"the drains of Quauhnahuac visited us and left us wth something that smelt like the Cosmic Egg till recently." – UTV, 71.

The motif of the Cosmic Egg cracking open and birthing all is apparent in the creation myths of many cultures. Egyptian, Babylonian, Orphic, Indian and many other ab ovo creation stories exist, but Lowry has in mind primarily Thomas Burnet's Sacred Theory of the Earth (1680-89), which was central to his own cosmology. Burnet maintained, as literal truth, that the earth was once a giant egg, but the action of the sun making volatile the waters of the deep within, the shell cracked and the waters rushed forth (the Deluge), fragments of the shell now forming the mountains and continents of our present world. The consul's cosmic egg is decidedly addled, the drains of Quauhnahuac being quite unlike the life-renewing annual visitations of the waters of the Nile.

Above: Sunrise by the Ocean, painting copyright Vladimir Kush. To view other works by the artist, visit www.vladimirkush.com.

Below: Frontispiece for; and representations of the earth as a giant egg from Burnet's Sacred Theory of the Earth.