Derveni theogony and Plotinian genealogy

Abstract

Derveni theogony constructs a complex narrative about the organization of the world and the divine power from the beginning of time. The last divine king, the supreme god of the universe, Zeus, who is also his demiurge, devours the phallus of his father, Uranus, in order to return himself to a generation before the first, giving birth under his reign to the beginning of a new cosmic cycle. For Plotinus, the castration of Uranus represents the transcendence of the One-Good with regard to Intelligence, symbolized by Kronos; and the Soul, Zeus, who escapes from the voracity of his father, is the first demiurge god, whose function is to serve as mediator between the intelligible and the sensible world.