W. M.

Clarke

The God in the Dew

In: L'antiquit classique, Tome 43, fasc. 1, 1974. pp. 57-73.

Rsum
A l'origine, le dieu grec ros tait la rose. On dcle cette conception originelle dans la ralit littraire, dans des peintures de
vases, dans une comparaison des mythologies grecque et trangres, et dans une tymologie possible du nom lui-mme.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Clarke W. M. The God in the Dew. In: L'antiquit classique, Tome 43, fasc. 1, 1974. pp. 57-73.
doi : 10.3406/antiq.1974.1731
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/antiq_0770-2817_1974_num_43_1_1731

THE GOD IN THE DEW

First of all, then, Chaos came into being, but then Earth the widebreasted, ever sure foundation of all the immortals who hold the height of
snowy Olympus, and misty Tartarus in the heart of wide-pathed Earth and
Eros, who, most beautiful among the immortal gods, limb- loosener, in the
breasts of all gods and men overpowers their reason and wise counsel l.
Who was Eros in the beginning? Hesiod's description points to the
irresistible god of sexual love and longing so well known in later Greek
literature. Even in Homer, though not personified, eros has the nature of
strong physical desire (cf. //., Ill, 442 ; XIV, 294, 315 ; Otf., XVIII,
212). This is the god about whom hymns are sung in the Antigone (781 800) and the Hippolytus (1269-1280), and whose nature Plato explores
in the Symposium. He has been described by a modern scholar as a
product of the religious value of the erotic act ; that is, the original Eros
is simply sex itself, long regarded as sacred and finally personified 2.
Very little is known of the manner and circumstances under which Eros
was worshipped in antiquity. In ancient sources his cult is best attested at
Thespiae, and the cult image there, an aniconic stone, may well have
been simply a phallic symbol 3.
1 Hesiod, Th., 116-122.
'
' ,
',
' ,
' , ,
, '
xai .
Solmsen {OCT, 1970) brackets 119; but see the defense of this verse in M. L. West's
commentary (Oxford, 1966), and in his Alcman and Pythagoras, in CQ, 17 (1967), 5,
n. 1.
2 E. R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, New York, 1956,
VI, 37.
3 For the only archaeological evidence of the worship of Eros, see below p. 6 If. Plato's
Aristophanes (Symp., 189c) implies that the Athenians had failed to institute

58

W. M. CLARKE

Scholars have not been content, however, to accept Eros as no more

than the personification of the sexual experience. A. B. Cook called the
early Eros "in some sense the very soul or self of a deity", a concept
resting "in part upon a primitive psychology, which explained desire
(, ), as the issuing of the soul from the mouth in the form of
a small winged being"4. Karl Kernyi found in Eros one of the many

, and in honor of Eros. Pausanias (I, 30, 1), however, writes

that an altar to Eros located before the entrance to the Academy in Athens bore the
that Charmus was the first Athenian to dedicate such an altar ; and he adds
that another altar, to Eros Avenged (), stood in the city commemorating a metic
who killed himself at his cruel beloved's instigation the boy then killed himself in
remorse. Athenaeus (XIII, 561d-562a) further mentions that a statue of Eros was
in the Academy and that sacrifices were made there to the god. He goes on to record
that Eros was enshrined in the gymnasia along with Hermes and Heracles, and that he
was generally honored at all public sacrifices : specifically, the Lacedaemonians and
Cretans sacrificed to him before battle, and the people of Samos had dedicated a gym.nasium to him. Pausanias (III, 26, 5) notes that a temple and grove of Eros were
located in Leuctra ; but the most detailed description of the cult of Eros is found in his
book on Boeotia (IX, 27, 1-5 ; 31, 3). The Thespians, he writes, who have always
honored Eros above all the gods, have an ancient image of him, an unwrought stone
{ ) : Eros is likewise worshipped by the people of Parium on the Hellespont.
Most men, according to Pausanias, consider Eros to be Aphrodite's son. but Olen the
Lycian, who wrote the oldest Greek hymns, calls him Eileithyia's son. (Cf. below p. 61,n.
23). Pausanias adds that Pamphos and Orpheus later composed poems about Eros to be
sung by the Lycomidae in their ritual. He then mentions Hesiod, Th., II6-122, and
goes on to say that Sappho also wrote poems on Eros, but they are not consistent (
). (Cf. Sappho, fr. 132 Bergk4.) Pausanias discusses images of the god at
Thespiae : Lysippus made a bronze Eros for the Thespians, and Praxiteles a marble one ;
the latter was carried off first by Caligula and then by Nero, and perished in the fire at
Rome the contemporary Eros is a copy of it made by the Athenian Menodorus.
Finally, Pausanias mentions that the Thespians celebrate games in honor of Eros,
prizes in both music and athletics. Plutarch {Amat., 7480 and Athenaeus
(56 le) also refer to these Erotidea, celebrated on Helikon in the shrine of the Muses pentaeterikon. Cicero (Verr., II, 4, 135) calls the statue isignum) cf Cupido the only reason
for visiting Thespiae ; presumably, he refers to the work by Praxiteles. C. T. Seltman
[Eros-, in early Attic legend and art, in ABSA, 26 (1923-1925), 89 n. 2] and Martin
Nilsson {Geschichte der griechische Religion, 2nd d., Munich, 1955, I, 525) suggest
that the may have been phallic. Jane Harrison (Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
Religion, 3rd d., Cambridge, 1922, 630). called the stone "akin to the rude Pelasgian
Hermes himself, own brother to the Priapos of the Hellespont and Asia Minor". In fact,
its actual nature remains unknown and open to speculation (see below p. 59, n. 6).
4 Zeus : A Study in Ancient Religion, II, (Cambridge 1925). The idea is developed by
C. T. Seltman, op. cit.

