Pherecydes of Syros

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Athenian historian and mythographer, see Pherecydes of Athens.
For the historian from Leros, see Pherecydes of Leros.
Pherecydes of Syros
Φερεκύδης
mythology, theology, etymology
Notable ideas
Metempsychosis, Time as Demiurge

Pherecydes of Syros (

Phoenician books
.

Pherecydes wrote a book on

Gê
) with forests and mountains. Chronos retires from the world as creator, and Zas succeeds him as ruler and assigns all beings their place.

Pherecydes' cosmogony forms a bridge between the mythological thought of

physiologoi of the Ionian school. Later hellenistic doxographers also considered him as one of the first thinkers to introduce a doctrine of the transmigration of souls to the Ancient Greek religion, which influenced the metempsychosis of Pythagoreanism, and the theogonies of Orphism. Various legends and miracles were ascribed to him, many of which tie him to the development of Pythagoreanism or Orphism
.

Life

Although it is relatively certain the Pherecydes was a native of the island of

Alyattes in Lydia (c. 605-560 BCE),[c] which would place him as a contemporary of the Seven Sages of Greece,[d], among whose number he was occasionally included. Alternatively, Apollodorus, places his floruit several decades later, in the 59th Olympiad (544–541 BCE), a generation later. Assuming that Pherecydes was born in this later generation, younger than the philosopher Thales (624-545 BC) and thus an older contemporary of Anaximander, he would also be approximately the correct age for the Pythagorean tradition in which he is regarded as a teacher of Pythagoras.[1][2] Most of the other biographical information is probably fiction, and the ambiguity and contradictions in the surviving testimonies suggest that any reliable biographical data that may have existed was no longer available in the Hellenistic period.[3] The identity of Pherecydes was also unclear in ancient times because there were two authors of that name who both wrote about mythology: Pherecydes of Syros and Pherecydes of Athens (fl. 5th century BC).[e]

View of northern Syros from the cave of Pherecydes. Local tradition maintains that Pherecydes lived in two caves in the northern part of the island of Syros.

According to a forged letter attributed to Thales, Pherecydes never traveled

Spartans not to value silver or gold, and that same night Heracles is said to have told the king of Sparta in his sleep to listen to Pherecydes.[h] Many of those miracles however, were also attributed to other legendary philosophers such as Pythagoras or Epimenides
.

There are many conflicting legends that purport to be an account of the death of Pherecydes. According to one story, Pherecydes was killed and skinned as a sacrifice by the Spartans, and their king kept the skin out of respect for Pherecydes' wisdom.

Magnesians, or throwing himself from Mount Corycus in Delphi, or succumbing to typhoid fever.[j] According to Aelianus typhoid fever was a punishment for his wickedness .[k] The latter story was already known to Aristotle and may have arisen from the idea that wise men did not care about physical care.[6] Other stories connect Pherecydes' death to Pythagoras. However, the historicity of all this is debatable.[7]

Phoenicians
, whose books were said to have influenced Pherecydes.

Influences

Pherecydes was designated as 'wise' (sophos), but only

Phoenicians'.[o]

Although this latter claim is almost certainly fictitious, it may be based on the similarity between Pherecydes' ideas and Eastern religious motifs. For example, in his book he describes an important battle in the earliest times between Kronos and

Zoroaster, who was quite well known in the Greek world of late antiquity. Isidore may have concluded this because the Zoroastrian literature available to him was influenced by Hellenization, or because Pherecydes' work influenced it.[11] There is also a short fragment in which Pherecydes talks about ambrosia of the moon, the potion of the gods.[q] This representation has parallels in the Samaveda, where there the moon is a vessel from which the gods drink soma (god drink) and is important in the reincarnation theory as guardian of heaven.[12]

Grenfell-Hunt Papyrus, MS Gr. class. f. 48. The papyrus fragment shows two columns of Pherecydes' "Heptamychos."

