and feelings may replace true knowing for a time, but sometimes the art blends these things into a common acknowledgment of things always known but never put together in the mind's eye as the poet beckons us to do.  Milton recognized the pitfalls of making a thing too barren by explication and contrast, losing the ability to lead one into structuring sentience that is faithful to the Truth and enlarges the view so one may be at rest while excited at a new horizon.

We all seek to know something, we apprehend a benefit, yet retreat from that which tears at the comfortable and challenges that which is already known, so we suspend disbelief a moment aided by some flimsy excuse so we might know things at variance with us.  The poet depends upon a truth that is out there, indefinable perhaps, but felt to be there all the same.  The face that launched a thousand ships was hinted at, or else the Poet would have left us wondering if such a face could have caused another moment's notice. Selling a diamond by plunking down a shiny rock in an abrupt manner proves to fail and leads to poverty.  Bringing out the diamond wrapped in black velvet, tied by a golden cord and laid before us just so with timing to peak curiosity and eagerness seems a more profitable way of going about things.  Still, if a piece of glass has cost dearly and we find out we have been swindled, the black velvet wrapping as the beginning of anger and inner strife. Ovid was no confidence man nor is he taken as such.  If the dissection of his words lead us to a place beyond his words moored for a time to a more secure embrace, Ovid would no doubt smile.

The testomonia veterum scriptorum de Ovidio includes names great and small, yet one catches the eye and seems good to reproduce:

Naso had a constant, becoming, and amiable wit. His prose appeared no other than dissolved verses.  Of his words no prodigal, except in his verse, wherein he wasnot ignorant of the fault, but affected it, and often would say, that a mole did not misbecome a beautiful face, but made it more lovely.

Marcus Annæus Seneca

Leaving behind fanciful climes the thing to get at is once again at hand.

orbe: a circle, a ring, a circular plane, a globe, the universe

Scientists think that the universe began from a small egg, an orb containing all the ingredients from which the universe was made.  God spoke the universe into existence and the orb from the spoken Word was cast forth, expanding with the space between it pieces of it becoming larger.  We still see the birth of galaxies distant from our vantage point here on earth with a huge telescope, radiometric measuring devices, and other methods to see as our eyes.  Galaxies are also dying, suns exploding, supernovae marking their end, while the solar systems comprise only a small bit of the fire that we see, becoming inconsequential, instantly consumed and melted with fervent heat.  As ordered as things seem to be in our drop of time, the equilibrium is deceiving to casual observation and is more a matter of dynamic change however subtly felt.  The order and stability we feel is ours is fleeting in terms time, and still yet the more ephemeral in terms of eternity, infinity. Infinite smallness of things is not possible in the universe, nor is infinite largeness within our universe.  No matter how long and how large the universe persists and grows its origin as an orb is expressed as being a closed system.

The change from matter to energy and energy to matter still carries the taint of chaos. Yet, even chaos is part of a larger order and viewed conversely the smallest part of an order. God is eternal, infinity is defined by His existence, His attributes are expressions of who and what He is and he encompasses the universe, its order and orders, principles and laws defined by His existence. 

Where order in variety we see,

And where, through all things differ, they agree.

Pope

Not only is the beginning of the universe defined by His existence, but also the continuum to its end. All things, no matter how viewed and discovered then are reflections and glimpses of Him, whether physical or spiritual, all things in states of order becoming more or less ordered defined by His existence. While we may observe and record for whatever purposes we wish that which we are capable of at any given point in time we never have the vantage point of observing all that Is from outside of that which Is.  That which He expressed emanates from Him and returns to Him if He so chooses.  The Bible says that He will gather all that is in the finite confines of an admittedly large universe back to Him who Is. Infinity is something that is beyond our grasp to hold and upon consideration being held by it makes us question, wondering what it Is.

God reveals to us, Him and He states He is that Is that holds us as well as all that we see.  His sentience is eternal, something of which wears out the mind to attempt to follow to an end or find a beginning.  He tells us that He is Order and all order is based on His attributes, His Being, and He Is Spirit and Truth.  In fact He is perfect Order by which everything can be measured. It seems a dichotomy that He is Infinite and Eternal Order defining a universe less ordered.  It is only by His revelation that we can see it is less a dichotomy and more a paradox.  He reveals things of Him as the right time presents itself.  Jesus said that new wine needs new wineskins and so His revelation was the new wine given at the proper time when the new wineskins were possible and in fact available to be filled.  He revealed Himself, and before His Advent the nature of what He revealed was there all the time referred to as a mystery, but only a mystery to us.  He stepped into a world where even most of the people could not accept the new information from His self-revelation and an additional revelation from the Father.  That was some 2,000 years ago and we are still attempting to understand just the nature of the universe in toto.  Ovid deals with the explanation of the beginning without direct revelation from Yahweh as to the nature of things as related to Yahweh.  The basic elements of the universe are revealed.  God in the Bible reveals that He is at the first, and that He created the universe.  Ovid records the accumulated knowledge of that beginning describing the effect of Yahweh's spoken Word.  Ovid attributes the cause to God in some way different.  The beginning of the earth in that which we call chaos is a gradation of change over time.  Whatever chaos can be seen through our measuring instruments and other means of observation and therefore defined captures the specific time interval in a snapshot with inferences from reason filling in gaps of what must have been the rational and physical state of things.  This then is not revelation but a best guess and always will be, no matter how uncomfortable we may be with that.