THE GOD IN THE DEW

59

examples from different cultures of the image of the primordial child,

synonymous with and emerging from the first condition of things 5.
Franois Lasserre hinted at an origin among the mysterious and
winged deities associated with the winds in the preliterary period,
or as a subterranean winged monster whose chthonic source the stone at
Thespiae might indicate 6. Taking an entirely different approach, Elmer
Suhr argues that in the Near East and Mediterranean areas Eros was in
the beginning the personified power of light and wind from the sun.
Meteorites were the first form he took (thus he became ultimately a
small, winged figure), and the stone at Thespiae may have been simply a
meteor 7.
The literary tradition of Eros in antiquity takes a number of forms,
dwindling at last into what Jane Harrison called the Roman fat boy, still
found on cards and commercial advertising in the first weeks of February
every year8. His connection, however, with sexual desire is a constant
factor from the beginning. Since sexual desire is a common theme in the
entire ancient tradition, it seems that the furthest origins must also be
found in some ready connection with sexuality. Explanations of Eros in
which sex is secondary or extraneous cannot therefore carry full
At the same time, there are indications throughout the ancient
texts that Eros was in the beginning something other than sex
His associations, particularly in the ancient romantic tradition,
his place and function in the scientific and philosophical traditions, even
his name all point to a most unexpected origin for the god of love.
It is the purpose of this paper to reexamine parts of the classical
tradition of Eros (and a number of companion traditions in other

5 Kernyi did not attempt to explain the primordial child's sources in myth and
culture. Carl Jung, however, offers a psychological explanation ; both their contributions
may be found in C. G. Jung K. Kernyi, Essays on a Science of Mythology . The
Myths of the Divine Child and the Divine Maiden, trans, by R. F. C. Hull, rev. d., New
York, 1963.
6 La figure d'Eros dans la posie grecque, Lausanne, 1946, 220-227. Lasserre makes
the important point that stone fetishes were common in Boeotia ; Eros's stone may thus
tell us nothing specific about his nature.
7 Before Olympus . A Study of the Aniconic Origins of Poseidon, Hermes, Eros, New
York, 1967. Suhr relies in good part on Mesopotamian and other artifacts; his
of their shapes and decorations are not always beyond debate.
8 On the changes in Eros in historical times, his pluralization and increasing infantilization, see T. G. Rosenmeyer, Eros-Erotes, in Phoenix, 5 (1951), 11-22.

60

W. M. CLARKE

cultures), and to see if this god's original nature has not always been
to us, though hidden and unguessed, in much that we have heard
of him.
We begin with one of Eros's occasional but most persistent
associations, found especially in the lighter poetic and romantic writing
of Greek antiquity. This is his presence among flowers and in gardens
generally, apart from association with the familiar festal wreath 9. Eros
plays like a boy, Alcman (fr. 38 Bergk4) informs us, walking on the tips
of flowers10. In Theognis (1275-1278) Eros rises when his season
comes, when the earth flowers with spring blossoms n. Plato (Symp.,
196a-b) remarks that the beauty of the god's complexion is indicated by
his habitation among flowers ; where flowers and scents are lovely, Eros
takes his place and remains n. The poet of Anacreontea 5 (Bergk4), while
weaving a garland, found Eros among the roses 13. In Anacreontea 53
(Bergk4) it is the rose that is the toy of the Erotes with their many
flowers 14. In Anth. Pal., XVI, the god declares that he is a country boy
who furthers the work of the gardener (XVI, 202) , holding a flower in
his hand, says the poet, Eros holds the earth (XVI, 207) ; he sleeps
among roseblossoms where the bees attend him (XVI, 210) 15. In the
romance Daphnis and Chloe by Longus, Eros's only epiphany takes place

9 For Eros with the wreath cf. Anacreon, fr. 65 (Bergk4)

10 , ' <-> , xp' '
. . .
11
,
.
12 ' ... '
fi, .
13
'
' . . .
14
'
. .
15

.

/ , .
' '

... . . .

