Archive of December, 2008

being then was not

One of the literary derivatives of the riddle deserves particular attention because it shows the connection between the sacred and the ludic in a very striking manner. This is the philosophical or theological interrogative discourse. The theme is always the same: a sage is questioned by another sage or a number of sages.

Being then was not, nor not-being. The air was not, nor the sky above it. What kept closing in Where? And whose the enclosure? And was the plunging abyss all water? / Death then was not, nort not-death; and there was no distinction between day and night. Nothing breathed save That, windlessly of itself; there was nothing beyond That anywhere.

Filed: patterns, ideas, place, illusions, nature, names, creation
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