FOUR ZOAS IV-V / 52:11-58:20


 How the birth of Ore
re-enacts the binding of
 Urizen in Night IV


 Since Tharmas is the
 character-form of Uri-
zen's chaotic state, Thar-
mas likewise exerts con-
 trol over Los's binding
 actions.


disaster of his creation, Urizen can successfully exclude the central narra-
tive cause of his fall-the casting out of Ahania. The birth and binding of
Orc in the first two-thirds of Night V absorb the sexual consequences of
Urizen's creation, and in condensing these consequences into an image,
the narrative makes possible Urizen's re-emergence into the poem, for it
creates a framework by means of which Urizen is able to shut out that very
image.
 Though in rebuilding the furnaces and binding the fallen King in Night
IV Los was following Tharmas' last two commands, these actions also
issued from Los's motives of "revenge" and "terror," which also form the
backdrop for the birth and binding of Orc in Night V. Los was initially
"terrified" in Night IV at the vision of Urizen as "chaos" when Tharmas
departed from the poem's surface to be replaced by the chaotic remnants of
Urizen. But, though Tharmas' departure was in fact an alternative version
of his battle with Los, Los's rebuilding of Urizen's furnaces equally
enacted the battle between Tharmas and Los -a battle which bothpreceded
and was constituted by Tharmas' departure: "Labour of Ages in the Dark-
ness & the war of Tharmas" (52:17). Similarly, when Los begins in Night
V to bind down Orc in a replay of this action, the binding involves
"warring with the waves ofTharmas & Snows ofUrizen" (61:4). Thus the
"binding of Urizen" in Night IVand "binding around [Orc's] limbs / The
accursed chain" (60:28-29) in Night V actually disguise and enact the
submerged warfare between Urizen, Tharmas, and Los.
 As Los began his task in Night IV, Urizen "heave[d] in strong shud-
ders," and though his voice was "silent" it stretched out spatially "from
North to South / In mighty power" (52:24-25). Urizen's ability to main-
tain power through his silence thus signaled an invisible control by Urizen
over Los's actions. Just as in Night II Urizen could not grasp Los and
Enitharmon's plot to divide him from Ahania, so in Night IV, Los was
unable to perceive in Urizen any significance except as a formless sub-
stance out of which he was compelled, by terror and revenge, to create
form: that his attempt to organize Urizen's chaotic state took the form of
binding is, ofcourse, characteristic ofUrizen's perspective as elaborated in
Night II. Situated in this point of view in Night IV, Los began to roll his
"thunderous wheels" (52:26), an action which immediately produced
chains to bind Urizen. As Los performed his task of heating the furnaces
and rolling his wheels in forming "chains of iron round the limbs of
Urizen" (53:1), Enitharmon wailed because the chains of iron reflected
back on her as chains of "ceaseless fire" that "Lashd on the limbs of
Enitharmon" (53:8).
 Throughout this sequence, the howls and groans emerging between the
regular time-beats of Los's hammer constituted a dissonant music: "The
lovely female howld & Urizen beneath deep grand / Deadly between the
hammers beating" (53:10-11). Prior to this chaining in Night IV, Tharmas
had promised Los sweet music (which would be a counterpoint to these
howls and groans) if he would take on the task of binding the fallen King: