KTISIS

#Ktisis #creation #hellenisticart #mosaic #greekart

KTISIS as a word and idea is an excellent example of semantic change.

It seems to have originally been used to refer to the foundation and building of colonies but then to refer both the larger settled built up urban world and to to the idea of the world as a created thing both by Stoics and Christians. 

The artists who used Ktisis as a theme seem to have made a point of being extra careful with the lettering and always portrayed Ktisis as an aristocrat or queen. 

In this final image Ktisis is shown contemplating a measuring instrument and the artists has been less careful with the lettering but the breaking up of the word emphasizes accidentally or intentionally the tilt of her head and her facial expression.

KHAOS AND CREATION

KHAOS AND CREATION

K^haos is how Χάος was pronounced by the ancientGreeks.

The letter Χ “Chi” was an aspirated / k^{h /.}

We tend to think of Chaos as the opposite to order but the actual word originally meant a wide open open or a wide opening and SPACE might be a more accurate translation.

How do scholars know this?

For those of you who don't have access or ownership of the Lidell online or in print here's some words to consider as proof.

Χάσμα a chasm or gulf then these verbs Χάσκω Χασκάζω Χαίνω open wide gape yawn.

Hesiod in his Theogony wrote first (πρώτιστα ) Chaos came into being γένετ̓ (Line 116) next Gaia widebreasted and her siblings Erebos and Night (123)n Heaven and the Mountains and Ocean and the Titans and much more.

Notice how Hesiod uses geneto not poieo become be born not made.

The world comes into being by change in the earliest Greek myths though later versions such as that in Ovid's metamorphoses means a possible creator. There's a process from a primordial unity into complexity and multiplicity from oneness to many.

You might want to read the beginning of Ovid's metamorphoses and contrast the two.

Hesiod's version judging from authors philosophers and poets between his time and that of Ovid's wasn't the ONLY version known to the Greeks. Mythmaking was an active process. Stories change.

The opposite of Chaos is Cosmos the Ordered arranged world but that's another story!