chaos and order

…to the created order appear chaotic; the beings inhabiting these places seem without form or stability, or they commit immoral acts. The seeming chaos is moving toward a definite form of order, however, an order latent in the very forms themselves rather than from an imposition of order from the…

…all of the forms of chaos in a terrible way—expresses the theme that chaos is not only passive (as is water) but resists creation. Although creation results as a modification of the primordial matter, however, it is this matter that determines and sets the limits to the extension of the…

…combat between the forces of order and chaos. Order was understood to be something won in the beginning by the gods, and it was this primordial act of salvation that was renewed and reexperienced in the cult.

…injecting of order (cosmos) into chaotic primordial beings or matter, followed by divine acts of creation. Genesis 1:1–3 says that when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the “earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of…

…realm of disorder, from which order had arisen and to which it would finally revert. Disorder had to be kept at bay. The task of the king as the protagonist of human society was to retain the benevolence of the gods in maintaining order against disorder. This ultimately pessimistic view…

…religions, the cosmological dichotomy of chaos and cosmos figured in both myth and worldview. The most prominent and unique feature of ancient Iranian religion was the development of dualism, primarily expressed in the opposition of truth (arta) and falsehood (drug, drauga). Originally confined to ideas of social and natural order…

…that their sacred power is chaotic or demonic. Rather than aiding human beings, they are destructive. The most common examples are monstrous plants and animals, which figure especially in heroic quests as guardians of boons or threats to be overcome; mythical animals associated with destructive natural phenomena, such as the…

…both as negative symbols of chaos (e.g., return of the dead in animal form to mingle with the living; ritualized combats against the primordial dragon) and as positive symbols of the breaking through of bounds and the release of the forces of life (e.g., the presence in many of these…

…of order in nature over chaos. New Year’s festivals have been celebrated in recorded history for more than five millennia. In ancient Mesopotamia, for example, Sumerians and Babylonians celebrated the renewal of the life-sustaining spring rains in the month of Nisan—although some cities of Mesopotamia retained an ancient custom of…

…occasions symbolically repeat the primordial chaos before the beginning of the world; and just as the world was created “in the beginning,” so in the repetition of that time the present world is regenerated. The use of masks and the suspension of normal tabus express the unstructured, unconditioned nature of…