Writings

Pherecydes wrote a cosmogony (explanatory model for the origin of the universe) that contained a theogony, an explanatory model for the gods and their properties. This work broke with the mythological and theological tradition and shows Eastern influences. Pherecydes, along with Anaximander and Anaximenes, has long been regarded as one of the first Greek writers to compose his work in prose rather than hexameter verse.[13] Martin Litchfield West notes that the subject matter that all of three of these authors wrote on, the nature of the universe and how it came to be, had been written in verse prior to these authors.[13] West speculates based on the word choice that early logographers used ("words I have heard" instead of "I have read") that the original intent of a book written in prose was essentially a "write-up" of a lecture that a person interest in topics such as cosmology gave as a speech or public discourse.[13] The book was known variously under the titles such as Seven niches ( Heptamychos, Ἑπτάμυχος), "Five niches" (Pentemychos, Πεντέμυχος), and Mixing of the Gods (Theokrasia, Θεοκρασία).[r][14]

In this work, Pherecydes taught his philosophy through the medium of mythic representations. Although it is lost, it was extant in the Hellenistic period, and the fragments and testimony that survive from works that describe it are enough to reconstruct a basic outline. The opening sentence is given by Diogenes Laertius,[s] and two fragments in the middle of the text have also been preserved in fragments from a 3rd century Egyptian papyrus discovered by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt, which was identified thanks to a comment by Clement of Alexandria about the contents of Pherecydes' book: 'Pherecydes of Syros says: "Zas made a great and beautiful robe, and made the earth and Ogenus on it, and the palace of Ogenus".'[15]

Theogony

Pherecydes developed a unique,

arche) for the cosmos was characteristic of Pre-Socratic thinkers.[18]

The sequence of Pherecydes' creation myth is as follows. First, there are the eternal gods Zas (Zeus), Chthoniê (Gaia) and Chronos (Kronos). Then Chronos creates elements in niches in the earth with his seed, from which other gods arise. This is followed by the three-day wedding of Zas and Chthonie. On the third day Zas makes the robe of the world, which he hangs from a winged oak and then presents as a wedding gift to Chthonie, and wraps around her. The "winged oak" in this cosmology has no precedent in Greek tradition.

Tartarus[21] The fact that Kronos disappears into the background is due to his great magnificence. The argument for this is that Aristotle conceives Pherecydes as a semi-philosopher in that he connects the philosophical Good and Beautiful with the first, prevailing principle (arche) of the theologians, and eternity, according to Aristotle, is connected with the good. The three primordial gods are eternal, equal and wholly responsible for the world order.[22]

The Babylonian world map. Clay tablet preserved in the British Museum (BM 92687) from the 5th century BC. Here the ocean lies like a circle around the land.

Etymology

Pherecydes was interested in etymology and word associations. Like Thales, he associated chaos with the primordial elemental water, presumably because he associates the word 'chaos' with the verb 'cheesthai', 'to flow out', and because chaos is an undefined, disorderly state.[t] By that approach he adapted god names, although Pherecydes probably saw his gods as traditional deities.[23] He mentioned Rhea for example Rhê,[u] presumably by association with rhein '(out)streams'.[24] The common names were in the 6th century BC. already traditional. In addition, the names are not a Greek dialect. The reason for deviant forms is to make them resemble other words and to construct an original form.[25]

  • Zas resembles Zeus. One explanation is association with the prefix za- 'very', as in zatheos 'very divine'. An alternative is that the
    Luwian god Šanta was known as Sandes and Sandon. The Hittites identified it as the sky god, and the Greeks as Zeus or Heracles. Based on Zeus and Sandon with their associations, Pherecydes constructed a basic form with Zas-Zantos.[26] Zas (Zeus) is comparable with the Orphic Eros in function, as a personification of masculine sexual creativity. According to Proclus, "Pherecydes used to say that Zeus changed into Eros when about to create, for the reason that, having created the world from opposites, he led it into agreement and peace and sowed sameness in all things, and unity that interpenetrates the universe".[27]
  • Chthoniê comes from chthôn 'earth' and chthonios 'in/under the earth'. It concerns the invisible part of the dark, primitive earth mass. Gê, on the other hand, refers to the visible, differentiated
    Tartaros as being "in a recess (muchos) of broad-wayed earth".[33] Hermann S. Schibli thinks the five muchoi were actually harboured within Chthonie, or at least were so initially when Chronos disposed his seed in the five "nooks".[34]
    A close relationship is thought to exist between these recesses and Chthonie.
primordial deities
, is the personification of time. Pherecydes was one of the first mythographers in the ancient greek religion to personify time.

Cosmogony

The sequence of Pherecydes' cosmogony begins with the eternal gods Zas (Zeus), Chthoniê (Gê) and Chronos (Kronos), who "always existed." The first creation is an act of ordering in the cosmos through niches and division of the world. That creation coincides with the dichotomy of eternity-temporality and being-becoming. Chronos must step out of eternity to create, and creation means becoming.

ex nihilo
(out of nothing).

The titles Penta-/Heptamychos and Theokrasia of the work indicate that niches (mychoi) and mixing are an important part of the creation story.

sky god, he would have had Aether as his domain. The title Heptamychos in the Suda is explained by including Gê and Ogenos (hepta = seven). Pherecydes writes that Tartarus lies below the earth ("gê"), so that gê is therefore considered a separate region that could be seen.[43]

Fire, air and water are placed in the niches by Chronos and mixed (krasis). Mixing elements in five niches only makes sense if those mixtures are in different proportions. Contrary to later philosophy of Anaxagoras, the world is not created from the mixtures, but a second generation of gods (theokrasia), including Ophion. The formed gods derive their characteristics from the dominant element in each mixture and possibly associate them with the five regions.[41][44] The elements may also be a later, stoic reinterpretation of the text, as the elements, especially air/pneuma, appear anachronistic and fit within Aristotelian and Stoic physiology. That means Chronos' seed will go straight into the niches. This representation is possible, because in a scholium at the Iliad, for example, it says that Chronos smeared two eggs with his seed and gave it to Hera. She had to keep the eggs underground (kata gês) so that Typhon was born, the enemy of Zeus. Typhon is a parallel of Pherecydes' serpent god Ophion.[45]

Fresco from Pompeii depicting the heiros gamos of Zeus and Hera, where Zeus presents a pharos to his betrothed, a popular motif in Ancient Roman art. The story is retold in Pherecydes' cosmogony

Marriage between Zas and Chthoniê

It is quite possible that in the course of the theogony the primeval trio changed into the traditional Zeus, Kronos and Hera. Such changes have Orphic parallels: Rhea is Demeter after she becomes Zeus' mother,

Eros.[46] In Pherecydes, Chthoniê becomes Gê through marriage, after which she becomes the protector of the marriage, and that was traditionally the domain of Hera. Hera is also associated with the earth in some sources.[z][47]

The marriage of the gods is a union (

etiological, because it explains the origin of the ritual unveiling of the bride (anakalypteria). [49] The cloth makes Chthoniê vivid and alive. She is the base matter, but Gê is the form of it.[50]

The robe hangs on a winged oak.

Persephone is weaving a rich robe representing the cosmos when she is carried off by Hades to the underworld.Finally, the proverb 'The face of the earth is the garment of Persephone' is in the style of early Pythagoreans, who had sayings like 'tears of Zeus' for rain and 'The sea is the tear of Kronos'.[53]

The mythical images of the tree as an earthly structure and a robe as a gift at marriage have Greek cultic counterparts. In

Mesopotamian parallels of the palace with a complex of spaces reserved for the bride and groom is built. There are also myths such as the one in which Anu takes heaven as his portion, whereupon Enlil takes the earth and gives it as a dowry to Ereshkigal, 'mistress of the great deep' (chthoniê).[56]

