Image and Negation: "Proto-Apophatics" and the problem of the typology of negativity in Hesiod's «Theogony»

Abstract

The purpose of this article is a historical and philosophical reconstruction of the problem of negativity in "Theogony". It is shown that negativity is not limited only to the doctrine of Chaos, since in the text of Hesiod there are other mythological images that are endowed with their apophatic characteristics. These include Erebus, Night, Tartarus, as well as "limits and beginnings". At the same time, Chaos certainly has a special status. Chaos generates other negative images – Night, Erebus. Consequently, the three mythological images are in genus-species relations, which means they are different types of negativity from each other. The "beginnings and limits", which also have their apophatic characteristics, are that which contains Chaos in itself. Consequently, Hesiod's myth contains not only an apophatic problematic, but there is an implicit difference in the understanding of negativity.