Since the beginning of time people have racked their brains trying to figure out just what the hell heaven and earth truly is. Many held a worldview of three layers consisting of heaven, earth, and the underworld. They understood that the ‘universe’ was created and not the product of time, chance, and happenstance. The idea of everything coming from nothing in a ‘big bang’ was a foreign abstraction for these ancient philosophers; they had more common sense than we do today.
The common denominator among all these ancient cosmologies is the concept of the ‘cosmic egg’ or a ‘universal womb’ in which -the entire universe as we know it- is contained therein. We do call our home “Mother Earth” after all, which makes sense since our world is imbued with these feminine qualities. If God takes the masculine form it only goes to serve that His creation will have female aspects to balance it out.
We typically believe the ancients thought that the Earth was flat. However that may have been a more recent distraction to dissuade us from investigating the true nature of Heaven and Earth. It’s sort of a false dichotomy. We’re forced to believe Earth is a convex ball because the only other option is a flat plane, and so many people are understandably put off by the topic so never investigate.
What if these ancient cosmologists had a model of heaven and earth that actually worked and it’s been swept under the cosmic rug?
Babylonian | Sumerian | Mesopotamian
The Sumerians believed that in the beginning there was only the primeval sea, which they called Nammu (“Mankind’s Mother”). Nammu gave birth to An (“Heaven”) and Ki (“Earth”). It was the union of An and Ki, “heaven” and “earth”,
https://lost-history.com/apocrypha2.html
Notice how over time the symbols for Heaven and Earth become corrupted. Heaven is central, Earth is circumferential.
𒀭 Anu (Akkadian: “Sky”, “Heaven”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu
𒆠Ki was the earth goddess in Sumerian religion, chief consort of the sky god An.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ki_(goddess)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishar
This tablet contains both a cuneiform inscription and a unique map of the Mesopotamian world. Babylon is shown in the centre (the rectangle in the top half of the circle), and Assyria, Elam, and other places are also named. The central area is ringed by a circular waterway labelled ‘Salt-Sea’.
https://smarthistory.org/map-of-the-world/
Orphic Cosmogony (Greece)
In Orphic cosmogony, the universe is born from a cosmic egg, which has always been the central symbol of creation.
“Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.” (Hesiod, Theogony, 116-122)
“To Gaia (Earth), the Mother of All: O universal mother, Gaia, firmly founded, the oldest of all beings, I venerate you, who nourishes all that is in the world.” (Orphic Hymn 26 to Earth)
“In the beginning, there was the primordial Chaos, a void. From this, an egg formed, produced by the union of Chronos (Time) and Ananke (Necessity). From the egg, Phanes (also known as Protogonos), the first-born deity of light, emerged, who then created the world.” (Orphic fragments)
This description from Orphic tradition uses the egg to symbolize the birth of the cosmos, with the Earth and heavens forming as parts of this creation process.
Atlas, the Titan Who Held the Celestial Sphere (not the World) upon his Shoulders [common misinterpretation]
^A black-figure Lakonian kylix, c. 570-560 BCE, depicting the Titans Atlas carrying the heavens on his shoulders and Prometheus being tormented by an eagle sent by Zeus to eat his liver as punishment for giving mankind the gift of fire, stolen from Hephaistos. (Gregoriano Etrusco Museum, Vatican).
The Shape of the Earth in Archelaus, Democritus and Leucippus, Hyperboreus’
“As to the argumentum ex silentio, the best effort to answer it has been undertaken by Walter Burkert. He pointed to the implications of the notion of the earth’s sphericity in Hippocratus of Chios (c. 430 B. C.) and Empedocles. Nevertheless these implications are not clear enough to bring an end to the old controversy. I adduce here a testimony which, when combined with another text, makes already Anaxagoras argue against the sphericity of the earth.
I will cite first a well known text from the De Caelo. Aristotle says a propos the shape of the earth: “Some think it spherical, others flat and shaped like a drum. These latter adduce as evidence the fact that the sun at its setting and rising shows a straight instead of a curved line where it is cut off from view by the horizon, whereas were the earth spherical, the line of section would necessarily be curved” (293 b 24 sqg.; Guthrie’s translation).
Aristotle does not specify the thinkers who employ such a consideration. Somewhat later, he presents, however, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras and Democritus as the opponents of the sphericity of the earth (294 b 14 sqq.). A testimony from Martianus Capella, overlooked by scholars’, lets us conclude that the argument mentioned by Aristotle was used – and apparently introduced – by Anaxagoras.
The text runs as follows:
Formam totius terrae non planam, ut aestimant, positioni qui cam disci diffusioris assimulant, neque concavam … sed quoniam posterior assertio mage despicabilis opinationis cassae vilitate tenuatur, illam priorem, cui etiam physicus Anaxagoras accessit, praestat exigere, quamvis nonnullas credatur astruere rationes; quippe dicit planam terram ortu occasuve solis aut lunae perspicue comprobari, qui, mox primi luminis fulgor emerserit, confestim ad obtutus nostros directis lineis diriguntur, quod magis indubitabilis probamenti fiet, si in litore consistentes obstacula montium relinquamus (6. 590-592).
“Then Geometry will answer that) the earth is not flat, as they who compare it to a vast disk say; nor concave… The latter theory is more absurd than the former, and it is vitiated because it is based on a worthless, unfounded conjecture. Accordingly it is more profitable to examine the first theory, which even the physicist Anaxagoras held – though indeed he is believed to have provided some proofs for it. He says that the fact that the earth is flat is clearly proved by the rising and settings of the sun or of the moon, which come into view immediately as soon as the first rays emerge and travel in a straight line to the eye. This phenomenon is even more striking as proof if we leave the mountainous regions where our view is blocked and stand on the seashore” (transl. by Gershenson and Greenberg).
