Cybele and Attis Still Unfinished 36×36”

The ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (of Ephesus) is best known for the idea that the world is in constant flux. The Four Basic elements are earth, air, fire, and water.

• The Core Idea: Heraclitus argued that "everything flows" (panta rhei) and that reality is defined by constant change, famously saying you cannot step into the same river twice.

• Other Figures: Later thinkers also touched upon the concept—such as the English philosopher John Locke, who wrote in his Two Treatises of Government that "things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state".

• Empedocles (5th Century BCE): Combined these ideas, proposing that all things are made of four unchanging "roots"—earth, water, air, and fire—driven together by "love" and separated by "strife".

When their toes touched down on Cybele's ground Their adrenaline flight lost speed and drowned, Their fire and wild power slid fast Into empty-bellied sleep. Slothic languor smeared their eyes With summer-honeyed sleep. Sleep leaving quickly left Attis awake Snuck back to Pasiphaea's spasmic hips.

• The Context: Catullus 63 is a famous, intense Latin poem written in the rare galliambic meter. It tells the tragic myth of Attis, a young man who flies across the sea in a state of religious frenzy inspired by the goddess Cybele. In his ecstatic madness, he castrates himself to become one of her devoted, gender-transcending priests (the Galli).

• The Meaning of this Passage: This specific section captures the exact moment the ecstatic frenzy breaks. After collapsing from exhaustion into a deep, "honeyed" sleep on Mount Dindymus, Attis wakes up the next morning. The temporary madness has cleared, and he is suddenly forced to confront the harsh, irreversible reality of what he did to his own body.

THE FLUX:

Earth, Air, Fire and Water.