“Depth”: an aeonic term for the primal father god.

Bythos is both the "primal ground" and the pre-beginning forefather.

Bythos is a Gnostic term for one of the primordial states of the cosmos. It means “Depth” and is the source of the manifested universe. It is equivalent to Primordial Space or Akasa.

Helena P. BLAVATSKY equates it with the second LOGOS. (SD I:349).

Blavatsky mentions Bythos again, stating, “In the ‘Book of Numbers’ it is explained that EN (or Ain, Aiôr) is the only self-existent, whereas its ‘Depth’ (Bythos or Buthon of the Gnostics, called Propator) is only periodical. The latter is Brahma as differentiated from Brahma or Parabrahm” (SD I:214). See BRAHMA.

Synonymous with Barbelo. The "Depth" or "Void". Its the "primal ground" and the pre-beginning forefather. May denote the void between dualities, like Yin and Yang, Pronoia, and Protophanes, Pleroma, and Kenoma, but the term is not generally found in Sethian works. "According to other Gnostics, for example Valentinus, the first principle is also called Aeon or the unfathomable, the primeval depth, the absolute abyss, bythos, in which everything is sublimated (aufgehoben) before the beginning (proárche) or before the Father (propátor). Aeon is the activator". ([An excerptfrom Hegel"s "Lectures on the History of Philosophy", translated by Scott Thompson, from G.W.F. Hegel's "Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie"ii ", (Theorie Werkausgabe, Bd. 19), Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1977, 426-430]