It seems that Martianus Capella refers only a part of Anaxagoras’ argument and not without confusion’. Be that as it may, the key reference to the risings and settings of the sun (and the moon) makes his text clearly parallel to the Aristotelian passage. One has to press this parallelism because the Latin author does not say that Anaxagoras’ argument for the flat earth was directed against the doctrine of its sphericity. However, it is very hard to imagine Anaxagoras (or any one) proving that the earth is flat unless he was arguing against the opposite view. Even taken alone, Capella’s testimony makes plausible what in combination with the De Caelo passage it makes certain: already Anaxagoras was familiar with the idea of the earth’s sphericity.
Dmitri Panchenko – University of Konstanz
‘The Shape of the Earth in Archelaus, Democritus and Leucippus, Hyperboreus’ (1999)
http://bibliotheca-classica.org/sites/default/files/panchenko_3.pdf
http://bibliotheca-classica.org/sites/default/files/panchenko_5.pdf
https://ia803409.us.archive.org/0/items/philosophyofanax031770mbp/philosophyofanax031770mbp.pdf
^Fish think water is their whole universe. We kinda do the opposite. We assume we are whirling through space at a zillion miles an hour. I promise you it’s the sky that moves not us. Bill Nye is right; Earth is an enclosed system.
“Water is the first principle of everything”
“Isolate yourself in your inner world and reflect on the system of the universe”
“God is the most ancient of all things, for he had no birth”
-Thales of Miletus (born c. 624–620 B.C.)
“Some say that [the earth] rests on water. This in fact is the oldest view that has been transmitted to us, and they say that it was advanced by Thales of Miletus who thought that the earth rests because it can float like a log or something else of that sort (for none of these things can rest on air, but they can rest on water) — as though the same must not hold of the water supporting the earth as holds of the earth itself.”
(Aristotle, On the Heavens 294a28)
Plato
Plato knew that Earth is stationary and that we live not on it, but in it. (my notes here in parentheses)
“For inasmuch as the whole Heaven is spherical, all its outermost parts,
being equally distant from the center, must really be “outermost” in a similar degree; and one
must conceive of the center, which is distant from all the outermost parts by the same
measures, as being opposite to them all.” (Timaeus) (He’s describing a Heaven/Cosmos that takes the form of a sphere, not never ending space that goes on forever)
“And when God had made the bodies of each of them He placed them in the
orbits along which the revolution of the Other was moving, seven orbits for the seven
bodies.29 [38d] The Moon He placed in the first circle around the Earth, the Sun in the second
above the Earth; and the Morning Star30 and the Star called Sacred to Hermes He placed in
those circles which move in an orbit equal to the Sun in velocity,” (Timaeus) (He’s describing concentric spheres in which the planets inhabit, just like Babylonian cosmology, the Book of Enoch, etc. He says it’s the cosmos that moves, not Earth)
“in that circle which is second from the earth God kindled a
light which now we call the Sun, to the end that it might shine, so far as possible, throughout
the whole Heaven,”(Timaeus) (How can the Sun shine thought the whole Heaven, if it’s just in our solar system?)
“For inasmuch as the whole Heaven is spherical, all its outermost parts,
being equally distant from the center” …..For its central region cannot rightly
be termed either “above” or “below,” but just “central”; while its circumference neither is
central nor has it any one part more divergent than another from the center or any of its
opposite parts. But to that which is in all ways uniform” (Timaeus) (describing a spherical, central cosmos)
“Further, as concerns the motions, the best motion of a body is that caused by itself in
itself; for this is most nearly akin to the motion of intelligence and the motion of the Universe. …..And the way of tendance of every part by every man is one—namely, to supply each with its own
congenial food and motion; and for the divine part within us the congenial motions [90d] are
the intellections and revolutions of the Universe.” (Timaeus) (revolutions, motions, intelligence of the Universe)
Footnotes from the translator:
32 I.e., a planet moving along the Ecliptic from W. to E. is at the same time drawn from E. to W. (in the plane of
the Equator) by the regular motion of the sphere of the fixed stars (the circle of “the same” which moves at a
higher velocity than that of “the other”). 37 I.e., the fixed stars, and their sphere which moves with the daily rotation of the spherical Cosmos (the motion proper to “intelligence,” Cf. 36 C, Cratyl. 411 D).
40 I.e. (1) the rotation of the star on its own axis; (2) the diurnal revolution of the sphere of fixed stars.
42 The Word εἴλλεσθαι (or ἴλλεσθαι) is taken by some to imply “oscillation” or “rotation” (Cf. Aristot.De caeloii. 293 b 30); but it seems best to suppose that Plato is here regarding the Earth as stationary. Her potential motion(we may assume) is equal and opposite to that of the Universe, of which she is the center, and by thus neutralizing it she remains at rest.
