The Book of Imaginary Beings，1969
柯罗诺斯或赫克勒斯
1
在其论著《第一本原疑难与解答》中，新柏图主义者达马修斯
（约生于公元480年）
记录了非比寻常的俄耳甫斯教版本的神谱和天演论。柯罗诺斯或赫克勒斯在其中的角色乃是头怪物：
据希埃罗尼穆斯
2
和赫拉尼库斯
3
（若此二人非同一人）
所云，俄耳甫斯教教义宣扬太初之时有水和泥，然后塑造了土。故此，水和土被教导为是最初的两大本原。由它们又产生了第三本原，一条有翼的龙：其前半身长着牛首，后半身长着狮首，而在中间则长着一张神的脸；这龙名为永恒的柯罗诺斯，又叫赫拉克勒斯。祂生下了“必然”，或被称为“定数”
4
，并弥漫到宇宙的边际……
柯罗诺斯，最初的龙，从自己身上诞下了三胞胎：潮湿的埃忒耳
5
、无限的卡俄斯
6
和迷蒙的厄瑞玻斯
7
。接着祂又产下一枚卵，并从中孵化出了世界。
最后的本原是一位神：祂既是男人又是女人，背上生有金翅，两肋各有牛首，头上则盘着条大龙，和所有走兽几无差异……
或许正因这过度的怪物想象带有更多东方的而非希腊的色彩，瓦尔特·克兰茨
8
将这些幻想归结为有某种东方起源。
1.希腊俄耳甫斯系神话的时间之神，不同于奥林匹斯系神话中的克洛诺斯或赫拉克勒斯。
2.似指罗德岛的希埃罗尼穆斯（Hieronymus of Rhodes，前290-230年），逍遥学派哲学家。
3.密提林的赫拉尼库斯（Hellanicus of Mytilene，前490-405年），古希腊编年史学家。
4.希腊神话中天命、定数、必然性的神格化，原始神，一般为女神形像。
5.希腊神话中的太空之神，原始神，代表天堂。“以太”一词的源头。
6.希腊神话中的混沌之神，原始神。
7.希腊神话中的黑暗之神，原始神。
8.瓦尔特·克兰茨（1884-1960），德国文献学家和哲学史家。
柯罗诺斯，最初的龙，从自己身上诞下了三胞胎：潮湿的埃忒耳、无限的卡俄斯和迷蒙的厄瑞玻斯。接着祂又产下一枚卵，并从中孵化出了世界。
——博尔赫斯｜姜白 译
Chronos or Hercules
Translated by
Norman Thomas di Giovanni
The treatise Difficulties and Solutions of First Principles by the Neoplatonist Damascius (born about A.D. 480) records a strange version of the theogony and cosmogony of Orphism, in which Chronos-or Hercules-is a monster:
According to Hieronymus and Hellanicus (if the two are not one), Orphic doctrine teaches that in the beginning there was water and mud, with which the earth was shaped. These two principles were taught to be the first: water and earth. From them came the third, a winged dragon, which in its foreparts had the head of a bull, in its hindparts the head of a lion, and in its middle the face of a god; this dragon was named the Unaging Chronos and also Heracles. With him Necessity, also known as the Inevitable, was born and spread to the boundaries of the Universe…Chronos, the dragon, drew from himself a threefold seed: moist Ether, limitless Chaos, and misty Erebus. Under them he laid an egg, from which the world was to hatch. The last principle was a god who was man and woman, with golden wings on its back, and bulls' heads on its sides, and on its head a huge dragon, like all manner of beasts. . . .
Perhaps because what is excessively monstrous seems less fitting to Greece than to the East, Walter Kranz attributes an Oriental origin to these fancies.
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