THE GOD IN THE DEW

61

in the garden of Philitas (II, 3fO where he bathes in a spring. "The

flowers and herbs are beautiful", he declares, "because they are watered
by my bath" 16.
Echoes of the literary theme are found, as often, in art 17. In the center
of an archaic red-figured cylix by Chachrylion Eros flies carrying a
branching flower-spray 18. Erotes of the fifth-century B. C. appear
bearing flower sprays in a vase painting of the judgment of Paris by
Makron ; they are an integral part of a floral pattern decorating a stamnos by Hermonax 19, and carry tendrils on three lechythoi and an
astragal, all of the fifth century 20. In the mid-fourth century B.C. Eros
appears on a kerch vase in the company of two nymphs and Dionysus ;
he is watering plants from a hydria 21. On south Italian vases various
figures may appear with flowers or vegetation, and Eros is among them.
Trendall 22, in addition to numerous representations of the god with a
wreath, lists a number of fourth-century B. C. Lucanian vases on which
Eros is shown holding a tendril (I 66), or holding the palm branch (I
169, 171, 173, 174 [four vases]); on contemporary Campanian vases
Eros is seated on a tendril (I 334, cf. 374), or holds a leafy spray (I
343) ; on Sicilian vases, the god likewise holds the leafy spray (I 597),
or holds the spray, standing beside a growing plant (I 619).
Interestingly, it is Eros in his association with the garden who is
by the only archaeological evidence so far found for his worship
in antiquity. On the north slope of the Athenian Acropolis, at the foot of
the cliffs below the Erechtheum, remains of an ancient shrine where Eros
and Aphrodite were worshipped together have been discovered 23. Two
16 xac . For the
return of Eros to his ancient primacy in the romance, see . . . Chalk, Eros and the
Lesbian pastorals of Longus, in JHS, 80 (1960), 32-51.
17 See Adolf Greifenhagen, Griechische Eroten, Berlin. 1957, especially 7-33,
"Vielblumige Eroten", for a full discussion of the motif of Eros with flowers or
vegetation in Greek art.
18 Cf. Jane Harrison, op. cit., 634; A. Greifenhagen, op. cit., 21.
19 J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Oxford, 1942, 30lf., 318.
20 A. Greifenhagen, op. cit., 6, 8-10, 25, 52, 85.
21 Hesperia, Suppl. 8 (1949), pi. 5, 2, discussed by Margarete Bieber, Eros and
Dionysus on kerch vases, 31-38.
22 A. D. Trendall, The Red-figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily, Oxford,
1967.
23 Oscar Broneer. Eros and Aphrodite on the north slope of the Acropolis in Athens, in
Hesperia, 1 (1932), 31-55 ; Excavations on the north slope of the Acropolis in Athens,

62

W. M. CLARKE

inscriptions from the mid-fifth century B. C. were found in the shrine,

one of which refers to a springtime festival of Eros on the fourth day of
Munichion (April- May). The inscriptions give no clue to the nature of
the worship. Broneer argues convincingly that this sanctuary is to be
identified with the "peribolos of Aphrodite in the Gardens" mentioned
by Pausanias (I, 27, 3). The "gardens" epithet suggests a vegetation
god ; as such, in Broneer's opinion. Aphrodite and Eros were worshipped
here. Probably their cult was one of numerous primitive cults housed on
the slopes of the Acropolis, most having to do with vegetation and
There is evidence to suggest, then, that Eros retained associations with
flowers and the garden throughout antiquity, perhaps as an original
vegetation god 24. This evidence forms one clue to his real identity. For

1931-1932, in Hesperia. 2 (1932), 329-417. Cf. John Travlos. Pictorial Dictionary of

Ancient Athens. London, 1971, 228-232. The relationship developed in antiquity
Eros and Aphrodite is not relevant to the present study. It may be observed,
however, that he is older than she in original Greek conception. In his only other
in the Theogony (201) he attends her immediately after her birth. There is the
art tradition in which he is pictured assisting her as she emerges from the waves : cf.
Pausanias. V, 11,8 (on the pedestal of Phidias 's chryselephantine statue of Zeus). [Cf.
Arthur Evans, The Palace of Minos, III, (London, 1931), pi. 319, male attendant
helping the Minoan goddess rise from the earth.]. After the early cosmogonies Eros in
the classical period is subordinate to Aphrodite in most of literature and art (for the
evidence, see Furtwangler in Roscher). but this is a development from his original
primacy. It is worth noting that in none of the tragic passages of the fifth century B. C. is
he her son. For the subordination of Eros to Aphrodite, see F. Lasserre, op. cit.. 130149. On the relationship of Eros and Aphrodite in the Theogony. see William Sale,
Aphrodite in the Theogony. in TAPA. 92 (1961). 508-521 ; Sale finds Hesiod's Eros
of procreation, while Aphrodite stands merely for the sex act.
24 Any investigation of the origins of Eros must acknowledge the possibility that he is
related to the young Cretan divinities associated with the great goddess of Minoan art,
and with Zeus Kouros of Mt. Dicte. Axel Persson (The Religion of Greece in Prehistoric
Times. Berkeley. 1942, 151) calls Eros the direct successor of the young Cretan god,
closely related to Adonis and associated with the goddess of fertility and love. For the
young divinity, frequently armed with spear or shield, and sometimes winged, who
with the mother goddess on Minoan rings, see A. Evans, op. cit.. iii, 454-476. The
most relevant of these rings, brought to my attention by Mr. Robert Sutton, may be Ashmolean 1919, 56: it depicts a small male figure hovering in the air above two
statuesque women, one kneeling. The small figure is usually identified as a god ; he
carries a bow. The scene has no known parallel, and the ring has been termed a forgery ;
but see Christiane Sourvinou, On the authenticity of the Ashmolean ring 1919.56, in
Kadmos. 10 (1971), I. 60-69, for defense, bibliography and plates. The young divinity

