LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 125THE MYTH OF THE CREATORS
There were three ungenerated principles
governing the cosmos: two male and one female.
One of the male principles is called the Good,
and it alone carries that epithet^10
and knows everything ahead of time.
The other male principle is named father of all things
begotten in the world, has no forethought,
and he is unknown and invisible.
The female is angry.
She knows nothing ahead of time
and she has two minds and two bodies. As in Herodotos's myth,
she is a virgin above and a viper below.^11
She is called both Edem and Israel.
These are the principles of the cosmos,
the roots and pools from which all sprang,
and nothing else was in the world.
When the father knowing nothing beforehand
saw that half-virgin Edem,^12 he burned for her,
and he the father is called Elohim,^13
and Edem burned equally for Elohim. Their desire
drew them to a single union of love.
From this coupling the father seeded twelve angels
for himself through Edem.
The paternal angels are Michael, Amen, Baruch, Gabriel, Esaddaeus- See Luke 18:19.
- Herodotos, 4.8-10. The ancient notion of a woman consisting of two parts, the virgin
breasts above the waist and an animal temptation below, is contained in myths of the siren, a
symbol in Homer's Odyssey of seduction and destruction. - Edem means "earth" and Eden means "paradise." Traditionally, Eden is said to be from the
Hebrew eden, meaning "delight," or god's garden of delight. However, it is more probably re-
lated to a Sumerian word meaning "plain." The extant Greek text gives edem, as in the early
Septuagint Greek translation. - Originally the Hebrew word for "gods," Elohim came to be normally translated "god" (sin-
gular) in Genesis 1:1, though elsewhere, as in the Psalms, it retains the plural notion of "gods." - Seven of the names of paternal angels are now lost.