I absolutely loved this essay, Adrian. The Hebrew phrase “tovu va-bohu” not only onomatopoeically sounds like “a waste and wild” (as Milton calls it), but it’s always reminded me of the English phrase “topsy-turvy”. Going back to Milton (as I often do), he was a rather capable scholar of Hebrew and managed to evoke the epical majesty of the original language of Genesis. Of course, he contaminated it in his own way by blending with Ovid’s description of creation in Metamorphoses (“… and earth self-balance on her center hung”) and medieval Thomism. There’s another description in Milton of chaos that I love. It’s in Book II when he describes Satan passing through it. He calls it: “A dark illimitable ocean, without bound, without dimension, where length and breadth and height and time and space are lost.”
Thanks so much, Daniel. Yes, Milton surely has a poet’s feel for the Hebrew of the accounts. And, yes, have always loved the tohuwabohu term not least for its mouthful but also allusion to Tiamat. And, of course, the sheer weirdness of the concept of ‘void’ in cosmic terms. These stories are properly epic. I like the topsy-turvy echo. Adding a wibbly-wobbly to that.
I absolutely loved this essay, Adrian. The Hebrew phrase “tovu va-bohu” not only onomatopoeically sounds like “a waste and wild” (as Milton calls it), but it’s always reminded me of the English phrase “topsy-turvy”. Going back to Milton (as I often do), he was a rather capable scholar of Hebrew and managed to evoke the epical majesty of the original language of Genesis. Of course, he contaminated it in his own way by blending with Ovid’s description of creation in Metamorphoses (“… and earth self-balance on her center hung”) and medieval Thomism. There’s another description in Milton of chaos that I love. It’s in Book II when he describes Satan passing through it. He calls it: “A dark illimitable ocean, without bound, without dimension, where length and breadth and height and time and space are lost.”
Thanks so much, Daniel. Yes, Milton surely has a poet’s feel for the Hebrew of the accounts. And, yes, have always loved the tohuwabohu term not least for its mouthful but also allusion to Tiamat. And, of course, the sheer weirdness of the concept of ‘void’ in cosmic terms. These stories are properly epic. I like the topsy-turvy echo. Adding a wibbly-wobbly to that.