THE GOD IN THE DEW

63

the next, we turn to the cosmogonical and philosophical traditions in

which Eros figured so persistently in antiquity.
The explanation for the appearance of Eros at the very outset of
Hesiod's Theogony has been dabated, but a consensus of scholars seems
now to be expressed by M. L. West, who describes the god as "present
throughout as the force of generation and reproduction" 2S. His role may
be considered confirmed by parallel figures in other cosmogonies and by
the remarks of subsequent ancient philosophers. In the usual Orphic
cosmogony given by Damscius, De principiis, 123 (Diels-Kranz, I, B
of the rings may in turn be related to the kouretes, armed youths who danced and clashed
their arms to obscure the crying of the infant Zeus on Mt. Dicte. See M. L. West. The
Dictaean Hymn to the Kouros, in JHS, 85 (1965), 149-159. As West points out, the
kouretes are certainly nature-spirits ; when they dance in their armor the flowers bloom
(Orph. Hymns, 38, 13), they are ' (38, 14), , (38, 25). The armed dance is evidently of the apotropaic type identified by James
Frazer (The Golden Bough, 3rd d., London, 1913, IX, 234), and intended to promote
fertility and growth. See Martin Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its
in Greek Religion, 2nd d., Lund, 1950, 543-550. In the Dictaean Hymn, however,
the dancing of the kouretes is not merely (if at all) apotropaic ; by their leaping they
to urge the Great Kouros (Zeus) to spring up () for mankind in order that they
may enjoy the blessings that accompany his birth. The god is said to spring up
everywhere, in crops, beasts, men, even in enterprises. The Greek word is of course a
part of , leap, impregnate, related to , impregnate, and , . semen
(LSJ). The leaping kouretes thus symbolize and perhaps embody the fertilizing,
activity which the Great Kouros is called upon to perform. These nourishing
and sexual functions are suggestive of Eros, also a youthful god with associations
to vegetation divinity. If he is directly related to these young Cretan gods, however,
they have entered his line (or he theirs) after his origins, for Eros was not in the
a youth of any kind.
25 Hesiod Theogony, Oxford, 1966, 196. Ziegler, on "Theogonien" in Roscher.
thought Eros appears early in Hesiod because of the importance of the local Boeotian
cult (see above, p. 57, n. 3). Similarly, F. Jacoby [Hesiodstudien zur Thogonie, in
61 (1926), 166] argued against the assumption of any function for Eros in Hesiod.
The god is present simply because he was for the poet "ein heimischer Gott, so gut wie
die helikonischen Musen (und) wie die ". Mazon, on the other hand, in his
introduction to the Bud edition (Paris, 1928, 27), felt that Hesiod knew and meant to
suggest the ancient conception of Eros as mysterious generating force. Uvo Hlscher
[Anaximander und die Anfnge der Philosophie II. in Hermes, 81 (1953), 385-418]
asked why Hesiod should give such prominence to the god of a neighboring village
unless Eros's cosmogonical significance were already known to him. Paula Philippson.
[Gnalogie als mythische Form, in SO, Suppl. 7 (1936), 13] agreed that Hesiod has not
put Eros's significance into words, but feels that his name, his position in the genealogy
and his mastery all speak plainly.

64

W. M. CLARKE

12), Chronos produces Aether and the gulf of Chaos, and in Aether an
egg ; the egg breaks (its upper and lower halves forming Heaven and
Earth respectively, according to Athenagoras, Pro Christianis, 18 [DielsKranz, I, B 13]). From the egg Phanes is born, winged, beautiful,
selffertilizing. He is the ultimate creator and bears the first generation of
gods. To Kirk and Raven he is "an exclusive Orphic development ... of
the Hesiodic cosmogonical Eros" 26. In his Seven Recesses (),
Pherecydes of Syros described the origination of the world by Zeus,
Chronos and Chthonie27. According to Proclus, In Tim., 2,54 (Diehl),
Pherecydes had said that Zeus changed into Eros when he was about to
create ; having formed the cosmos from opposites ( ), he
brought it into agreement and love ( ) 28. Parmen ides of E lea apparently included a traditional cosmogony in the part
of his hexameter poem called The Way of Seeming29 ; the primacy of
Eros appears in the fragment, "(Birth) devised Eros first of all the
gods" 30. In the On Nature ( ), Empedocles of Acragas
describes two opposing motive forces which bring about the formation
and dissolution of all things from basic elements. The forces, of course,
are Love {) and Hate () 31. An unlikely philosopher appears
in the person of Aristophanes. The cosmogony in the Birds is doubtless a
parody, but as such it presents basic assumptions. Night, Chaos, Erebus
and Tartarus formed the beginning of things. Then Eros was born from
Night's cosmic egg ; he united {) all things, and produced Earth,
Ocean, Heaven and gods (693-703). In the speech assigned to Phaedrus
(Symp., 178a-b), Plato observes that the greatness of Eros is attested by
the fact that he is born without parents. Hesiod and Acusilaus of Argos
(who may have edited Hesiod before the Persian Wars) are cited for the
appearance of Eros with Earth and Chaos ; Phaedrus then quotes the
passages from Hesiod and Parmenides (see above, pp. 57, 64). In the
Metaphysics (984b), Aristotle says that Hesiod was the first to deal with

26 The Presocratic Philosophers, Cambridge 1957. 41, n. 3.

27 Id.. 48-72.
28 The details given by Proclus regarding formation from opposites, etc. are generally
treated as Stoic interpretation (cf. Kirk Raven, op. cit., 61), but the statement that
Zeus became Eros originates in Pherecydes.
29 Kirk-Raven, op. cit.. 263-285.
30 Diels-Kranz, I. B 13.
31 Kirk-Raven, op. cit.. 320-361, especially 326-331. Cf. Diels-Kranz, I, B 17, 7f.