“For inasmuch as the whole Heaven is spherical, all its outermost parts,
being equally distant from the center, must really be “outermost” in a similar degree; and one
must conceive of the center, which is distant from all the outermost parts by the same
measures, as being opposite to them all.”(Timaeus)
“..For its central region cannot rightly
be termed either “above” or “below,” but just “central”; while its circumference neither is
central nor has it any one part more divergent than another from the center or any of its
opposite parts. But to that which is in all ways uniform.” (Timaeus)
“This being so, we have to go on to speak about what comes next. When the maker made our world, what living thing did he make it resemble? Let us not stoop to think that it was any of those that have the natural character of a part, for nothing that is a likeness of anything incomplete could ever turn out beautiful. Rather, let us lay it down that the universe resembles more closely than anything else that Living Thing of which all other living things are parts, both individually and by kinds.”(Timaeus) (Plato is describing both the Earth and Universe as spheres)
Time, then, came into existence along with the Heaven, to the end that having been generated
together they might also be dissolved together, if ever a dissolution of them should take place;
and it was made after the pattern of the Eternal Nature, to the end that it might be as like
thereto as possible; for whereas the pattern is existent through all eternity, [38c] the copy, on
the other hand, is through all time, continually having existed, existing, and being about to
exist. Wherefore, as a consequence of this reasoning and design on the part of God, with a
view to the generation of Time, the sun and moon and five other stars, which bear the
appellation of “planets,” came into existence for the determining and preserving of the
numbers of Time. And when God had made the bodies of each of them He placed them in the
orbits along which the revolution of the Other was moving, seven orbits for the seven
bodies.29 [38d] The Moon He placed in the first circle around the Earth, the Sun in the second
above the Earth; and the Morning Star and the Star called Sacred to Hermes He placed in
those circles which move in an orbit equal to the Sun in velocity..(Timaeus)
Parmenides
Parmenides: Parmenides was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea, a Greek colony in southern Italy. He is considered one of the most significant figures in ancient Greek philosophy circa 515 B.C.
Parmenides held that the multiplicity of existing things, their changing forms and motion, are but an appearance of a single eternal reality (“Being”), thus giving rise to the Parmenidean principle that “all is one.”He argued that all change is an illusion and that the universe is a single, unchanging entity.
https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/peitho/article/view/40830
“Parmenides’ astronomical system is of little importance, this is the common opinion.
For Karsten (1835:243), Parmenides had not gone into detail; he had settled for a “poetic” sketch (universi specie adumbrate [“representing a fictitious universe”])
Parmenides’ cosmology has incited far fewer studies than the ontology on which it is based.
The system of astral bodies is governed and regulated from the center of the world. (read that again)
“The system of astral bodies is governed and regulated from the center of the world.”
[my notes: why would the center of a ball earth control the astral bodies in the sky… it only make sense if the center of the earth is also the center of the sky]
“The difference in viewpoints is fully apparent in the translation of the ἀμφὶς ἔχοντα of fragment 10, which, in the logic of the general distribution determining the median separation of the celestial zone, must be understood as “setting aside” toward the upper and lower regions, whereas the common representation leads to the repeated reuse of a translation “encircling all around,” which is in contradiction with the structure of opposition.
Parmenides’ view of a structured and layered cosmos, with a clear distinction between light and dark elements:
“To the one they allot the fire of heaven, gentle, very light, in every direction the same as itself, but not the same as the other. The other is just the opposite to it, dark night, a compact and heavy body” (he is talking about a sphere with a light and dark side)
Parmenides says that there are concentrically embedded spheres packed closely together, in each case one made of a sparse body and the other of a dense body; and others, blended, made of light and night, in the intervals between these” (The outer most concentric sphere is Earth)
To be able to harmonize the entirety of Aetius’ text and Parmenides’ fragment 12 [13] with the description of the world as it had come into being, Diels (1897) introduced a whole series of interpretive and critical operations. He had the solid firmament (1) on the upper level, and the layer of fire, the ether below (2), followed by astronomic “spheres” of a composite nature, that is, blended with night; in each of its wheels there is fire, through which the celestial bodies were designated (3). [14] There was no concern for relative proportions, which were to the benefit of night; [15] in fact, the equivalence or relation between masses was not perceived, despite the undeniable parallelism, as an objective of the construction. One also sees that the “crowns” were used, on the one hand, as layers that could represent the parts of the world and, on the other, as cylindrical rings (on the model of Anaximander’s wheels), conceived as the dwelling spaces of the planets or of the Milky Way.
Nothing is situated between these astral rings and the earth. The atmosphere, the sublunar region, is lacking. However, since the earth cannot in reality be enveloped by pure fire, Diels corrected Aetius’ text, introducing an “underneath” (ὑφ’ ᾧ) so as to be able to situate, under the terrestrial envelope {184|185} (4), a central fire (5), [16] about which it could easily be said that, in this form, it had virtually no analog in any other doctrine of physics. [17]. (They don’t understand what these guys were saying since they think Earth is a ball flying in space)
The succession of the spheres (in a free, unjustified order), for which Couloubaritsis juxtaposes (without studying their relationship) A 37 and B 12, even though the texts bear on exactly the same object, is localized in an upper part of the world, exempt from becoming, which would begin in a center, amid the mixed crowns
A first series of astronomical “spheres” is of pure fire; a second, increasingly clouded and dirty (Fränkel 1951:413), culminates in a point of lunar ambiguity announcing the world of men.
Parmenides says that there are concentrically embedded spheres [stephanai] packed closely together, in each case one made of a sparse body and the other of a dense body; and others, blended, made of light and night, in the intervals between these.
How is it that we can discount the cosmologies of these men so easily today? We just think… hmmm concentric spheres in the sky… well these dumb idiots didn’t know what they were talking about… But what if they did? These concentric spheres in the sky that house the sun, moon, and stars makes PERFECT sense when you consider how the movements in the cosmos work like a finely tuned Swiss watch, century after century, unchanging, even though the Earth hurls around the Sun, the Sun around Milky Way at incredible speeds and so on..
It seems that one can infer from the pre-cosmic structure that the universe was circumscribed in an enclosure of two solid spheres (a full one at the center, a hollow one at the periphery).
From Fragment (A 37 1 b)
καὶ τὸπεριέχον δὲ πάσας τείχους δίκην στερεὸν ὑπάρχειν, ὑφ’ ᾧ πυρώδης στεφάνη, καὶ τὸ μεσαίτατον πασῶν στερεόν, περὶ ὃ [see n. 15, above] πάλιν πυρώδης
What envelops them all, like a rampart, is solid, with an igneous ring below; and what is most central of all is solid, with another igneous ring around it.
