Beginnings And Gods

When Time Patrol Specialist Keith Denison was captured in ancient Persia, he kicked his timecycle into time-drive and:

"'...it probably went clear back to the Beginning.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 55-112 AT p. 83.

Unlike Heraclitus, we know of a cosmic Beginning but what, if anything, was before it?

Time Patrolmen know of "gods" because they continually visit periods where divine powers and presences are taken for granted. Thinking in these terms, Manse Everard has learned that the gods "...were a miserly lot." (p. 74) However, human history is guarded by the Time Patrol and, beyond them, the Danellians. One Danellian comments:

"'In a reality forever liable to chaos, the Patrol is the stabilizing element, holding time to a single course. Perhaps it is not the best course, but we are no gods to impose anything different...'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), 1990 A.D., p. 435.

Similarly, James Blish's Service agents could try to change the foreknown future but decide instead to implement the policy:

"'To Whom it may concern: Thy will, not mine.'"
-James Blish, The Quincunx Of Time (New York, 1983), CHAPTER TEN, p. 104.

Gods are active in Anderson's heroic fantasies but not in his Time Patrol series.