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Derveni Papyrus

This ancient Greek scroll was found in 1862. In it is a commentary on an Orphic poem that tells a theogony on the birth of the gods.


Like most of the Orphic theogonies, Nyx is given a role of importance and she is identified as the mother of Ouranos.

"Until 1982 we had only the evidence from later Orphic theogonies, but the publication of the Derveni papyrus has not only given us access to what is probably the earliest theogony, but also provided us with hard with which we can judge later theogonies. For example, it is now clear that the earliest theogony started with Night, since the papyrus mentions 'Night-born heaven, who was the first king' (X.6)."


It is further established that she was an oracle after her reign.

"As the commentator presents it, the poem begins by describing the establishment of the power of Zeus: obeying oracles probably pronounced by Night, the god receives force and the glorious 'demon' from his father."


Her advice to Zeus is also backed up.

"Although the particular formulation of the question appears late, columns X-XII in the Derveni papyrus do preserve portions of Night's prophetic directives to Zeus concerning his creation and subsequent reign."


In Col. XIV Nyx was mentioned as the mother of Ouranos through the poem the Derveni papyrus is focused around.

"... when (?) separated from itself it leaps forth into the brightest and the whitest (aether). He says that this Kronos was born to earth from the sun because he was the cause via the sun that they were struck (krouesthal) against one another. For this reason he says,

(He) who did the great deed.

And the verse after this,

Ouranos son of Night, who ruled first of all:

naming the Mind that strikes things against each other Kronos, he says that it did a great deed to Ouranos; for (he says that) he was deprived of his kingdom."





Book sources:
The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife: The 1995 Read-Tuckwell Lectures at the University of Bristol. Jan Bremmer. Routledge. 2002.
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, C. C. W. Taylor. Oxford University Press. 1999.
Studies on the Derveni Papyrus. Andr� Laks, Glenn W. Most. Oxford University Press. 1997.



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