THARMAS & URTHONA

The account of the fall of the Zoas is repeated from different perspectives in seven of the nine Nights of the Four Zoas. In Night I Blake gives us Enitharmon's version and a report by the Ambassadors of Beulah to the Council of Gods. Night II tells of Albion "Turning his Eyes outward to Self. losing the Divine Vision." Ahania, in Night III, recounts her Memory and her Vision of the events of the fall. In Night IV Tharmas and the Spectre of Urthona discuss their recollections in which it was Urizen and Luvah who initiated the fall. The fall deepens in Night V when Enitharmon gives birth to Orc and Urizen laments instigating the fall. Night VII has Orc recalling that he, as Luvah, confronted Urizen and brought about the fall.

"I well remember how I stole thy light & it became fire

Consuming. Thou Knowst me now O Urizen Prince of Light

And I know thee" Page 80 (E 356)

In Night IX is a reference to the rock on which Albion lies being forsaken when "Urizen gave the horses of Light into the hands of Luvah."

More detail of these accounts is given in Appendix B of Blake's Four Zoas: The design of a Dream by Brian Wilkie and Mary Lynn Johnson. 

Four Zoas, Night IV, Page 49, (E 333)

"The Spectre of Urthona seeing Enitharmon writhd 
His cloudy form in jealous fear & muttering thunders hoarse      
And casting round thick glooms. thus utterd his fierce pangs of heart 

 Tharmas I know thee. how are we alterd our beauty decayd
But still I know thee tho in this horrible ruin whelmd
Thou once the mildest son of heaven art now become a Rage
A terror to all living things. think not that I am ignorant
That thou art risen from the dead or that my power forgot

PAGE 50 (Page 333)
I slumber here in weak repose. I well remember the Day
The day of terror & abhorrence                            
When fleeing from the battle thou fleeting like the raven
Of dawn outstretching an expanse where neer expanse had been
Drewst all the Sons of Beulah into thy dread vortex following  
Thy Eddying spirit down the hills of Beulah. All my sons
Stood round me at the anvil where new heated the wedge
Of iron glowd furious prepard for spades & mattocks
Hearing the symphonies of war loud sounding   All my sons
Fled from my side then pangs smote me unknown before. I saw      
My loins begin to break forth into veiny pipes & writhe  
Before me in the wind englobing trembling with strong vibrations
The bloody mass began to animate. I bending over
Wept bitter tears incessant. Still beholding how the piteous form
Dividing & dividing from my loins a weak & piteous               
Soft cloud of snow a female pale & weak I soft embracd
My counter part & calld it Love   I named her Enitharmon
But found myself & her together issuing down the tide
Which now our rivers were become delving thro caverns huge
Of goary blood struggling to be deliverd from our bonds        
She strove in vain not so Urthona strove for breaking forth,
A shadow blue obscure & dismal from the breathing Nostrils

Of Enion I issued into the air divided from Enitharmon
I howld in sorrow   I beheld thee rotting upon the Rocks
I pitying hoverd over thee I protected thy ghastly corse         
From Vultures of the deep then wherefore shouldst thou rage
Against me who thee guarded in the night of death from harm

Tharmas replied. Art thou Urthona My friend my old companion,
With whom I livd in happiness before that deadly night
When Urizen gave the horses of Light into the hands of Luvah     
Thou knowest not what Tharmas knows. O I could tell thee tales
That would enrage thee as it has Enraged me even
From Death in wrath & fury. But now come bear back
Thy loved Enitharmon. For thou hast her here before thine Eyes
PAGE 51 (E 334)
But my sweet Enion is vanishd & I never more
Shall see her unless thou O Shadow. wilt protect this Son
Of Enion & him assist. to bind the fallen King
Lest he should rise again from death in all his dreary power   
Bind him, take Enitharmon for thy sweet reward while I           
In vain am driven on false hope. hope sister of despair

Groaning the terror rose & drave his solid rocks before        
Upon the tide till underneath the feet of Los a World
Dark dreadful rose & Enitharmon lay at Los's feet
The dolorous shadow joyd. weak hope appeard around his head      

Tharmas before Los stood & thus the Voice of Tharmas rolld

Now all comes into the power of Tharmas. Urizen is falln
And Luvah hidden in the Elemental forms of Life & Death
Urthona is My Son O Los thou art Urthona & Tharmas
Is God. The Eternal Man is seald never to be deliverd            
I roll my floods over his body my billows & waves pass over him
The Sea encompasses him & monsters of the deep are his companions
Dreamer of furious oceans cold sleeper of weeds & shells
Thy Eternal form shall never renew my uncertain prevails against thee
Yet tho I rage God over all. A portion of my Life                
That in Eternal fields in comfort wanderd with my flocks 
At noon & laid her head upon my wearied bosom at night
She is divided   She is vanishd even like Luvah & Vala     
O why did foul ambition sieze thee Urizen Prince of Light  
And thee O Luvah prince of Love till Tharmas was divided         
And I what can I now behold but an Eternal Death
Before my Eyes & an Eternal weary work to strive
Against the monstrous forms that breed among my silent waves
Is this to be A God far rather would I be a Man
To know sweet Science & to do with simple companions             
Sitting beneath a tent & viewing sheepfolds & soft pastures
Take thou the hammer of Urthona rebuild these furnaces
Dost thou refuse   mind I the sparks that issue from thy hair
PAGE 52 (E 335)
I will compell thee to rebuild by these my furious waves
Death choose or life thou strugglest in my waters, now choose life

Page 54, (E 336)

Restless the immortal inchaind heaving dolorous
Anguished unbearable till a roof shaggy wild inclosd
In an orb his fountain of thought                                
In a horrible dreamful slumber like the linked chain
A vast spine writhd in torment upon the wind
Shooting paind. ribbs like a bending Cavern
And bones of solidness froze over all his nerves of joy
A first age passed. a state of dismal woe 

Page 55, (E 338)

At length in tears & cries imbodied
A female form trembling and pale Waves before his deathy face"

Four Zoas, Page 65, Night V, (E 344)

"Thy pure feet stepd on the steps divine. too pure for other feet
And thy fair locks shadowd thine eyes from the divine effulgence
Then thou didst keep with Strong Urthona the living gates of heaven
But now thou art bound down with him even to the gates of hell

Because thou gavest Urizen the wine of the Almighty             
For steeds of Light that they might run in thy golden chariot of pride
I gave to thee the Steeds   I pourd the stolen wine
And drunken with the immortal draught fell from my throne sublime

I will arise Explore these dens & find that deep pulsation
That shakes my caverns with strong shudders. perhaps this is the night
Of Prophecy & Luvah hath burst his way from Enitharmon
When Thought is closd in Caves. Then love shall shew its root in

deepest Hell

End of the Fifth Night"

Blake Archive
Original in British Library
Four Zoas Manuscript, Night V
Page 65

Night VI, (E345)

"may curse Tharmas their God & Los his adopted son
That they may curse & worship the obscure Demon of destruction   
That they may worship terrors & obey the violent
Go forth sons of my curse   Go forth daughters of my abhorrence"

Night VI, (E 346)

"For death to me is better far than life. death my desire
That I in vain in various paths have sought but still I live     
The Body of Man is given to me I seek in vain to destroy
For still it surges forth in fish & monsters of the deeps
And in these monstrous forms I Live in an Eternal woe
And thou O Urizen art falln never to be deliverd
Withhold thy light from me for ever & I will withhold            
From thee thy food so shall we cease to be & all our sorrows
End & the Eternal Man no more renew beneath our power"