We now know that what Ovid defined as chaos is a matter of perspective from our vantage point up to his time.  Chaos was and still is for practical purposes not easily seen as having its own order.  Fractal mathematics defines chaos and recognizes it is ordered, yet antithetical to people.  It is difficult to imagine living on a planet as we are now in any other time than that in which we live.  In the state of chaos Ovid refers to, our existence would be impossible and this provides a rational reason for no wish on our part to be part of it.  On an emotional level our minds recoil at the thought of it and rightly so as we would cease to be in temperatures too hot at thousands of degrees Celsius or too cold at near Kelvin. A bit over our body temperature and we become uncomfortable and miserable and somewhat below we lose all sensation.  Heat and cold depend upon matter and how fast it travels and therefore has limits beyond our direct experience.  

Chaos then would be appropriate on an earth yet made of gases or its state of existence when the elements first combined to form the shapeless mass of minerals still molten.  In English, the word Pluto has to do with plutonic rocks derived from a  molten state within the earth solidifying upon exposure to the earth's surface or near enough while still within the crust called plutons.  Looking at the crystal lattice structure of a mineral to the atomic level or considering a rock broken from a what is part of a pluton carries with it the implied and explicit knowledge of that which was formed from the state that pervaded the earth as a whole Ovid describes as Chaos. Order as far as mankind is concerned is really based on observational ability and may not reveal previous states of existence nor conclusively predict future ones. In some way Chaos is not only a potential state for us in the physical realm, but one that persists.  Its resolution with its opposite is the thing grand unification theories and mathematical models are composed of.  The resolution sought is in vain in terms of time, space, and matter because the resolution, the mathematical set that solves it, lay outside the universe in its Origin. The Origin is God as is the Resolution and cannot exist within the universe as long as time, space, and matter exist without the sentient introduction of the Origin and Resolution by Him into time, space, and matter.  It therefore seems logical and the revelation of God tells us that this can never be in a sense that would satisfy us because everything is not equal to the Eternal and Infinite.  When Jesus came people were not satisfied. If we visit the description that Ovid gives we can be readily satisfied because it fits into our context rationally whereas the revelation of Yahweh contextually exceeds our rationality. The mind balks at revelation for this reason, among others.

Being sated with the rudiments of the universe is an impossible task as once sated mankind is immediately faced with disequilibria as the state that follows and therefore then requires more or longer periods of satiation to regain a state equilibrium. Our acquaintance with chaos presented by Ovid suggests that this is so and it follows that satiation on a scale larger than ourselves is actually seeking and gaining Chaos, not Order. The disequilibria becomes greater each time greater satiation is attained.  Paradoxically the seeming order attained becomes unmanageable and the "power" attained consumes us rendering us weaker though the next attainment requires more ability or power to achieve the next state of satiation.  All that we have that comes from this universe has some speck of Chaos and we soon recognize we enlarge our enemy since we are beings that depend upon physical order, mental order, and spiritual order.  Outside of the bounds of that order in which we can exist as we are is either Order or Chaos.  The effect we observe within the confines of space, time, and matter is either what we call Life or Death.  People want to feel ill thoughts towards God because this life we experience is seen as fleeting in context with that which we can readily observe.  Chaos approached brings with it death to us and we know that Chaos came with the whole package and it came from God and it causes harm to us, confusion, and what we rationally as well as emotionally recognize as evil.  The Bible says that God causes good and evil to us and it seems there is ill intent on His part and so some accuse Him.  We pose the "problem of evil" as mankind causes harm and we want to excuse ourselves from it, but that comes from not understanding the nature of God in reference to His creation, the Infinite and the finite.  He has revealed to us that our being satisfied lies within His Repose, His Presence, and that this is impossible for us to achieve by us.  It is only achieved by His agency, so we logically wonder if there is some other agency if we only think of agency in terms of this universe, the creation.  It is by revelation that God tells us we do not need to look for the order that results in Life anywhere in the creation we have at our disposal.

