Orpheus and Hesiod

Meaning

II.2.20 invokes Orpheus and Hesiod for naming as Love the movement caused by celestial fire, the first mover in chaos. Matter is like a receptacle of supreme ideas, full of forms potentially rather than actually; it is not properly a body but quasi-body. Its appetite is a longing to receive form and become embodied, not a desire to inform another subject. The ancient names support this interpretation of generation rather than a literal mythological genealogy.

The next unit gives a Ronsard poem in which Love itself speaks as cosmic mover. The author praises Ronsard through comparison with Homer and Pindar, so the ancient and modern poetic authorities form a deliberate chain. Keeping the speakers separate matters: the first-person creator of the verse is personified Love, not either cited ancient poet and not the narrator's autobiographical self.