Places of Note: Chamber of Possible Origins

The Chamber of Possible Origins

This colonnaded chamber is 40 paces long, 20 paces wide. At one end is a still pool, which claims to be a tributary of the river Lethe, no one has tested this claim. It flows over a dazzling mosaic of the Virgin and Child.

Lethe

(Greek: "Oblivion"), in Greek mythology, daughter of Eris (Strife) and the personification of oblivion. Lethe is also the name of a river or plain in the infernal regions.

In Orphism, a Greek mystical religious movement, it was believed that the newly dead who drank from the River Lethe would lose all memory of their past existence. The initiated were taught to seek instead the river of memory, Mnemosyne, thus securing the end of the transmigration of the soul. At the oracle of Trophonius near Lebadeia (modern Levadhia, Greece), which was thought to be an entrance to the underworld, there were two springs called Lethe and Mnemosyne.

Aristophanes' The Frogs mentions a plain of Lethe. In Book X of Plato's The Republic the souls of the dead must drink from the "river of Unmindfulness" before rebirth. In the works of the Latin poets Lethe is one of the five rivers of the underworld.

On the walls are two detailed mosaics:

A large ball of fire. Beneath it at the left side is a personification of deadly strife, while to the right are the Moirai. Beneath this level are representations of the Earth, especially focusing on mountains; the Heaven, the celestial phenomena: stars, moon, sun; and the sea. Beneath all of this we see Ophion and Eurynome on Olympus, yielding it to Kronos and Rhea, followed up by the rest of the Titans. At the base of the mountain is a child in a cave, while even further beneath him are the Cyclopes building weapons of thunder and lighting. The entire scene is filled with all the figures of mythology whose birth is before the Titanomachia. Intricate patterns of very carefully chosen stones cover the entire wall, the entire mosaic (like most in the mountain) crafted by an artist who was greatly skilled; young Zeus seems ready to stand and try his wobbly legs, which will soon carry him against his father. The Cyclopes appear to be readying his armament even as his father and mother take their place upon Olympus. For all the artist's skill in rendering the figures, the placement and symbolism used is indeed a masterful stroke.
The other side depicts the Tiantomachia is all its fiery and gruesome details.

These mosaics were crafted as a teaching tool, among other purposes by an ancient mage. The symbolism, and the magic built into the pictures, teaches any who have studied it a great deal on how the artist viewed the universe. The only magus to study it for an entire season - Stentor - learned a great deal on ancient practices of Theurgy.

The pattern involves many of the same bonds which Hermetic theory observes, such as the Laws of Similarity and Contagion, but there are many other bonds and implied rules which seem to govern entities which are not of the mundane world; at least according to the mosaic. Deeper implications of Similarity; more intricate nuances of Contagion. Undertones of Names; subtexts of Forms. They all tie together to define the very essence of the being's nature. To know one is to know the echoes of the others, and to know them all is to understand the creature. With understanding, of course, comes power, but the understanding is so much more important than mere rulership.

Titan

In Greek mythology, any of the children of Ouranos (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth) and their descendants. According to Hesiod's Theogony, there were 12 original Titans: the brothers Okeanos, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Kronos; and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. At the instigation of Gaea the Titans rebelled against their father, who had shut them up in the underworld (Tartarus). Under the leadership of Kronos they deposed Ouranos and set up as their ruler. But one of Kronos' sons, Zeus, rebelled against his father, and a struggle then ensued between them in which most of the Titans sided with Kronos. Zeus and his brothers and sisters finally defeated the Titans after 10 years of fierce battles (the Titanomachia). The Titans were then hurled down by Zeus and imprisoned in a cavity beneath Tartarus.

Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology

A Wonderful Table on Hesiod's Theogony

Back

Last modified: Thurs Nov 19, 1998 / Jeremiah Genest