“Solidity is a property of night, as is density. It seems that one can infer from the pre-cosmic structure that the universe was circumscribed in an enclosure of two solid spheres (a full one at the center, a hollow one at the periphery).”
“God is one incorporeal eternal being, and, like the universe, spherical in form; that He is of the same nature with the universe, comprehending all things within himself; is intelligent, and pervades all things, but bears no resemblance to human nature either in body or mind” -Xenophanes
Surely nature longs for the opposites and effects her harmony from them… That was also said by Heraclitus the Obscure: Combinations – wholes and not wholes, concurring differing, concordent discordant, from all things one and from one all things. [B 10]
In this way the structure of the universe – I mean, of the heavens and earth and the whole world – was arranged by harmony through the blending of the most opposite principles.
([Aristotle], On the World 396b7-8, 20-25)
“And B 28 holds that “This upper limit of the earth is seen here at our feet,
pushing up against the air, but that below goes on without limit”
Xenophanes Phil of Religion
https://philosophy.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/122/2013/10/Xenophanes-Phil-of-Religion.pdf
It is generally accepted that the enigmatic fragment 12 of Parmenides, supplemented by the first part of A.tius II 7.1, represents an unlikely cosmos which comprises alternating spherical crowns of fire and night, surrounding the earth. A comparison of the fragment and A.tius’ text shows that the latter adds nothing substantial to the fragment. Thus, fragment 12 can actually represent the structure of the earth, which consists of a core of fire, is surrounded by the layers of the earth’s crust, into which heat is transmitted from within, and on which the goddess of life dwells.
Parmenides’ Structure of the Earth
https://doaj.org/article/e4bd5f6c0cfe424ebad3cbdd477de610
Omphalos, center of both the earth and universe
An omphalos is a religious stone artefact. In Ancient Greek, the word ὀμφᾰλός (omphalós) means “navel”. Among the Ancient Greeks, it was a widespread belief that Delphi was the center of the world. According to the myths regarding the founding of the Delphic Oracle, Zeus, in his attempt to locate the center of the Earth, launched two eagles from the two ends of the world, and the eagles, starting simultaneously and flying at equal speed, crossed their paths above the area of Delphi, and so was the place where Zeus placed the stone.
“Mount Kailash when you need centering. Fill yourself with its majesty, serenity, and its spiritual magic.”
At the centre of the earth,
There stands a great mountain,
Lord of snows, majestic, rooted in the sea,
Its summit wreathed in clouds:
A measuring rod for all creation.”
–from the poet Kalidasa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_Ocean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyagarbha
This golden egg broke into two halves which formed the Svarga(heaven) and the Pṛthvi(mother earth) “the Broad One.”
[same shape – pyramid shape – center of the universe – octahedron?]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benben
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalos_of_Delphi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash “kelāsa” (केलास) means “crystal”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baetyl “house of god”
[46] Already had Oedipus with avenging hand probed deep his sinning eyes and sunk his guilty shame in eternal night, abiding in a long and living death. But while he hugs his darkness and the uttermost seclusion of his dwelling, and keeps his secret chamber which the sun’s rays and heaven behold not, yet with unwearied wings the fierce daylight of the mind hovers around him,9 and the Avenging Furies of his crimes assail his heart. Then he displays to heaven those empty orbs, the cruel, pitiful punishment of his life, and with blood-stained hands beats upon the hollow earth, and in dire accents utters this prayer:
https://www.theoi.com/Text/StatiusThebaid1.html
[446] So spake he, gnashing his teeth, and gave the sign to his already raging waters: cold Cithaeron sends succour from the hills, and bids his ancient snows and stores of frost be moving; to the flood his brother Asopos unites his secret stores, and supplies streams from wide-open veins.23 He himself explores the hollow earth’s recesses, and tries torpid lakes and pools and lazy fens, and lifting skyward his greedy countenance sucks down the moisture of the clouds and drains dry the air. Already he flowed with a tide that rose above either lofty bank, already Hippomedon, who of late stood higher than mid-channel’s depth, with unmoistened arms and shoulders, is marvelling that the stream has grown above his stature. All round him the billows swell and the angry tempest rises high, like the sea when it drains the Pleiads or flings darkened Orion against trembling mariners
https://www.theoi.com/Text/StatiusThebaid9.html
[61] “Madam, receive a new son; lay in your bosom the child of Semele your sister. Not the full blaze of the lightning destroyed him in her chamber; even the sparks of the thunderbolt which killed his mother did him no harm. Let the child be kept safe in a gloomy room, and let neither the Sun’s eye by day nor the Moon’s eye by night see him in your roofed hall. Cover him up, that jealous resentful Hera may never see him playing, though she is said to have eyes to see a bull.4 Receive your sister’s boy, and you shall have from Cronion a reward for his nurture worthy of your pains. Happy are you among all the daughters of Cadmos! for already Semele has been brought low by a fiery bolt; Autonoë shall lie under the earth with her dead son, and Cithairon5 will set up one tomb for both; Agauë shall see the fate of Pentheus among the hills, and she shall touch his ashes all deceived.6 A sonslayer she shall be, and a banished woman, but you alone shall be proud; you shall inhabit the mighty sea and settle in Poseidon’s house; in the brine like Thetis, like Galateia, your name shall be Ino of the Waters. Cithairon shall not hide you in the hollow earth, but you shall be one of the Nereïds. Instead of Cadmos, you shall call Nereus father, with happier hopes. You shall ever live with Melicertes your immortal son as Leucothea, holding the key of clam waters, mistress of good voyaging next to Aiolos.7 The merchant seaman trusting in you shall have a fineweather voyage over the brine; he shall set up one altar for the Earthshaker and Melicertes, and do sacrifice to both together; Seabluehair shall accept Palaimon8 as guide for his coach of the sea.”