When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world (world in all senses of the word), he said "repent for the Kingdom is at hand".  Put another way from the same witness, John said the "Kingdom of God is among us".  However difficult or easy it might be to imagine the meaning of this statement, Jesus therefore is the Kingdom of God.  That which is from without creation then was manifested within creation.  It is fact, although we may choose to accept it or reject it. We become used to gaining and losing things according to our agency and are comfortable with our efforts no matter how well things turn out in the long run.  Ovid reveals the things that can be observed by our agency with things not directly observable filled in by imagination based on logic.  Imagination based on irrationality produces what the Bible calls vain imagination, which in turn leads to confusion.  Our ability to observe fails at some point as it is based on our agency and auxiliary things we might have by the agency of others.  Trying to make sense out of things only ordered by fractals would lead to confusion as only the obvious would present itself to us.  Our agency then calls that which could be sensible, Chaos.  So, accepting some things as fact depend on the right measuring stick.  

God must be seen by things other than a measuring stick, since He is the measuring stick when it comes to observing Him. This is another reason for wrongly accusing Him.  It is here that the role of the trickster comes into play for the least amount of doubt rationally leads to a right or wrong conclusion about what it is that we observe.  The trickster is the ultimate representative of Chaos and therefore Death but seems to be Order and Life.  This is so because his order consists of something akin to what we can observe only by fractal mathematics and is an order higher than our innate order and the observable reality within the confines of the universe, however fatally flawed Chaos is to us. God reveals Himself to us at the proper time and it may take awhile in our reckoning, whereas the trickster reveals a "false" order to us readily.  His order that seems congruent with observable reality is not congruent with ultimate reality, that reality we call Order or God.  We have an element of chaos in us by our nature and can easily tend to Chaos.  Chaos is subject to a measuring stick other than itself, or himself whereas Order is not. So, when Jesus declared Himself to be the Kingdom of God among us and said that we should change our minds (repent) and act on that change of mind after John was beheaded, some chose for Chaos and some for Order with Jesus being that Order. We then find out that the agency for our decision making is useless based on all that we know as did those in the time of Jesus.  Jesus tells us that the agency for making the decision as to Him and who He is comes from the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God.  This stirs up an uneasiness for some because we have no control over the agency of the Holy Spirit.  The urging of the Holy Spirit requires an answer, a decision, believe or not believe.  It is only known by those who choose to believe that a correct choice has been made and we are given immediately necessary Faith from God to sustain the belief that turns out to be knowledge brought by revelation from God.  All other agency fails apart from the agency of God.

So, looking at Chaos as presented by Ovid has a contextual framework and our agency reveals to us its nature to the extent we understand the context within which it operates.  Ovid says that it is unwrought and not cultivated and therefore can be thought of as inelegant and artless as represented by the Latin word rudis.  Chaos is not separated into parts, is disordered, confused, unformed, a mass, heap, a huge and weighty lump.  Here is where we discern that Chaos is also most likely small and unordered and near weightless, perhaps having an order we do not perceive.  The lack of seeming order interferes and is in a constant state of flux, staying unordered and changing all the while.  People want to say that therefore all things are relative and it is just a matter of perception of order. As the orb cools and minerals reveal themselves in beautiful crystal shapes, the seas become definable and distinct as having no quality in macro view to the solid mass we see the thing as a whole and suspect there had to have been order all along.  That is so within the confines of the universe, but would it exist without, and do we see enough to know that one hidden flaw or proof of perfection? Then we still may have fallen into folly to think that all things are relative in some way we do not know. This vain deceit that omits an absolute is only possible to continue with in the absence of absolute order, Order, God. It would seem that common sense would lead to the conclusion that there is an unchangeable perfect order, unmovable and yet moves but people tend to get sidetracked before common sense leads to anything.  Common sense loses meaning quickly as it is not knowledge based, not based on understanding of knowledge, and does not allow for wisdom. Ovid leaves us here with factual knowledge that, as it turns out, is true to a great extent and depends on inference. Logic allows for inference and the notion the earth is molten in its center seems a good proof of that as people would not hazard the journey for direct observation and make it back to tell us of it.

rudis: unwrought, uncultivated, in its native state, unpolished, rough, unadorned, inelegant, artless

indigestaque: not separated into parts, disordered, confused, unformed, indigested

moles: mass, heap, huge or weighty lump

...to be continued

In order to keep myself sane, since I hate footnotes, the primary source of the explication is in black type and my additions are in gray type.

Primary Explication Source 

Nathan Covington Brooks, The Metamorphoses of  Publius Ovidius Naso, A. S. Barnes and Burr, New York, 1860.