THE GOD IN THE DEW

65

a causative principle ( ) called Eros, or Desire

32. Eros the unifer at the beginning of coherent creation is found
in Plutarch's Moralia (De fac, 926e-927a), where Empedocles, Parmenides and Hesiod are mentioned. Finally, Sextus Empiricus (Adv.
math.) summarizes the views of Hesiod, Parmenides, Empedocles, and
Aristotle, in all of whom Eros is the moving, unifying cause of existing
things ".
In the cosmogonical and philosophical tradition, then, Eros often
at the very beginning of creation, in some cases even of theogony,
since generation cannot proceed without him. In the Orphic material,
plausibly traced to the sixth century B. C, we possess our most detailed
development of these ideas 34. Let us examine that material more closely.
In the Orphic sequence, as we saw, Chronos produces Aether and the
yawning gulf of Chaos, and in Aether an egg. The egg splits, rending the
"misty gulf and the windless Aether" (Orph., fr. 72 Kern) and, in some
accounts, forming Heaven and Earth. Phanes now emerges from the egg,
a radiant, winged, bisexual being, the first of the gods. Like Eros in
Hesiod, he has appeared immediately after an initial separation. He then
creates Night and, along with her, subsequent gods who unite in turn
with the usual genealogy, Zeus is born. Now Zeus, in order to

32 After citing Parmenides for the same assumption of Love as first principle. Aristotle
misquotes Hesiod : ' , ,.
33 His role in creation is not unknown beyond the limits of the Greek tradition. "In
some earlier Vedic hymns Kama, love or desire, is personified and praised as the prime
mover of the universe, the impulse behind creation, i.e. existence" (Sukumari Bhattacharji. The Indian Theogony, A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the
Vedas to the Purnas, Cambridge, 1970, 107). An example is found in Rigveda, 10,
129 ; the hymn tells how nothing at all existed in the beginning except the One in utter
darkness, who then became Desire. The creation of the universe and the gods followed.
See Hindu Scriptures, trans, by R. C. Zhner. New York. 1966 ; cf. Atharva Veda. 3. 2.
5. i, ix. xii. xix. Other parallels with ancient non-Greek material will emerge in the
course of our investigation.
34 See above p. 63f. and W. K. C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion, London,
1952. The sources for the Orphic cosmogony are in the main the Neoplatonists of the
fourth through the sixth centuries A. D., especially Damascius, De principiis. These
writers depended in turn on summaries of Eudemus's peripatetic history of theology.
Fragments of late Orphic poetry confirm the Neoplatonist descriptions. Cf. Kirk-Raven.
op. cit.. 37-43. The age of the Orphic theology has been debated ; it may be as old as the
tenth century B. C, if. as A. B. Cook believed, it is the result of Greek "speculation
brought to bear on primitive Thracian-Phrygian beliefs" (op. cit.. II, 1021).

66

W. M. CLARKE

become supreme, swallows Phanes. "So then engulfing the might of

[Phanes] the first-born, [Zeus] held the body of all things in his hollow
belly, and he mingled with his own limbs the power and strength of the
god, and therefore with him [ = Phanes] all things came into being once
more within Zeus" (Orph., fr. 167 Kern) 3$. The age of this idea in the
Orphic theology is suggested by the fact that the swallowing of potent
material for purposes of creation is directly paralled in the Hittite epic in
which Kumarbi swallows the seed of the sky god Anu, and as a result
conceives gods in his stomach 36. Meanwhile, the Orphic egg can perhaps
be traced in Greek thought to the preclassical stages. It is attributed to
Epimenides of Crete, a seventh-century B. C. religious teacher and
miracle worker to whom tradition assigned a theogony 37. Indian
theological material provides striking parallels to the Orphic association
of egg and Eros. In the Laws of Manu 38 the divine Self-existent
desire. His desire produces an egg, and he himself is then born
from the egg as Brahman, the progenitor of all creation. The egg is also
found in Egyptian and Persian cosmogonies39.
If we now compare the Orphic cosmogony with the earliest Greek
"scientific" or rationalist theories of the universe, we will find that
Phanes-Eros possesses a startling parallel in them. In the sixth century
B. C. Thaes made water the beginning () and primary substance
in the generation of life40. Anaximander, the earliest of the
philosophers whose ideas we can grasp in any detail, taught that an

35 Proclus. In Tim.. 29a :

[ = Phanes]
') ]
' ,
.
In Pherecydes, too, Zeus became Eros in order to create (see above, p. 64). In Hesiod's
Theogony Zeus swallows his first wife Metis, assimilates her wisdom, and bears Athena
(886-926).
36 See J. B. Pritchard, d.. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old
Testament, Princeton, 1955, 120. For the similarity of pattern and details between the
Kumarbi myth and Hesiod's Theogony. see H. G. Guterbock, Kumarbi: Mythen vom
churritischen Kronos. Zurich, 1946.
37 Cf. Damascius, De principiis, 124 (Diels-Kranz, I B 5), and Kirk-Raven, op. cit..
44-46.
38 Translated by G. Buhler. Oxford, 1886, 2-5.
39 A. B. Cook, op. cit.. Il, 1021.
40 Cf. Diels-Kranz, II A 12, 13, 14. 15.

