Night (Nyx)

But the Orphics say that black-winged Night, a goddess of whom even Zeus stands in awe, was courted by the Wind and laid a silver egg in the womb of Darkness; and that Eros, whom some call Phanes, was hatched from this egg and set the universe in motion.

-Robert Graves, The Greek Myths (2.b)

Duality

Gaia generates Ouranos, her Other. Clearly dual, but not yet separated.

Chaos and Gaia had formed a kind of duality, but not like the Gaia-Ouranos opposition. Chaos and Primordial Eros are not gendered. Gaia is, and so becomes the source of "strong" duality.

Gaia generates her Other. Pain enters the world. The need for separation. The need for liberation.

First or Second "Why?"

What is the first question? How does Chaos exist? How does possibility exist? The precondition for conditioned existence.

Why does Gaia appear? Why does Gaia self-generate Ouranos?

In the Symposium, Plato defines love, via Diotima, as "to give birth in beauty." Is that just another formulation of the mythology? Is Primordial Eros Gaia's reason? Freud will come along and write of Eros as the tendency toward increasing complexity. Gaia creates her Other. Eros prompts the cosmos into complexity.

On Origins

From the "vertigo" of Chaos comes the "stability" of Gaia (Vernant). From boundless emptiness comes the "confident" stability of a reality (ibid.). With this reality emerges the desire of primordial Eros. Desire is directed, generates activity. Something must happen.

Chaos: POSSIBILITY

Gaia: REALITY

Eros I: ACTIVITY