Note 441 — ADDITIONAL NOTES (continued 2)
Thomas Taylor translation
This royal series consists of Phanes, Night, Heaven, Saturn, Jupiter, Bacchus. “Ancient theologists, says Syrianus (in his commentary on the 14th book of Aristotle’s Metaphysics) assert that Night and Heaven reigned, and prior to these the mighty father of Night and Heaven, who distributed the world to Gods and mortals, and who first possessed royal authority, the illustrious Ericapæus.
τοιον ελων διενειμε θεοις, θνητοισι δε κοσμον ου πρωτος βασιλευε περικλυτος ηρικεπαιος.
Night succeeded Ericapæus, in the hands of whom she has a sceptre:
σκεπτρον εχουσ’ εν χερσιν ηρικεπαιου·
To Night, Heaven succeeded, who first reigned over the Gods after mother Night.
ος πρωτος βασιλευε θεων μετα μητερα νυκτα.
Chaos transcends the habitude of sovereign dominion: and, with respect to Jupiter, the oracles given to him by Night, manifestly call him not the first, but the fifth immortal king of the Gods.
αθανατον βασιλεα θεων πεμπτον γενεσθαι.
According to these theologists therefore, that principle which is most eminently the first, is the one or the good, after which according to Pythagoras, are those two principles Æther and Chaos, which are superior to the possession of sovereign dominion. In the next place succeed the first and occult genera of the Gods, in which first shines forth the father and king of all wholes, and whom on this account they call Phanes.“