The Orphic Egg with the Primeval Serpent according to the Orphic Theogonies

Theomachy

Pherecydes described a battle between Kronos and Ophion similar to that of Zeus and Typhon in Hesiod's older "Theogony". The stake of the battle is cosmic supremacy and is reminiscent of the Titanomachy and Gigantomachy of traditional theogony, in which the successive conflicts between gods are described with the current world order as a result. In Pherecydes' cosmogony, however, no initial chaos or tyranny is overcome, followed by the establishment of a new order. The creative gods are eternal and co-equal. Their order is temporarily threatened by Ophion, but that threat becomes a (re)affirmation of the divine order, with Kronos as the first king.[ae][57] The battle is also etiological, for it explained the myths about ancient sea monsters in both Greece and Asia Minor and the Middle East.[58] The battle is described by Celsus[af]:

'Pherecydes told the myth that an army was lined up against army, and he mentioned Kronos as leader of one, Ophion of the other, and he related their challenges and struggles, and that they agreed that the one who fell into Ogenos was the loser, while those who cast them out and conquered should possess the sky'.

Chronos has become Kronos here. Presumably, as a prominent second creator, Zas also participates in the battle, after which he becomes Zeus.[59] Ophion did not exist from the beginning but was born and had progeny of his own ( Ophionidai).[ag] He is serpentine, because his name is derived from ophis 'snake'. Traditionally, Gaia (Gê) was regarded as the mother of Typhon, and Chthoniê/Gê may be the mother of Ophion here. Ophion may also have been produced on her own in Tartarus, the cave under the earth.[60] Typhon also originated in a cave. Otherwise the father may be Chronos, because his seed is the niches of the earth.[61]

Ophion and its brood are often depicted as ruling the birthing cosmos for some time before falling from power. The chaotic forces are eternal and cannot be destroyed; instead they are thrown out from the ordered world and locked away in Tartaros in a kind of "appointment of the spheres", in which the victor (Zeus-Cronus) takes possession of the sky and of space and time.

Callirhoe
. If Pherecydes counted five principal entities in association the pentemychos doctrine, then Ophion, Eurynome, Echidna, Calirrhoe and Chthonie are the main contenders.

Legacy

Pythagoras was alleged Pherecydes' apprentice. According to tradition, he nursed him during his illness until his death, after which he buried him on Delos.

Pherycydes is seen as a transitional figure between the mythological cosmogonies of

Timaeus) and in the Orphic poem Krater attributed to the Pythagorean philosopher Zopyrus of Tarentum.[63]

Pythagoreanism

Out of all of the philosophers who were historical predecessors of Pythagoras, Pherycydes was the philosopher most often linked with him as one of his teachers.[64] Not many prose treatises existed in the 6th century, Pythagoras may have learned of Pherecydes' work and adopted the idea of reincarnation.[65] In Pythagoras' youth, when he still lived on Samos, he is said to have visited Pherecydes on Delos and later buried him.[aj] An early variant of this story places this event later in Pythagoras' life when he lived in Croton. His visit to the sick Pherecydes was used to explain his absence during Cylon's rebellion in that city.[66] These stories may have evolved from the story that Pythagoras was a student of Pherecydes.[67] According to Apollonius, Pythagoras imitated Pherecydes in his 'miracles'.[ak][68] The historicity of the connection between the two has been debated, however, because their philosophies are otherwise unrelated, and because Pythagoras has been attributed all kinds of teachers over time.[64] The confusion among later authors about the attribution of the miracles can perhaps be traced back to the poem of Ion of Chios.[69][al] Aristotle nevertheless stated in the 4th century BC that both were friends, and the story already about their friendship certainly dates back to the 5th century BC. It is believed that both philosophers once met.[64]

Pherecydes' book was thought to have contained a mystical esoteric teaching, treated allegorically. A comparatively large number of sources say Pherecydes was the first to teach the

