InGreek mythology,Aether,Æther,Aither, orEther (/ˈiːθər/;Ancient Greek:Αἰθήρ (Brightness)[2]pronounced[ai̯tʰɛ̌ːr]) is the personification of the bright upper sky. According toHesiod, he was the son ofErebus (Darkness) andNyx (Night), and the brother ofHemera (Day).[3] In Orphic cosmogony, Aether was the offspring ofChronos (Time) and the brother ofChaos and Erebus.[4]
According toHesiod'sTheogony, which contained the "standard" Greek genealogy of the gods,[5] Aether was the offspring ofErebus andNyx, and the brother ofHemera.[6] However, other early sources give other genealogies. According to one, the union of Erebus and Nyx resulted in Aether,Eros, andMetis (rather than Aether and Hemera), while according to another, Aether and Nyx were the parents of Eros (in Hesiod, the fourth god to come into existence after Chaos,Gaia (Earth), andTartarus).[7] Others tell us thatUranus (Sky) (in Hesiod, the son ofGaia) was Aether's son, and that "everything came from" Aether.[8]
In Orphic cosmogony Aether was the offspring ofChronus (Time), the first primordial deity, and the brother of Chaos and Erebus. And made from (or placed in) Aether was thecosmic egg, from which hatchedPhanes/Protogonus, so Aether was sometimes said to be his father.[9] TheOrphic Argonautica gives a theogony that begins with Chaos and Chronus, and has Chronus producing Aether and Eros.[10]
Aether also played a role in Roman genealogies of the gods.Cicero says that Aether andDies (Day) were the parents ofCaelus (Sky),[11] and reports that according to the "so called theologians" Aether was the father of one of the "three Jupiters".[12] According toHyginus's (possibly confused)[13] genealogy, Nox (Night), Dies, Erebus, and Aether were the offspring of Chaos and Caligo (Mist), and Aether and Dies were the parents ofTerra (Earth),Caelus (Sky) and Mare (Sea),[14] and Aether and Terra were the parents of:
For the ancient Greeks, the word aether (unpersonified), referred to the upper atmosphere, a material element of the cosmos.[16] For example, Homer has Sleep climb:
a fir-tree exceeding tall, the highest that then grew in Ida; and it reached up through the mists into heaven [aether].[17]
However, Aether (personified) figured prominently in early Greek cosmogony.[18] InHesiod'sTheogony, Chaos was the first being after which cameGaia (Earth),Tartarus, andEros, then from Chaos cameErebus (Darkness) andNyx (Night), and from Erebus and Nyx came Aether and Hemera (Day):[19]
From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebus.[20]
According to a fragment of Hesiod, by his sister Hemera he is the father of a figure named Brotus.[21] Aether perhaps also figured in the lost epic poem theTitanomachy (late seventh century BC?).[22] Two ancient sources report statements about Aether, which they attribute to the "author of theTitanomachy". TheHomeric Parsings (from Methodius), reports that Uranus was Aether's son,[23] whilePhilodemus, in hisDe Pietate (On Piety), reports that "everything came from Aither".[24]
Aether played a significant role in Orphic cosmogony.[28] There are a large number of ancient texts which have been called "Orphic", a few are extant, such as theOrphic Hymns, but most are not.[29] Several important Orphic texts, which exist now only in fragments, have been called theogonies, since they contained material, similar to Hesiod'sTheogony, which described the origin of the gods. At least three of these, the so-called "Derveni Theogony", the "Hieronyman Theogony", and the "Rhapsodic Theogony" or Rhapsodies,[30] contained references to Aether the personification as well as aether the material element.
