Aristophanes, in his "Aves," says:[1]
"Chaos and Night and black Erebus and wide Tartarus first existed."[2]
Orpheus says:
"From the beginning the gloomy night enveloped and obscured all things that were under the ether" (the clouds). "The earth was invisible on account of the darkness, but the light broke through the ether" (the clouds), "and illuminated the earth."
By this power were produced the sun, moon, and stars.[3]
It is from Sanchoniathon that we derive most of the little we know of that ancient and mysterious people, the Phœnicians. He lived before the Trojan war; and of his writings but fragments survive--quotations in the writings of others.
[1. "The Theogony."
2. Faber's "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," vol. i, p. 255.
3. Cory's "Fragments," p. 298.]
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