https://www.theoi.com/Text/NonnusDionysiaca9.html
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13. 96 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
“Hyria, that hospitable land which entertained the gods, named after hospitable Hyrieus; where that huge giant born of no marriage-bed, threefather Orion, sprang up from his mother earth, after a shower of piss from three gods grew in generative fruitfulness to the selfmade shape of a child, having impregnated a wrinkled of fruitful oxhide. Then a hollow of the earth was made midwife to earth’s unbegotten son.”
https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ZeusFamily.html
https://www.theoi.com/Text/NonnusDionysiaca13.html
“But Zeus Highest at last quieted the stormy flood and the watery violence, and drove the water of flooded Phrygia down from the tops of Sipylos; Earthshaker with his trident pushed all the waters away into the deep hollows of the boundless sea..”
https://www.theoi.com/Text/NonnusDionysiaca13.html
Heaven and Earth likened to a Womb (Greek)
“Wherefore also, finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular manner, the god devised a figure most nearly akin to it and made a globe which should move around the same center. And he gave to the world a soul and placed it in the center, and diffused it throughout the body, and made one solitary and only world, able by reason of its excellence to befriend itself, and needing no other friendship or acquaintance. This world, which is indeed one, solitary, and only-begotten, is by reason of its excellence able to befriend itself and needs no other friendship or acquaintance, being sufficed by its own resources and able to befriend itself.” (Plato, Timaeus, 33b-34a)
The Homeric Hymns also contain references to Gaia as a life-giving and sustaining force.
“I will sing of well-founded Earth, mother of all, eldest of all beings. She feeds all creatures that are in the world, all that go upon the goodly land and all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly: all these are fed of her store. Through you, O queen, men are blessed in their children and blessed in their harvests, and to you it belongs to give means of life to mortal men and to take it away.” (Homeric Hymn 30 to Earth, the Mother of All)
Empedocles, a pre-Socratic philosopher, also uses womb-like imagery in his cosmological descriptions, particularly in his concept of the “cosmic egg.”
“There is an oracle of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, eternal, sealed fast with broad oaths: whenever one of the spirits, who have obtained a long life, has polluted his hands with blood or followed strife and sworn false oaths, he must wander thrice ten thousand seasons far from the blessed ones, being born throughout the time in all manner of mortal forms, changing one hard way of life for another. The force of the air pursues him into the sea, and the sea spits him forth on the dry land; earth tosses him into the rays of the unwearying sun, and the sun into the eddies of the air. One takes him from another, but all abhor him. I too am now one of these, an exile from the gods and a wanderer, having put my trust in raving strife.” (Empedocles, Fragment 115)
Aristophanes, in his comedic play “The Birds,” uses imagery that could be interpreted as portraying the Earth in a nurturing, womb-like role.
“Chaos, Night, black Erebus and wide Tartarus, at first were all alike one form of brooding. Naught was there of the sun, nor of the moon’s ray; the Earth did not exist, nor the air nor heaven. In the vast bosom of Erebus black-winged Night first brought forth a wind-born egg, from which in after-time sprang Eros, the desirable, his back glittering with golden wings, swift as whirlwinds.” (Aristophanes, The Birds, 693-702)
—
Heaven and Earth in Ancient Greek Cosmology
From Thales to Heraclides Ponticus
by Dirk L. Couprie
Astrophysics and space science library 374
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-8116-5
In the archaic world picture, the earth is flat and usually conceived of as a round disk. First of all, it is important to bear in mind that almost all the Presocratics, of which we have reports about what they are supposed to have said about the shape of the earth, believed that the earth is flat. It is reported by several sources that according to Anaxagoras, the earth is flat (plate~ia) (DK 59A1(8), DK 59A42(3), DK 59A47, and DK 59A87). Archelaos is said to have conceived of the earth as somewhat concave in the middle (meson de ko ́ılZn), but generally speaking he too may be considered to have conceived of the earth as flat (DK 60A4(4)). The ambiguous word stRogguloB in the doxographical report on Diogenes’ earth can here only mean circular, not spherical (DK 64A1). The earth is said to be drum- shaped (tumpanoeidZ~) according to Leucippus, and the surface of the earth is said to be disk-shaped (diskoeidZ~ men to ̃ platei) and concave in the middle (ko ́ılZn de to ̃ meso) according to Democritus and Anaxagoras (DK 67A1(30), DK 67A26 and DK 68A94). The concavity of Democritus’ earth does not prevent Aristotle from calling it flat (plate~ia) (On the Heavens 294b15 1⁄4 DK 59A88). Elsewhere, however, Democritus’ earth is said to be oblong (Z’mio ́loB) (DK 68B15). Diels’ translation “nicht rund, sondern l€anglich” is tendentious because the words “nicht rund, sondern” are not in the Greek text. (page 63)
In the doxography, the shape of the earth is called “curved” (guRo ́n), which is R€oper’s inevitable correction of the u’gro ́n (moist) of the manuscripts (DK 12A11; R€oper 1852: 607. See also Diels 1879: 218–219 and Conche 1991: 215). Neuhaeuser’s suggestion to read u’ptin (“flat”) instead of u’gRo ́n has not been followed by other authors (1883: 349 n. 1). It is tempting to translate guρo ́n here with “(somewhat) concave” because we probably have to conceive of the surface of the earth as somewhat concave, as is the case with column drums, which is the result of a technique called a,naθurosiB, as Hahn has convincingly shown (2001: 169 ff. and 195–196).