Christian Apponius mentioned Pherecydes' belief in metempsychosis in his argument against murder and executions because a good life is rewarded and a bad life is punished in the afterlife.[am] The Middle Platonist Numenius, like Apponius, referred to the idea that the soul enters the body through the seed, and mentions a river in Pherecydes' representation of the underworld.[an] The Neoplatonist Porphyry added 'corners, pits, caves, doors and gates' through which souls travel.[ao] Finally, the orator Themistius reported that Pherecydes, like Pythagoras, considered killing a great sin.[ap] This suggests that impure deeds in a next life or after death must be expiated.[73] Pherecydes may have regarded the soul as at least an immortal part of the sky or aether.[74][75] That he was the first to teach such a thing is doubtful, but Schibli concludes that Pherecydes like "included in his book ["Pentemychos"] at least a rudimentary treatment of the immortality of the soul, its wanderings in the underworld, and the reasons for the soul’s incarnations".[76]

The battle between the sky god and dragon described by Pherecydes, as well as Hesiod in his Theogony is a widespread motif with Eastern parallels, such as Marduk-Tiamat and Anzu-Ninurta

Similarities with other cosmogonies

The theogony of Pherecydes also shows similarities with Orphic theogonies such as the

Apollonius of Rhodes, in which Orpheus sings about Ophion and Eurynome who were overthrown by Kronos and Rhea. The association of Kronos with Chronos by the Greeks can probably also be traced back to Pherecydes.[81] There are also many significant parallels between Pherecydes's cosmogony, Orphic theogonies, and the preserved accounts of Zoroastrian, Phoenician and Vedic cosmogonies.[82] According to West, these myths have a common source that originates in the Levant. The basic form is as follows. In the beginning there is no heaven and no earth, but a limitless abyss of water, shrouded in deep darkness. This condition has existed for centuries. Then the hermaphrodite and eternal Time makes love to itself. Thus he produces an egg. From that egg appears a radiant creator god, who made it heaven and earth.[79]

Notes

Primary

  1. ^ wikt:Πεντέμυχος, "of the five recesses"
  2. ^ "seven recesses"
  3. ^ DK 7A2
  4. ^ DK 7A1 §122
  5. ^ For a brief enumeration, see for example Munn 2006, p. 48, note 125
  6. ^ Hermippus, quoted in DK 7A2a
  7. ^ DK 7A1 §119
  8. ^ DK 7A1 § 116-117.
  9. ^ Plutarch, Pelopidas 21 , 2; Agis and Cleomenes 10, 3.
  10. ^ DK 7A1, § 117-118
  11. ^ Varia Historia, 4, 28.
  12. ^ Servius, In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii, III, 76.
  13. ^ DK 7A5
  14. ^ DK 7A1 § 116, Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, §9, § 11.
  15. ^ DK 7A2
  16. ^ Clement of Alexandria, VI, 53, § 5.
  17. ^ DK 7B13
  18. ^ DK 7A8
  19. ^ DK 7A1 § 119
  20. ^ DK 7B1a
  21. ^ DK 7B9
  22. ^ DK 7A9 Also, Hermias, Irrisio gentilium philosophorum, 12.
  23. ^ Tenth Olympic ode, 49-55.
  24. Timaeus
  25. ^ Excerpt 145 by Proclus: 'She used to be Rhea, but as soon as she was called the mother of Zeus she became Demeter'.
  26. Homeric hymn to Apollo 351 ff. Stesichorus in Etymologicum magnum 772, 50. Virgil, Aeneid
    , IV, 166.
  27. ^ DK 7B3: 'Pherecydes once said that Zeus had turned into Eros when he wanted to create'. Also Maximus of Tyre, IV, 4.
  28. ^ Isidore the Gnostic, quoted by Clement of Alexandria (DK 7B2) Maximus of Tyre, IV, 4.
  29. ^ Hesiod, Theogony, 726ff.
  30. ^ According to Celsus, by Origen, Against Celsus, VI, 42 (DK 7B5).
  31. ^ Tertullian, The corona, 7 (DK 7B4).
  32. ^ DK 7B4. Also Maximus of Tyre, IV, 4.
  33. ^ In a scholium with Aristophanes' Clouds, 247, a first race of gods under Ophion and Eurynome is also mentioned.
  34. ^ DK 7A5
  35. ^ Plutarch, Sulla 36
  36. Dicaearchus
    .
  37. ^ Apollonius Paradoxographus, Historiae Mirabiles, 6.
  38. ^ The poem is given in DK 7A1 § 120.
  39. ^ Apponius, In Canticum Canticorum, 3, 5.
  40. ^ Numenius, quoted by Porphyry, DK 7B7
  41. ^ DK 7B6
  42. ^ Themistius, Orationes, 2, 38a-b.

