Month: January 2007

literaturephilosophypoetryreligionscienceuniverse

Hesiod Cosmogony

Posted on by nous

Eternal knowledge or just a poem?

Below are the first verses of Hesiod’s cosmogony.

“First of all, Chaos (The Void), next broad-bosomed Gaia (Space), the solid and eternal home of all, and Eros (Desire-Magnetism), the most beautiful of the immortal gods, who in every man and every god softens the sinews and overpowers the prudent purpose of the mind. Out of Chaos came Erevos (Dark Matter) and Black Nyx (Black Night), and out of Night came Aither (Cosmic Radiance) and Hemera (Day-Light), her children conceived after union in love with Erevos (Dark Matter). Gaia-broad(Space) first produced Uranus (Starry Sky/Matter), equal in size with herself, to cover her on all sides. Next she produced the tall mountains, the pleasant haunts of the gods, and also gave birth to the barren waters, sea with its raging surges-all this without the passion of love. Thereafter she lay with Sky and gave birth to Ocean with its deep current. Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus; Thea and Rhea and Themia [Law] and Mnemosyne [Memory]; also golden-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After these came cunning Cronus(Time), the youngest and boldest of her children; and he grew to hate the father who had begotten him.”

So, at first according to Hesiod we have Chaos the void. And then Gaia the broad which represents Space.

Afterwards, came Eros the force that resembles magnetism, the force that binds everything together.

To follow was Erevos which is the Darkness(Dark Matter) and Black Nyx the Black Night.

Black Night and Erevos united through Eros and created , Day-light (hemera) and Cosmic Radiance(Aither).

Gaia-broad (Space) gave birth to the Starry Sky(Matter) which is equal to her in size so that he can cover her from any given point.

And last came Kronos (time) from the Sky (the creator of all living things); Kronos the one who hates his father and fights him. Representing the eternal fight between matter and time, which brings age and death.

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Now, let us examine the current Big Bang theory, which is the prevailing theory of our civilization.

In the beginning there was Void (Chaos), which contained according to scientists space, time and every single forces.

Note Eros’s nickname by Hesiod, ekriksigenis=the blowing up one(bang).

Big Bang theory is like a Balloon that fills up constantly.

Now, then came Space (Gaia-broad), in the first miliseconds of Space, everything was concentrated in Dark Matter (Erevos).

Afterwards, quarks started being created in a form that resembles Black Nyx (Black Night), since Light was non-existant, yet.

With the fusion of quarks the first cosmic radiance appeared (Aither) and this cosmic radiance created Light (Hemera).

Cooling of from the expansion of Space(Gaia broad), the quarks created the Matter, the Starry Sky(Uranus), the creator of all living things.

As soon as Matter was created, time (Kronos) started counting against his father(Uranus=matter).

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So, dear Readers? Is Hesiod’s Cosmogony just another poem?

In our next session we shall examine the definition of “Chaos” and “Poem”.

Thank you for reading.

© copyright noemon.net

logosphilosophy

Eros-Part I

Posted on by nous

Hello, dear Public i shall make my entrance in the blogging domain with a purely noemonful paradigm to illustrate…….!

I will translate for you dear Readers in my own words, a passage from the Symposium of Plato.

Symposium means Party in Hellenic and almost 2500 years ago, Agathon had a party to celebrate his victory in an Athenian competition called Linaia Games.

He invited Plato, Socrates, Aristophanes the Great Comedian, Alkiviades the Athenian governor, was there and some other less important figures.

They sat down and they decided to discuss about Eros, or Love, their rule was that only one speaks at a time with a clockwise rotation according to where seated.

I will skip most of their speeches which most of them are idiotic and useless and i will go down to the juice, to Socrates. Just to add, when Plato’s turn came to speak, he said: “sorry, am not really up for it today, to speak about love, please allow me to comment and criticize the ones that have already spoken” And so he did, so Plato actually didn’t say how he perceives Love, and how he defines Love.

