COMENIUS PROJECT PHILOSOPHY

The Babylonyan myth: Enuma Elish

“…alone their ancestor Apsù the progenitor, and mother Tiamat, their genitrix, mixed together their waters…” [Enuma Elish] The Babylonian epic of creation XVIII b.C. All the Gods, the Cosmos and men originated from the mixture of Apsù, the primordial fresh waters, and Tiamat, salt waters.

The Biblical Story of Creation

“And the earth was waste and without form; and it was dark on the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters” [Genesis 1:2] In the beginning God created the Earth as a shapeless mass covered with water and darkness. God spoke and the waters retreated bringing out the mountains and valleys. Ebraic tradition 18th century b.C.

Esiod’s Theogony

“...and Tethys bare to Oceanus the turbulent rivers and she brought forth the Okeanides, of which there are thousands...” [Esiod’s theogony] In the beginning from the union of Oceanus, the generating power of waters, and Tethys dweller of the sea depths, the rivers, the springs and all the waters were generated.

Thales and the search for “Archè”

“Water is the essential element of things” [Aristotele, Metaphysics 1] Where there is water, there is life. Therefore water is the origin of all things, it is the substance from which all things are born and to which all things will return.

Anaximenes: Air

Pànta Rhei (Everything flows) Ephesus VI – V Century b.C. … Fifty years later

“We step and do not step into the same rivers, we are and are not” [Heraclitus, Fragments of the River] Everything flows like the water of the river, becoming is the law of the universe.The perpetual flow of things and the universal becoming originate from harmony of opposites.

Heraclitus