Pherecydes of Syros

Pherecydes lived in the 6th century BCE on Syros, and stories swirl around him — some called him one of the Seven Sages, others said he studied secret Phoenician texts or learned from Pittacus. He wrote a cosmogony known as the "Pentemychos" or "Heptamychos," now lost except for brief quotations and one long papyrus fragment. In it, three divine principles — Zas (Life), Cthonie (Earth), and Chronos (Time) — shape the cosmos: Chronos creates the elements and gods in earthen cavities, then Zas battles the dragon Ophion, casts him into Oceanus, and marries Chthonie, who becomes the recognizable E…