However, Plato is the one that afterwards he went home, he wrote every single thing down, even the thoughts he made in his mind while the others were talking.

So to cut to the chase, Socrates is speaking, but he is using a story to tell his beliefs. He says to everybody:

“Once upon a time i met a woman called Diotima, she was very wise, so wise she even stopped a plague from coming to Athens with various medicine and prayers to our Gods. I used to believe that Eros was a Great God, beautiful and powerful but she proved me wrong the same way that i proved wrong our host, Agathon”

So here it goes:

S: “What are you saying Diotima is Eros ugly and evil?”
D: “Why are you blaspheming Socrates, who told you that what is not beautiful and good is necessarily ugly and evil?”
S: “But of course it is”
D: “Oh, my poor man, and everything that is not wise is necessarily idiotic? Dont you know that there is something in between wisdom and stupidity?”
S: “And what is this something?”
D: “This something is for someone to have a true opinion without being able to prove it, of course this is not a science because it lacks the proof, however it is not stupidity either cause it manages to reach to the essence of matter. A valid opinion is something that exists between wisdom and amathy.”
S: “You ‘re right”
D: “So, didn’t you say that something that is not beautiful is necessarily ugly and also something that is not good is necessarily evil. As you can see, this doesn’t apply everywhere. Same goes for Eros.”
S: “However, Diotima you have to admit that he is recognized by everyone as a God and a Great one for that matter.”
D: “Who is everyone Socrates? The ones that know? Or the ones that they don’t?”
S: “Everybody irrespectively”
[Then she smiled and said]:
D: The faith of many people to a particular thing does not guarantee its truthfulness. And also, Socrates, how do you say that he is recognized as a Great God when the same people claim that he is not a God at all?”
S: “But who is those people that say so?”
D: ” Well I am and YOU ARE“
S: “How did you manage to gather that?”
D: “Oh, its very easy. Answer me: didn’t you admit that all the gods are happy and beautifully? Or do you dare to say that even one of them is not?”
S: “Of course i do not dare, To Zeus, never.”
D: “But a while ago, you claimed that Eros craves the the good and beautiful, if he craves them, then that means that he does not posses them…Did you or did you not say so?”
S: “Well, yes i did”
D: “So how can he be a God, when he lacks the beauty and goodness?”
S: “Well yes, ok you do have a point”
D: So, do you see that even yourself claims that Eros is not a God?”
S: Diotima, am about to go mental, Tell me then what is he? Is he mortal? Tell me…”
D: “Of course not”
S: “Then?”
D: “As we already illustrated with the previous examples, Socrates, he is something in between a God and a mortal”
S: “Tell me what is Eros?, cause am about to blow up!”
D: “DAEMON Socrates, he is a daemon, Aren’t Daemons somewhere in between the mortals and the gods?”
S: “And what is a daemon Diotima? What is their task? Their purpose?”
D: “Their purpose is similar to that of Hermes and Charon, to transfer and translate messages from Gods to Mortals and prayers of Mortals to the Gods. The race of the Daemons, is the link between the divine and the human, it is the ones that keep the universe together, the ones that bind everything together, the cosmic glue. Man cannot approach god, so the daemons are appointed for this task. This communication takes place while we are awake and also while we are asleep. And whoever knows how to translate this communication is wise and daemonic, such are the poets, the lawmakers, the philosophers, the prophets, and the inventors.” So, these daemons are plenty, however their King, their Ruler is Eros, i would say”.
S: “So, Diotima, and who are the parents of Eros? Where did he come from?”
D: “Oh this is a great story, and i will narrate it to you…..”

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I will narrate it to you dear Readers another time……this is enough for the time being.

I hope that you shall enjoy this short dialectical argument, which more or less, is where our Western Civilization is derived from.

This is one of the finest examples of the dialectical arguments. This speech took place in Athens in the year 416 B.C., Month is January (Gamelion) in the House of Agathon.

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