Apart from the evidence of the making of a column drum, the same suggestion has been made already by Classen and Kahn, in conformity with the Greek conception of the oi’koumenZ as the lands around the basin of the Mediterranean Sea (Classen 1986: 64; Kahn 1994: 56 and 81 n. 3). This shape of a somewhat concave earth we still find in Archelaos and Democritus, as we had seen in Chap. 4. Why Guthrie says that it is “quite likely, that Anaximander thought of the disc of the earth as having a hole in the center,” I do not understand (1962: 99 n. 3). Such a hole is hard to bring into agreement with Delphi as the center of the earth. Perhaps he means the realm of Hades situated inside the earth. (page 105)
The second version, handed down by the church father Hippolytus, who obviously leans on Aristotle’s text, sounds: “The earth is sus- pended, not supported by anything (literally: not dominated by anything), staying where it is by its equal distance from everything (dia tZn o’mo ́ıan pa ́nton a,po ́stasin)” (DK 12A11(3)). The same argument is also ascribed to Parmenides and Democritus (DK 28A44). This reference, however, is doubtful, at least as regards Democritus, for he taught not only that the earth is flat (and somewhat concave) but also that it is supported by the air beneath it (Aristotle, On the Heavens 294b13 1⁄4 DK 13A20, and Simplicius, In Aristotelis De caelo commen- taria 520.28 1⁄4 DK 59A88. See also Kahn 1994: 79 n. 4). (page 108)
We may readily admit that the column drum is an architectural building block, and even that it was an architectural novelty in Anaximander’s days. Comparing the earth with a column drum, then, was using an architectural image. Hahn’s most important contribution to the study of Anaximander is, according to me, that he has extensively shown how a column drum, by means of a technique called a’naWuRosiB, was made to fit exactly to other drums (see, e.g., 2001: 150 ff.; 2010: 42). This technique consists of carving smooth the edge of a drum surface, whereas the interior surface is chiselled somewhat concave. This yields a clear confirmation of the rightness of the translation “(somewhat) concave” of the word guRo ́n (literally: “curved”), handed down in the doxography as an indication of Anaxi- mander’s drum-shaped earth [DK 12A11(3)]. (page 154)
Chinese Mythology
In Chinese mythology, the universe is also said to have originated from an egg, which contained the primordial being Pangu.
“In the beginning, the universe was like a hen’s egg; it was whole, and nothing had begun. From this egg Pangu was born. After 18,000 years, the egg broke open, and the lighter parts, which were pure and clear, formed Heaven; the heavier parts, which were cloudy and turbid, formed Earth.” (Classic of Mountains and Seas)
“In the beginning all was water. From the water emerged a cosmic snake with a horned head. The snake (or the bull or the giant) created the cosmic egg…” https://japanesemythology.wordpress.com/origin-of-the-pangu-myth-the-cosmic-egg-the-creation-of-heaven-and-earth-and-separation-of-heaven-and-earth-imagery-nuwa-repairing-the-heavens/
ZOROASTRIANISM
Plutarch’s account of the Zoroastrian creation myth is unique in classical literature, listing Ohrmazd’s six gods as good will, truth, good order, wisdom, wealth, and the creator of pleasures in recompense for virtues. They partly correspond to the six ‘Beneficent Immortals’ (Amesha Spentas) who play such an important role in the Avesta (the corpus of sacred Zoroastrian texts). The Avesta also includes a reference to the earth as an egg, in a passage in which the sky covers and surrounds it as a bird its egg.
‘Zoroaster’s egg’ and other similar items will be on display in the forthcoming exhibition ‘The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination’ at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies London.
Ovum Zoroastræum, i.e., Zoroaster’s egg, from Oedipus Ægyptiacus, vol. 3, p 275 (British Library 581.l.21)
Zadspram: Zoroastrian scholar and author
https://www.avesta.org/mp/zadspram.pdf
20. And it is easier for me to fit together and create again the
twelve creations that I created in the beginning: first when I created
the sky without pillar or support which no material creature supports
from any side; and second when I established the earth in the middle
of the sky so that it was nearer to neither side, like the yolk of an egg
in the middle of an egg; and third when I fashioned the Sun: fourth
when I fashioned the Moon; [fifth when I fashioned the stars;] sixth
when I created many hues, colours, and tastes in the plants; seventh
when I created fire within the plants and it did not burn; eighth when
I brought corn to the earth, and when it is full grown, it bears fruit
and serves as food for man and kine; ninth when I formed the embryo
within female creatures and covered it up so that it did not die and, as
it grew, I revealed one by one the bone, blood, hair, phlegm, sinews,
and nails; tenth when I made birds in bodily form to fly in the air;
eleventh when I gave the water feet moving forward like unto a
hare(?); twelfth [when I created the clouds] that carry the water up
and rain it down.”
2. First he produced the celestial sphere, and the constellation stars are assigned to it by him; especially these twelve whose names are Varak (the Lamb), Tora (the Bull), Do-patkar (the Two-figures or Gemini), Kalachang (the Crab), Sher (the Lion), Khushak (Virgo), Tarazhuk (the Balance), Gazdum (the Scorpion), Nimasp (the Centaur or Sagittarius), Vahik (Capricorn), Dul (the Water-pot), and Mahik (the Fish); 3. which, from their original creation, were divided into the twenty-eight subdivisions of the astronomers, of which the names are Padevar, Pesh-Parviz, Parviz, Paha, Avesar, Beshn, Rakhvad, Taraha, Avra, Nahn, Miyan, Avdem, Mashaha, Spur, Husru, Srob, Nur, Gel, Garafsha Varant, Gau, Goi, Muru, Bunda, Kahtsar, Vaht, Miyan, Kaht. 4. And all his original creations, residing in the world, are committed to them; so that when the destroyer arrives they overcome the adversary and their own persecution, and the creatures are saved from those adversities.