The oldest of these theogonies, the Derveni Theogony, is a text which is extensively quoted in theDerveni papyrus (fourth century BC).[31] One of these quotes contains a reference to aether the material element:[32]
When Zeus had heard the prophecies from his father, he swallowed the revered one [or phallus], who [or which] sprang forth first into the aither [or who first ejaculated aither].[33]
Also possibly from the Derveni Theogony is the idea, from a fragment ofChrysippus (preserved inPhilodemus,De Pietate (On Piety)), that "everywhere is aither, which itself is both father and son".[34]
The early 6th-centuryNeoplatonistDamascius, in hisDe principiis (On First Principles) comments on an Orphic text, which he describes as "under the names of Hieronymus and Hellanicus, if indeed this is not the same".[35] This text is called the "Hieronyman Theogony" (second century BC).[36] Damascius says that the Hieronyman Theogony had "serpent Time" as the father of three offspring, "moist Aether", "limitless Chaos" and "misty Erebos".[37]
Also in hisDe principiis,Damascius briefly summarizes the "standard Orphic theology" as found in another text, which he refers to as "these OrphicRhapsodies currently circulating".[38] According to Damascius, the Rhapsodies (first century BC/AD?),[39] began with Chronus from which came two offspring, Aether and Chaos:[40]
the theology in theRhapsodies, ... starts from ... "ageless Time" and father of Aether and Chaos which is honored most in that account.[41]
The 5th-century GreekNeoplatonistProclus, in hisCommentary on Plato's Republic, quotes the following verses from the Rhapsodies:
This Time unaging, of immortal resource, begot Aither and a great Chasm, vast this way and that, no limit below it, no base, no place to settle.[42]
Here Chasm is another name for Chaos.[43] In another passage from theDe principiis, Damascius quotes other verses from the Rhapsodies:
Then great Time fashioned from (or in) divine Aither a bright white egg.[44]
While Proclus, in hisCommentary on Plato's Timaeus, describes the Orphic cosmic egg as "born from Aither and Chaos",[45] and calls Phanes the "son of Aither".[46] Proclus also says that, when Phanes hatched from the cosmic egg, Aether and Chasm were split.[47]
Aether, the material element is also mentioned twice in a thirty-two line hymn-like passage to Zeus which was apparently part of the Rhapsodies in which various parts of the physical cosmos are associated with parts of Zeus' body.[48] Line 8 lists things contained in Zeus' body:
fire and water and earth and air [aether], night and day,[49]
while line 17 says:
his [Zeus'] truthful, royal mind is imperishable aither.[50]
Also possibly drawn from the Rhapsodies is an account of the creation of the world attributed to "Orpheus" by the sixth century AD chronographerJohn Malalas:[51]
This is what Orpheus stated. He said that at the beginning Aither was revealed to Time, having been created by God, and there was Chaos on this side of Aither, and on that, while dark Night held everything and covered what was under Aither, signifying that Night came first. Orpheus said in his account that there was a certain Being who was incomprehensible, supreme over all, before all, and the creator of all things, including the Aither itself and Night and the whole creation that was concealed and was beneath the Aither. He said that the Earth was invisible beneath the darkness. He declared that Light broke through the Aither and illuminated the Earth and all creation, saying that the Light which broke through the Aither was that being mentioned above, that was supreme over all things, whose name Orpheus heard from the oracle and declared: "Metis, Phanes, Erikepaios".[52]
Another Orphic verse fragment, also possibly from the Rhapsodies, is quoted in theEtymologicum Magnum's entry on the name Phanes:[53]
they call him Phanes and Protogonus because he became the first one visible (φαντός) in Aither.[54]
TheOrphic Hymns (2nd or 3rd centuries AD?) are a collection of eighty-seven poems addressed to various deities or abstractions.[55] The fifthOrphic Hymn, which prescribes an offering of saffron,[56] addresses Aether as follows:
Yours are Zeus' lofty dwelling, endless power too; of the stars, of the sun, and of the moon you claim a share. O tamer of all, O fire-breather, O life's spark for every creature, sublime Ether, best cosmic element, radiant, luminous, starlit offspring, I call upon you and I beseech you to be temperate and clear.[57]
^Hyginus,Fabulae Theogony 3 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95). Hyginus's genealogy is very different from that given in Hesiod'sTheogony, where Tartarus is the third primal deity after Chaos and Gaia (116–122);Uranus (Sky) andPontus (Sea) were the offspring of Gaia (Earth) alone (126–132); Ocean (Oceanus), Themis, Hyperion, Saturn (Cronus), and Ops (Rhea) are five of the twelveTitans, Briareus and Gyges are two of the threeHundred-Handers, and Steropes was one of the threeCyclopes, who were all the offspring of Gaia and Uranus (132–153); Atlas was the offspring of theTitansIapetus andClymene (507–509); the Furies (Erinyes) are the offspring of Gaia and Uranus' blood (185). In addition the abstract personifications Pain, Deception, Anger, Mourning, Lying, Oath, Vengeance, Self-indulgence, Quarreling, Forgetfullness, Sloth, Fear, Arrogance, Incest, and Fighting, are similar to the personifications, in theTheogony, who are the children of Nyx (211–225, e.g.Oizys (Distress), andApate (Deceit)) orEris (226–232, e.g.Algea (Pains), Pseudea (Lies),Horkos (Oath),Neikea (Disputes),Lethe (Forgetfulness),Hysminai (Combats), andMakhai (Battles)).
