resembles Zeus. One explanation is association with the prefix za- 'very', as in zatheos 'very divine'. An alternative is that the Sky deity is thus connected with the Earth Goddess Gê. Namely, the Cypriot form is Zã. A third interpretation is based on the genitive form Zantos. Pherecydes' father Babys came from Cilicia, where the Luwian god Šanta was known as Sandes and Sandon. The Hittites identified it as the sky god, and the Greeks as Zeus or Heracles. Based on Zeus and Sandon with their associations, Pherecydes constructed a basic form with Zas-Zantos. Zas (Zeus) is comparable with the Orphic Eros in function, as a personification of masculine sexual creativity. According to Proclus, "Pherecydes used to say that Zeus changed into Eros when about to create, for the reason that, having created the world from opposites, he led it into agreement and peace and sowed sameness in all things, and unity that interpenetrates the universe". Chronos as time, the creator god, was unusual and is probably Eastern in origin. Phoenician myths and Zoroastrianism have a deified Time (Zurvan) that also creates without a partner with its seed, but leaves the concrete design of the physical world to another god. The semen (seeds) of Chronos which can probably be considered as a watery chaos was placed in the recesses and composed numerous other offspring of gods. This is described in a fragment preserved in Damascius' On First Principles. In later Greek poetry, Chronos (also called Aiōn) appears as personification. Some Pherecydes fragments say Kronos, not Chronos. The association between the two figures is not traditional but may be correct. According to Hermias and Probus, Pherecydes did connect Chronos with Kronos, perhaps on etymological grounds. After him Pindar and Hellenistic orphism did this too. Chthoniê comes from chthôn 'earth' and chthonios 'in/under the earth'. It concerns the invisible part of the dark, primitive earth mass. Gê, on the other hand, refers to the visible, differentiated Earth's surface. Chthoniê's role is related to myths about Cybele in western Anatolia. Herodotus uses chthoniai theai as a name for Demeter (mother earth) and her daughter Persephone . Pherecydes probably regarded Chthoniê as 'mother of the gods'. Hesiod described Tartaros as being "in a recess (muchos) of broad-wayed earth". Hermann S. Schibli thinks the five muchoi were actually harboured within Chthonie, or at least were so initially when Chronos disposed his seed in the five