the word itself and the translation prove, beyond all doubt, that this must not be considered as a continuation of the previous history of creation. How far behind us are Chaos and Night! There we find already races of men, weak and faint-hearted creatures indeed, because they lived exclusively on herbs, but completely developed - historical men. Here, on the contrary, we are again in nocturnal Chaos; and, as the second stage of development, we meet with Æon-Ulom, whom we have known in the preceding Section, as the eternally enduring God.