When Gayomard issued from the sweat he saw the world dark as night, and the earth as though not a needle’s point remained free from noxious creatures; the celestial sphere was in revolution, and the sun and moon remained in motion: and the world’s struggle, owing to the clamor of the Mazendaran demons, was with the constellations.
https://www.avesta.org/mp/bundahis.html
Hinduism
Heaven our father, and Earth our mother
“On mighty waters floated the universal egg of the Golden Womb, Hiranyagarbha, which gave birth to the flame of life, the One Spirit of all the Gods.” ~Rig Veda (X.121)
Atharvaveda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvaveda
The Earth in Surya-siddhanta
https://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/06-21/editorials18896.htm
Full text of “Atharva Veda Complete Volume 1 & 2”
Surya-Siddhanta
In the Surya-Siddhanta, a part of the Hindu astronomy from the 6th century, 90 statements on the nature of the cosmos are made, which are commented on in the English translation on pages 245 to 254. Of these, we would like to highlight points 29, 32, 43, 46, 54 and 55, in which the cellular cosmology is confirmed in detail.
29: The entire visible universe is contained in a hollow spherical egg, a container composed of two half-shells (hemispheres).
30: Within the cosmic egg, the ether (vyoman) circles. Within the ether the stars (bha), one above the other, circle in the order.
31: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon. Beneath them are the holy and knowing people (siddhas and vidyadharas), as well as the clouds. This corresponds precisely to the kabbalistic tree of life (see above). The kabbalistic knowledge is said to have flowed from Melchizedek (Krishna) to Abraham (his son Brahma) into Greek and Egyptian culture.
32: In the middle of the cosmic egg and of the etheric sea, the spherical heavenly sky “bhugola” is floating, which is the seat of the omnipotent creator god Brahma (not to be confused with Brahman, the formless!).
Bhugola carries herself by her own (radiance).
43: On the axis poles, seen from the center of Meru (Meru is identical to bhugola, rep. to their center) are the polar stars, which are resting in the center of the rotating sky. The observer at the equator (“without latitude”) sees the polar stars (due to light’s curvature) directly on the horizon.
46: Because the sun approaches the half-shell of the gods in the summer, its rays are hot in this season (while they are hot in the winter of the demons). In the opposite season, they are sluggish / weak (since further away).
54: Because humans are so small, they perceive the “heavenly” bhugola, although it is spherical, as an encircling “wheel” / or a heavenly “tent” (this refers to the deceptive magnifying effect of the light curvature).
55: For the gods (the inhabitants of the heavenly bhugola) the ether revolves with the stars towards the right. For the enemies of the gods (the polar, earth-bound beings) it turns to the left. Whoever is standing directly on the equator, sees the stars moving directly over themselves (from the east) westward.
In the commentary of the translation, the following is also said: “The question remains what is meant by ‘proximity’ at point 46. It does not mean ‘directness’ or ‘verticality’, although this could be assumed in the context. The old Hindus knew very well that the sun is closer to the earth in winter than in the summer.”
However, this attempt to reconstruct heliocentrism fails, because the distance difference of several thousand kilometers would not have any significance relatively to the total distance of earth and sun.
The concept of the cosmic egg, or “Hiranyagarbha” (golden womb/egg), is a significant element in Hindu cosmology, representing the origin of the universe.
“In the beginning, this [universe] was only the Self in the form of a person. He looking around saw nothing else than the Self. He first said, ‘I am.’ Therefore, his name was ‘I.’ Hence, even now, if a man is asked, he first says, ‘It is I,’ and then speaks whatever name he has. He, the Self, was alone. He did not enjoy himself (i.e., was not happy). Therefore, he desired a second. He was so large as man and wife closely embraced.” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.1-3)
The “Hiranyagarbha” is often depicted as floating in the primordial waters and contains the seed from which the universe is born.
“Hiranyagarbha (Sanskrit: हिरण्यगर्भ, lit. ’golden womb’, IAST: Hiraṇyagarbha, poetically translated as ‘universal womb’)[1] is the source of the creation of the universe or the manifested cosmos in Vedic philosophy. It finds mention in one hymn of the Rigveda (RV 10.121), known as the Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta, suggesting a single creator deity”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyagarbha
Finnish Mythology
The Finnish epic “Kalevala” contains a creation myth where the Earth is formed from an egg.
“She floated and wandered on the lonely seas and then a duck came, a beautiful bird, and it flew over the waters, looking for a place to rest and make its nest. Then the duck saw the knee of Ilmatar, and thought it was a grassy hillock. So it flew down and made its nest on her knee, and there laid six golden eggs and one iron egg. The duck sat on the eggs to hatch them, and after three days, Ilmatar felt her knee growing warm, so she moved it slightly. The eggs fell into the water and broke. The pieces of the eggs then formed the Earth, the sky, the sun, and the moon, and the stars.” (Kalevala, Runo 1)
As William Forel Kirby translated in 1906;
“in the Ooze they were not wasted nor the fragments in the water, but a wondrous change came over them and the fragments all grew lovely from the cracked eggs, lower fragment now the solid earth was fashioned from the cracked eggs upper fragment rose the lofty arch of Heaven, from the the Yolk the upper portion now became the sun’s bright luster from the white the upper portion rose the Moon that shines so brightly, what so in the egg was modeled now became the stars in heaven, what in the egg was blackish in the air as thunder.”
