Phanes (mythology)

Phanes (Greek: Φάνης, from phainō "I bring to light"), or Protogonos (Greek: Πρωτογόνος, "First-born"), was the mystic primeval deity of procreation and the generation of new life, who was introduced into Greek mythology by the Orphic tradition; other names for this Classical Greek Orphic concept included Ericapaeus ("power") and Metis ("thought"). In these myths Phanes is often equated with Eros and Mithras and has been depicted as a hermaphroditic deity emerging from a cosmic egg, entwined with a serpent. Many threads of earlier myths are apparent in the new tradition. Phanès was believed to have been hatched from the World-Egg of Time and Necessity. He was made the ruler of the deities and passed the sceptre to Nyx, his mother, wife, sister, or daughter (possibly all). This new Orphic tradition states that Nyx later gave the sceptre to her son Uranos before it passed to Kronos and then to Zeus, who retained it.

The "Protogonos Theogony" is known through the commentary in the Derveni papyrus and references in Empedocles and Pindar.

External links

• Protogonus (Phanes)
• Theoi Project: Phanes
• Suda entry

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