21

Finally, the opening of the poem describes Los as the hero of the work:

Los was the fourth immortal starry one, & in the Earth

Of a bright Universe, Empery attended day & night,

Days & nights of revolving joy. Urthona was his name

In Eden; in the Auricular Nerves of Human Life,

Which is the Earth of Eden, he his Emanations

propagated,

[Like Sons & Daughters del.] Fairies of Albion,

afterwards Gods of the Heathen. Daughter of Beulah, Sing

His fall into Division & his Resurrection to Unity:

His fall into the Generation of decay & death, & his Regeneration by the Resurrection from the dead.

(K. I. 14-23)

In such phrases as "Empery attended day & night" in "Days & nights of revolving joy," periodicity is implied in the cycle of the infinite. The "Earth of Eden" is described as "in the Auricular Nerves of Human Life," so, in Blake's Eden, the equivalent of earth is the prophetic voice. Prophetic poetry is the source of nourishment in Eden and, since Los is the energy of prophetic poetry, his prophetic understand­ings can be thought of as the "Earth of Eden."

A later addition to line 19 reinforces the point made above. The "Emanations" of Los were originally conceived as "Sons & Daughters," but were emended to read "Fairies of Albion, afterwards Gods of the Heathen." The addition is significant, for the 'descendents' of Los are the finite elemental powers of myth and legend and thus the source of the 'prophetic' voice of pagan mythologies. In Eden, "Empery" attends while in the finite the elemental powers attend; therefore, a prophetic relationship between the two planes of reference is rein­forced to determine further the perspective of the reader before the fall proper occurs.