^West 2002, p. 109 says that theTitanomachy was "composed in the late seventh century at the earliest".
^Gantz, p. 12; Grimal, s.v. Uranus; Eumelus fr. 1 (West 2003,pp. 222–225); compareCallimachus,fr. 498. According to Grimal the mother was "doubtless" Hemera, compare withCicero,De Natura Deorum3.44, which has Aether and Dies as the parents ofCaelus (Sky).
^West 1983, pp. 1–3; Meisner,pp. 4–5; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. xi.
^West 1983, pp. 68–69; Meisner,p. 1; Athanassakis and Wolkow, pp. xi–xii.
^West 1983, pp. 75–77; Meisner,p. 1; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. xi. For discussions of the Derveni papyrus and theogony see West 1983, Chapter 3: "The Protogonos and Derveni Theogonies" (pp. 68–115); Meisner, Chapter 2: "The Derveni Papyrus" (pp. 51–85)
^Meisner,p. 1. For discussions of the Hieronyman Theogony, see West 1983, Chapter 4: "The Hieronyman Theogony" (pp. 176–226); Meisner, Chapter 4: "The Hieronyman Theogony" (pp. 119–157). For Damascius' entire account of the Hieronyman Theogony, seeDe principiis 123.31–80 (White,pp. 232–237) [= Orphicfr. 54 Kern.
^Damascius,De principiis 123.56–58 (White,pp. 234, 235) West 1983, p. 198. Although Meisner, p. 144, reads Damascius as saying that "Chronos mates with Necessity" (Ananke), "who gives birth to Aither, Chaos, and Erebus", West 1983, pp. 198–199, argues against such a reading, saying "Although Chronos and Ananke make a well-matched male and female pair, the sources agree in speaking of Chronos alone as parent."
^West 1983, p. 198; Meisner, p. 189;Damascius,De principiis 55] [= Orphicfr. 70 Kern.
^West 1983, p. 200;Proclus,Commentary on Plato's Timaeus 30 c, d (I 427, 20 Diehl)] [= Orphicfr. 79 Kern.
^West 1983, p. 200;Proclus,Commentary on Plato's Timaeus 31 a (I 433, 31 Diehl)] [= Orphicfr. 74 Kern; so also Orphicfr. 73 Kern [=Lactantius,Divine Institutes I, 5, 4–6 p. 13, 13 Brandt.]. However, concerning these passages of Proclus, West 1983, p. 200, cautions: "We must be ... prepared not to attach too literal a sense to Proclus' description of the egg as 'born from Aither and Chaos' (fr. 79), or to verses in which Protogonos, who came from the egg, is styled 'son of Aither' (frr. 73, 74). It seems clear that Aither was not represented as a person, only as a material element."
^West 1983, pp. 70, 203; Gantz, p. 742;Proclus,Commentary on Plato's Republic 2.138.18 Kroll] [= Orphicfr. 72 Kern.
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