Secondary

  1. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 49.
  2. ^ Munn 2006, p. 51.
  3. ^ a b Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 52.
  4. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 11.
  5. ^ Munn 2006, p. 48.
  6. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 10.
  7. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 52–53.
  8. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 52, 68.
  9. ^ West 1971.
  10. ^ West 2007.
  11. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 52, 65–66.
  12. ^ West 1971, pp. 62–63.
  13. ^ a b c West 1971, p. 5.
  14. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 50, 58.
  15. ^ Purves 2010, p. 100.
  16. ^ Betegh 2004, pp. 219–220.
  17. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 55.
  18. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 15.
  19. ^ West 2007, p. 347.
  20. ^ a b Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 66.
  21. ^ a b Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 65–68.
  22. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 89–90.
  23. ^ a b c Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 56.
  24. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 56–59.
  25. ^ a b West 1971, p. 50.
  26. ^ West 1971, pp. 51–52.
  27. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 62.
  28. ^ West 1971, pp. 28–34.
  29. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 56–60.
  30. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 30-31.
  31. ^ Munn 2006, p. 57.
  32. ^ Munn 2006, pp. 56–57.
  33. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 34.
  34. ^ a b Schibli 1990, p. 22.
  35. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 62, note 2.
  36. ^ West 1971, pp. 19, 49–50.
  37. ^ West 1997, p. 146.
  38. ^ Purves 2010, p. 107.
  39. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 29–32.
  40. ^ Schibli 1990.
  41. ^ a b Schibli 1990, pp. 21–25.
  42. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 32–33.
  43. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 38–49.
  44. ^ a b Chase 2013, p. 31.
  45. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 57–59.
  46. ^ West 1971, p. 17.
  47. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 57.
  48. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 51–53.
  49. ^ a b Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 61–62.
  50. ^ Purves 2010, pp. 103, 107-108..
  51. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 62–65.
  52. ^ West 1971, pp. 20, 59.
  53. ^ West 1984, pp. 10–11.
  54. ^ West 1971, p. 73..
  55. ^ West 1971, p. 59.
  56. ^ West 1971, pp. 52–54.
  57. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 87, 91, 99..
  58. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 99–100.
  59. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 97–98, 102.
  60. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 94.
  61. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 70.
  62. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 66–67.
  63. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 20–21.
  64. ^ a b c Zhmud 2012, pp. 79–80.
  65. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 12.
  66. ^ Zhmud 2012, p. 79-80.
  67. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 13.
  68. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 50-51.
  69. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, pp. 51–52.
  70. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 104.
  71. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 59.
  72. ^ Schlibi 1990.
  73. ^ Schibli 1990, pp. 104–127.
  74. ^ West 1984, p. 108.
  75. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975, p. 60.
  76. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 108.
  77. ^ Chase 2013, p. 36.
  78. ^ Kirk & Raven 1975.
  79. ^ a b West 1984.
  80. ^ Chase 2013, p. 35.
  81. ^ Schibli 1990, p. 27..
  82. ^ West 1984, pp. 104–107.

References

Ancient Testimony

In the

Diels-Kranz numbering for testimony and fragments of Pre-Socratic philosophy
, Pherecydes of Syros is catalogued as number 7. The most recent edition of this catalogue is

Biography

Fragments

Secondary sources

Further reading

External links
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