THE GOD IN THE DEW

67

unlimited, undifferentiated mass {) existed in the beginning, with a

productive nucleus or seed () which contained certain opposites
for example, heat and cold in a state of incomplete fusion. Heat
and cold then separated, and formed a cloud or mist, as wet and dry
likewise separated. From this moist element, living creatures arose41.
This theory may be compared with the Orphic system as follows :
Aether

Mass

t
(initial Egg
separation)

t
(initial differentiation)
Seed

Heaven

Earth

PHANES
\
Gods & Men

Heat'

Cold

MOISTURE
1
Living Creatures

We have examined the tradition that Eros must appear at the origins
of creation in order for creation to proceed. There are parallel traditions
older even than Thaes and Anaximander which attribute the same place
and function to moisture in a variety of forms 42. In the Babylonian
cosmogony of Enma EUS, the earliest state of the universe is a watery
chaos consisting of fresh and sea water, and mist43. According to
Genesis, 2, 4-7. "In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the
heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of
the field had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not caused it to rain
upon the earth ... a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole
face of the ground then the Lord God formed man ..." (RSV) 44.
41 Anaximander's theories are notoriously difficult to recover and understand ; many
particulars are still under debate. Kirk -Raven (op. cit., 99-142 and especially 131-133.
40) present the problems. The outline given here reflects interpretations accepted by
some scholars (cf. Cornford. in Kirk-Raven, be. cit.), but not all.
42 The primal water appears as a late feature in forms of the Orphic cosmogony,
probably intruded from Stoic theory in turn derived from the earlier Greek systems. Cf.
Kirk-Raven, op. cit., 43.
43 J. B. Pritchard, op. cit.. 60f. For water as the original principle in Iranian
religion, see L. Campbell. Mithraic Iconography and Ideology, Leiden, 1969, 80.
44 The word usually translated "mist" in Gen., 2, 6 is explained by E. A. Speiser as a

68

W. M. CLARKE

Homer himself calls Oceanus the origin of all things (//., XIV, 246 ; cf.
201). A remarkable Indian genesis unites the idea of primal water with a
cosmogonical system now familiar to us. In the Satapatha Brhmana 45 a
sea of water existed in the beginning. The water desired reproduction,
and a golden egg came into being from it which produced a child-like
being ; this being created the gods. In the Rigveda the child is said to be
"born as lord of all that is"46. In the Chhdogya-upanishad the egg
breaks, its halves forming Heaven and Earth, and its membrane
mist and clouds 47. In a parallel non-Greek tradition, preserved
in Greek literature, it is the primal mist that becomes first erotic and then
generative 48. The Phoenician cosmogony of Sanchuniathon, developed
perhaps in the mid-second millennium, told that the beginning of all
things was a murky chaos of dark mist, windy and boundless in age and
dimensions. This swirling element experienced a yearning and blending
and the name of this development was desire (). It was the
beginning of the creation of all things, for from it proceeded the first
chain of births and conceptions 49.
flow of water rising from an underground spring ; see his 'Ed in the story of creation, in
BASO. 140 (1955). 9-11. Cf. Koran, 24, 44 : "God created every beast from water ...'.
45 Translated by Julius Eggeling (Oxford. 1900), V, 12.
46 10.121.1, translated by Hermann Grassmann (Leipzig, 1877). ii, 398.
47 3. 1 9. If, translated by Swami Nikhilananda (New York, 1959), IV, 28 PhanesEros, the child born from the cosmic egg, has been described as synonymous in a certain
sense with the primal water. Kernyi says of him" "The two things, wingedness and
bisexuality, hark back to the same prehuman, indeed pre-childish, still completely undifferentiated state one of whose forms of expression is the primal water ... The
winged boy bestriding a dolphin and holding in his hand a strange beast like a cuttlefish
is none other than the Primordial Child whose home is the primal water, and the bestknown of whose many names is 'Eros'". (Jung-Kernyi, op. cit.. 55).
48 Eusebius (Praep. Evang., I, 10, If.) reports Philo of Byblos on Phoenician religion.
Philo claimed that his source was Sanchuniathon, a Phoenician who may have written a
cosmogony/ theogony drawing on material as old as the eighth century B. C, or older ;
Philo claimed pre-Trojan War sources for Sanchuniathon. See M. L. West. Hesiod
Theogony, 26. Cuneiform and Hebraic documents of the fourteenth century B.C. found at
Ras Shamra and elsewhere preserve mythological texts corresponding to Sanchuniathon
in several respects. But see Kirk -Raven, op. cit., 31, . 1 for reservations.
49 The myth was treated as perhaps tatamount to a theory of primal slime : Eusebius
continues, be . ,
,
. Interestingly, the account of Philo in Eusebius, like Hesiod's account of Eros in
the Theogony, contains only one other mention of . At Praep. Evang., I, 10, 25, the
Phoenician Astarte is said to bear two sons, and . Cf. Hesiod, Th., 201.

THE GOD IN THE DEW

69

In a number of cosmogonical traditions, then, desire is associated with

even synonymous with the primal moisture. Elsewhere, personified
desire occupies in theologies the same position given to moisture in the
rationalist creation systems. The primal moisture is sometimes described
as sea water (as it is in the Satapatha Brhmana), and in Homer it is the
river Oceanus that is the origin of all things. In some sources the primal
water is not further defined 50. In a number of instances, however, the
primal moisture takes the form of mist ; and in fact it is in this mist,
from which desire emerged in the ancient Phoenician cosmogony, that
we must look for Eros's origin51.
A close relationship of Eros with the primal moisture of the
is consistent with the lingering tradition of his association with
flowers and the garden : a god who nourishes vegetation, and nourishes
it in some liquid form 52. The key to the nature of that form is found in
the fact that a divinity whose identity originates in the generative power
of moisture appears personified as a tender youth, even as a child in his
latest manifestation. He is, in fact, the dew mysterious deposit of
droplets and literally the embodiment of mist, mist come to rest on the
thirsty earth, without apparent sources, suddenly sparkling on herbs and
plants in the first sunlight of morning. It is not surprising that the divine
dew should be personalized in the form of a tender youth, for the Greek
words for dew, and , are both used in antiquity to mean ten-