“The cosmic egg is a motif that is as old as humans’ myth can go, dating back from civilizations predated what we considered ancient. Numerous tales about it can be found across the world, from Greece to China to Japan… All of them featured a cosmic egg in some way or another. It seems that either that tale has some forms of truth like that of the Great Flood, or that ancient people just really like their eggs.” – Carl Black.
“One egg’s lower half transformed And became the earth below, And its upper half transmuted. And became the sky above; From the yolk the sun was made, Light of day to shine upon us; From the white the moon was formed, Light of night to gleam above us; All the colored brighter bits. Rose to be the stars of heaven. And the darker crumbs changed into. Clouds and cloudlets in the sky.” – Finnish Mythology. https://mythos-and-legends.fandom.com/wiki/Cosmic_Egg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_egg
Väinämöinen
“The idea that the cosmos was born from several eggs laid by a bird is
found in the oldest Balto-Finnic myths that have been preserved thanks to
the conservative form of runo song. Different versions of the Balto-Finnic
creation song were known among the Estonians, the Finns of Ingria, the
Votes, and the Karelians. The Karelian songs were used by Elias Lönnrot
in devising his redaction of the myth in the beginning of the epic Kalevala.
Also found in Karelian songs is a motif of the demiurge Väinämöinen
uttering the words of creation that makes the earth
and the sky from the shells of that egg.
The Balto-Finnic cosmogonic myth has many international parallels.
They are so numerous that it may initially seem that myths about cosmic
egg(s) belong to the common traditions of mankind. An egg is a symbol of
latent life force, fertility, and resurrection in many cultures, and the word
denoting an egg often has sexual connotations. *Muna (“egg”) already had
the parallel meaning “testicle” in the Proto-Uralic language (Rédei
1986:285). The Vedic and Sanskrit word an˝d˝a is also ambiguous, denoting
egg, testicle, and sperm (Böhtlingk and Roth 1855:86). In the dream omens
of Estonian folklore the egg is also connected with fertility: if a young wife
dreams of finding a bird’s nest, it foretells pregnancy.4 However, belief in
the cosmogonic function of an egg has not been found everywhere; there are,
rather, four broad areas where myths about cosmic egg(s) belong to
indigenous oral traditions: 1) the Balto-Finnic region; 2) the Eastern
Mediterranean lands; 3) South Asia (China, Tibet, Indo-China, India); and 4)
the Malay Archipelago, Oceania, and Australia.”
https://journal.oraltradition.org/wp-content/uploads/files/articles/15i/8_valk.pdf
Kalevala – THE EPIC POEM OF FINLAND INTO ENGLISH
BY JOHN MARTIN CRAWFORD
[1888]
The Kalevala is regarded as the national epic of Karelia and Finland
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5186/pg5186.txt
“The Finns are a very ancient people. It is claimed, too, that they
began earlier than any other European nation to collect and preserve
their ancient folk-lore. Tacitus, writing in the very beginning of the
second century of the Christian era, mentions the Fenni, as he calls
them, in the 46th chapter of his De Moribus Germanoram. He says of
them: “The Finns are extremely wild, and live in abject poverty. They
have no arms, no horses, no dwellings; they live on herbs, they clothe
themselves in skins, and they sleep on the ground. Their only resources
are their arrows, which for the lack of iron are tipped with bone.”
Strabo and the great geographer, Ptolemy, also mention this curious
people. There is evidence that at one time they were spread over large
portions of Europe and western Asia.
In the earliest age of Suomi, it appears that the people worshiped the
conspicuous objects in nature under their respective, sensible forms.
All beings were persons. The Sun, Moon, Stars, the Earth, the Air, and
the Sea, were to the ancient Finns, living, self-conscious beings.”
Geometry of a Chicken Egg
Heaven and Earth are composed of the egg whites and yolk. In a chicken egg there is a thin fiber known as the chalaza that holds the yolk to the center of the egg. The orange yolk is heaven, the cosmos, the sky, the universe.
The yolk of an egg contains concentric rings that represent the daily accumulation of yolk during the egg’s formation. These rings are visible in sections of the egg and can be detected using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The rings in an egg yolk are similar to the rings in a tree, but the rings in an egg represent daily additions instead of yearly additions. The yolk’s staining properties also vary depending on when the yolk is deposited in the follicle, which contributes to the formation of rings
-ai
The center (latebra) was always light. From timed dye-feeding experiments it was found that lighter staining rings were deposited at night. Chicken eggs had 7-11 light rings; coturnix quail 4-6; turkeys 10-12; and cackling geese 12. All eggs from a variety of bird species showed ring structures.
-Ring Structure of Avian Egg Yolk by C. R. GRAU [Department of Avian Sciences, University of California, Davis, California, 1975]
Yolk concentric rings = layers of heaven
Chalaza = northern lights, north south pole, midnight sun, 24 hour sun, admiral byrd
Inner shell membrane = Karman line
Outer shell membrane = Earth’s surface
Shell = mineral & rock strata
Culticle = outter rind
Yolk = celestial sphere
Shell = pourous egg shell, earthquakes, floods, deep ocean
Embryo = Sun
Air chamber?
Irregular shape of egg = Earth’s polar vs equatorial radii
Geometry of a Cell
Fractal Self Similarity – ‘Cellular’ Cosmology – Cosmic Egg
Cell Nucleus = source of radiation
Cell Envelope = star sphere , celestial sphere
Vesicle/lysome = planets
Centrosome = Sun
Cell membrane = Earth’s surface
Golgi apparatus = moon sphere
We do tend to get polarised very easily in our thinking; but what if there was no beginning ? We are just in it up to our necks (at the moment).