Talk:The Book of Urizen
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This book was printed by Blake on 28 plates (but some of copies contain 24 plates). There are 7 copies known.
The word "First" was erased from the title "The Book of Urizen" in the later copies, and the sequel was named "The Book of Ahania" (1795). "The Book of Los" (1795) is closely related.
"Urizen" was pronounced by Blake with stress on the first syllable. Urizen received much of his characterization from popular conceptions of Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament. The name may came from "You Reason" or "Your Reason", i.e., the accepted wisdom of the age; or from the Greek horizein, "to set limits"; or, conceivably, from both equally. Not a benevolent character, Urizen oppresses Orc, who embodies revolutionary passion and creativity, and who serves as a suffering saviour figure. He is also an enemy of Luvah, the spirit of love.
As S. Foster Damon noted: "He is the southern Zoa, who symbolizes Reason. But he is much more that we commonly understand by "reason": he is the limiter of Energy, the lawmaker, and the avenging conscience. He is a plowman, a builder, a driver of the sun-chariot. His art is architecture, his sense is Sight, his metal is Gold, his element is Air. His Emanation is Ahania (pleasure); his contrary, in the north, is Urthona (the Imagination)." A Blake Dictionary, Brown University Press, Providence, Rhode Island, 1965/1973, p. 419.