50 This is the case in the late Orphic accounts : see above, p. 67, n. 42.
51 The primal water also appears as mist in the system of Epimenides (see above, p.
66, n. 37). Even the water of Thaes has been called a primordial mist ; cf. A. T. E.
Olmstead. History of the Persian Empire: Achaemenid Period, Chicago, 1948. 211.
52 Scholars have sometimes supposed with Guthrie that Eros "is easily rationalized as
the rain which falls from heaven and fertilizes the earth or the more general 'moist
element' in which philosophers saw the origin of life" [The Religion and Mythology of the
Greeks, in CAH, fasc. 2 (Cambridge. 1961) 35f.]. Indeed, rain was often understood in
antiquity to be heaven's semen for earth, a notion which agrees with Eros's constant
sexuality (cf. Aeschylus, fr. 44 Nauck ; Pausanias, I, 24, 3 ; Lucretius, I, 250f. ;
Vergil, C II, 324-327). We have observed the forms taken by the primal moisture,
however, and rain is not among them. There is some logic in this. Men of the ancient
Mediterranean world must have realized early that rain falls from clouds in heaven.
Without the prior existence of these sources there can be, and is, no rain. Mist, on the
contrary, appears to arise spontaneously, often in the dark of night and without visible
sources. Like the eternal sea, it is an understandable form for water to take at the
of creation. Rain does not have the nature of an original, but is obviously derived
elsewhere.

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W. M. CLARKE

der young creatures as well as the characteristic droplets of water53. Nor

should we be surprised that the divinity who is in origin the dew is also
the oldest of the gods of sexual love. The obvious analogy of water and
seminal fluid, particularly of water in droplet form, must have reinforced
in early man his sense of the importance of water in the preservation and
continuation of life 54. We have mentioned the representation of rain as
seminal fluid. Dew is also found associated with fecundity and
regeneration in a surprising number of widely differing cultures. In the
Greek, Homer speaks of wheat ripening with dew on the ears (//., XXIII,
598f.) 5S, and of Ithaca, where wheat and the grape are beyond
and rain and abundant dew never fail (Od., XIII, 244f.) 56. In
the fame of glorious deeds increases just as a tree grows under
refreshing dews (Nem., 8,40) 57. The semen of Hephaestus is called dew
by Nonnus (XLI, 64, ) 58. A vividly erotic poem in
53 Cf. Aeschylus, #., 141 ; Callimachus, Hec, fr. 260, 19 Pfeiffer ; Homer, Od.,
IX, 222. Hesychius has , and oi ,
xai ... .
54 "At least from the time of Aristotle men supposed Homer and Thaes to have got
their notion that all things originated in water because of the analogy of water and
seminal fluid" (E. R. Goodenough, op. cit., VI, 43). Aristotle in fact says that Thaes
chose water because the nutriment and seed of everything is moist (Met.. 983b). For the
liquidity of Eros and sexual love, cf. Alcman, fr. 36 Bergk4, Anacreon, fr. 169 Bergk4,
Plato, Symp., 196a and Phdr., 251. In a famous figure, Eros drips desire from his eyes
in Euripides, Hipp., 525f. ; but already in Hesiod, Th., 910, Eros unpersonified flows
from the eyes of the Graces ( xai ).
55


, .
See the discussion in R. . Onians, The Origins of European Thought about the Body,
the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate, Cambridge, 1951, 30, 46f.
56
yap oi ,
' ' ' .
57 ' , . . .
58 We have already seen that archaeologists know the remains of only one shrine of
Eros, and there he was evidently worshipped as a vegetation divinity (see above, p. 61).
Walter Burkert [Kekropidensage und Arrhephoria, in Hermes, 94 (1966), 1-25] has
now offered evidence that the rites of the Arrhephoroi, associated with this shrine, were
not only aimed at the fertility of the earth, but also formed rites of initiation of young
girls. The Arrhephoroi, he believes, reenacted the myth of the daughters of Cecrops and
their discovery of the infant Erichthonius. Erichthonius was conceived in earth from the
fallen semen of Hephaestus. Burkert believes that semen, under its euphemism, dew
(), lies etymological ly behind the meaning of - . If he is right, then dew as

THE GOD IN THE DEW

71

the Latin Anthology, describing sexual intercourse in largely agricultural

metaphors, uses the word dew for semen 59. In the Hebrew scriptures dew
is associated with youth, and is a sign of resurrected life 60. In the
Kaballah the dew of the deity's head is capable of restoring the dead 61.
In rabbinic tradition, the lower spine survives in the grave ; when the
dew falls upon it, it will become a complete and living body ". In LaoTsu dew signifies the union of heaven and earth, and even in North
American Indian legends dew is associated with fecundity ".
Finally, Eros may disclose his original nature to us in his name. The
relation of sexual potency to water in general and dew in particular is
reflected in the etymological relationship of a number of words in Greek
and Sanskrit, among other languages. Thus it is widely agreed that there
is etymological connection between Gr. , , 'male', -,
etc., 'disgorge, pour forth', Skt. rati, 'flow', r^abhh, 'bull', etc. M.
Likewise, related to each other (though probably not to thelparv-rati
group65) are , , 'dew', varsm, 'rain', vpsan, 'male' (i.e. emitsemen played a part in rites conducted within an actual shrine of Eros, the divine dew
personified. This etymology has been suggested before, however, and is not the only one
to have been proposed. Cf. L. A. Deubner, Attische Feste, Berlin, 1932, 9-17, for
discussion and the suggestion that we should interpret - ("unspeakables", "sacred
things") .
59 Anth. hat., 1, 2, 176 :
... Thrysumque pangant hortulo cupidinis
arentque sulcos molles arvo venerio,
dent crebros ictus t conhibente t lumine
trpidante cursu venae et anima fessula
eiaculent tepidum rorem niveis laticibus.
60 Psalms, 110, 3; Isaiah, 26, 19, cf. Psalms, 133, 3. Death in the Scriptures is
typically characterized as dry (cf. Ezekial, 37, Iff.).
61 The Kaballah Unveiled, translated by S. L. M. Mathers, Hebrew Literature rev.
d., New York, 1901, 305.
62 K. Kohler. Jewish Theology Systematically and Historically Considered, New
York, 1918, 288.
63 Cf. J. Chevalier - A. Gheerbrant edd.. Dictionnaire des Symboles, Paris, 1969,
. rose.
64 Cf. . Boisacq, Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue grecque 3rd d., Paris,
1938, 284 ; A. Walde, Lateinisches etymologisches Wrterbuch, d. by J. B. Hofmann,
Heidelberg, 1954, ii 442f. ; J. Pokorny, Indogermanishes etymologisches Wrterbuch,
Munich, 1959, i, 336.
65 For possible relationships between the two groups, however, see H. Pedersen,
Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen, Gottingen,"1908-1913, I, 176; L.
Meyer, Handbuch der griechischen Etymologie, Leipzig, 1901-1902, ii, 172.

72

W. M. CLARKE

ting semen), etc. 66. Now in terms of the laryngeal theory, and the theory
of states of the root as developed notably by Benveniste 67, a root *Eercan be assumed which, with an s-suffix, will give , rsati, rsabhh,
etc. ')- may derive from this root with an -colored laryngeal
suffix and s-enlargement (i.e. *Er-eA-s-) 68. A different state of this
root will give Greek (EroAs) and Latin ros, 'dew' 69. The relation of
these words to is difficult, but the latter may represent the root
without s-enlargement (i.e. *EerA-) 70. As often happens to athematic
verbs in Greek, was later transferred to the thematic declension,
giving , 'love', the usual form in prose. This explanation of is
admittedly far from certain, depending as it does on a mere root
At the same time, no other etymology for and has won
general acceptance, despite numerous suggestions 71. The etymology
suggested in the present study is at least possible.
Did Hesiod know who Eros was in the beginning? The cosmogony in
his Theogony makes no mention of a primal moisture ; it is a notable
66 Boisacq, loc. cit. ; Pokorny, op. cit., I, 81 ; H. Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches
Wrterbuch, I, (Heidelberg, 1960), 566.
67 E. Benveniste, Origines de la formation des noms en Indo-europen, Paris, 1935,
I, 147 ff.
68 Cf. E. Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik, Munich, 1939, I, 686. Or is it from
*EreA-y?
69 On A exercising no effect other than lengthening on neighboring o, and a prothetic
vowel, , given in Greek by the vocalized laryngeal in a resonant environment, see W.
Cowgill, Evidence for laryngeals in Greek, in Evidence for Laryngeals, ed. by W.
(Austin, I960), 97 n. 2, 104-108, 110. In Latin disappears without effect in this
environment. will thus be an o-grade root noun ; for the change to a t-inflection
(, etc.) cf. . In the thematic form , typically confined to epic and lyric
usage, , according to Boisacq (op. cit.. 270), "a pass dans la flexion des th. en -o(cf. horn. *. For possible reasons for the transfer to a thematic form, see
Schwyzer, op. cit., I, 514.
70 It might be assumed that (attested chiefly in poetry) is merely an Aeolic
athematic form, secondary to the contract , 'love', and thus also derived from
*EerAs. Cf. A. Thumb-. Scherer, Handbuch der griechischen Dialekte, 2nd d.,
Heidelberg, 1959, II, 2. The adjective , 'beloved', however, indicates that the
original form of this verb did not have an s. The s in , 'beloved' (the usual form
in prose), is a widely attested secondary development in Greek ; cf. P. Chantraine.
Morphologie historique du grec, 2nd d., Paris, 1961, 325.
71 Of and Frisk (op. cit., 547) writes, "Ohne Etymologie". Boisacq (op.
cit., 270) likewise says of them, "Parent incertaine" ; he lists a number of the proposals
made by linguists in the past. They do not include the proposal offered here.

THE GOD IN THE DEW

73

omission 72. Only "misty" appears, the adjective defining Tartarus. Yet
in the very next verse the words "and Eros" sound as a near-perfect
echo of the word "misty" ; and it may be that the primal moisture is
present in Hesiod's cosmogony, his original nature hinted in this
echo and confirmed by his place and function at the beginning of
creation :
' ,
' .
Louisiana State University

W. M. Clarke.

72 "With the exception of '... the cosmic figures involved are all to be found in the
Hesiodic cosmogony proper ; and ', implying mist and darkness rather than the
transparent stuff that we call 'air', is an essential element of the Hesiodic description
although it does not achieve personification" (Kirk -Raven, op. cit., 22).