Editing Phanes (section)

== Mythology ==
In Orphic cosmogony, Phanes is often equated with Eros or [[Mithras]] and has been depicted as a deity emerging from a cosmic egg [[Serpent symbolism|entwined with a serpent]]: the [[Orphism (religion)#Orphic Egg|Orphic egg]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last1=Wilkinson |first1=Philip |title=The Mythology Book |last2=Carroll |first2=Georgie |last3=Faulkner |first3=Mark |last4=Field |first4=Jacob F. |last5=Haywood |first5=John |last6=Kerrigan |first6=Michael |last7=Philip |first7=Neil |last8=Pumphrey |first8=Nicholaus |last9=Tocino-Smith |first9=Juliette |publisher=[[DK (publisher)|DK]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4654-7337-0 |edition=First American |location=New York |author-link=Philip Wilkinson (author) |author-link4=Jacob F. Field}}</ref> He had a helmet and had broad, golden wings. The Orphic cosmogony is quite unlike the creation sagas offered by [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]]. Scholars have suggested that Orphism is "un-Greek", even "Asiatic", in conception because of its inherent [[dualism in cosmology|dualism]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Russell |first=Jeffrey Burton |year=1987 |title=The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D2-Na937xRYC |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=137 |isbn=0-8014-9409-5}}</ref>

Chronos is said to have created the silver egg of the universe out of which burst the first-born deity Phanes, or Phanes-Dionysus.<ref name=Leeming-2010-p119>{{cite book |last=Leeming |first=David Adams |date=2010 |title=Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9I62BcuPxfYC |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9I62BcuPxfYC&pg=PA119 119] |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-59884-174-9}}</ref> Phanes was a male god; in an original ''[[Orphic Hymn]]'' he is named as "Lord [[Priapos]]",<ref>Athanassakis-1977-Hymn6: For this I call you Phanes and Lord Priapos and bright-eyed Antauges. [https://www.academia.edu/10252873/The_Orphic_Hymns]</ref> although others consider him [[androgynous]].<ref name="Alvarez 2016">{{cite book |last=Santamaría Álvarez |first=Marco Antonio |year=2016 |contribution=Did Plato know of the Orphic god Protogonos? |editor1-first=María José |editor1-last=García Blanco |editor2-first=María José |editor2-last=Martín-Velasco |title=Greek Philosophy and Mystery Cults |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zSn5DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA207 207] |publisher=Cambridge Scholars |isbn=978-1-4438-8830-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zSn5DAAAQBAJ |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Phanes was a deity of light and goodness, whose name meant "to bring light" or "to shine";<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Coulter |first1=Charles Russell |url= |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities |last2=Turner |first2=Patricia |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-0-7864-9179-7 |location=Jefferson |page=381 |oclc=1289371188}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Joseph |title=The Mysteries |date=1978 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-01823-2 |page=71}}</ref> a first-born deity, he emerged from the [[Abyss (religion)|abyss]] and gave birth to the universe.<ref name=":0" /> [[Nyx (mythology)|Nyx]] (Night) is variously said to be Phanes' daughter<ref name=Leeming-2010-p119/> or older wife; she is the counterpart of Phanes and is considered by [[Aristophanes]] the first deity. According to Aristophanes,<ref name=Aristophanes-Birds/> in a play where Phanes is called "Eros", Phanes was born from an egg created by Nyx and placed in the boundless lap of [[Erebus]], after which he mates with [[Chaos (mythology)|Chaos]] and creates the [[List of flying mythological creatures|flying creatures]].<ref name=Aristophanes-Birds>{{cite book |author=Aristophanes |author-link=Aristophanes |title=[[The Birds (play)|The Birds]] |at=690–702}} The passage is quoted in the play as an attempt by "the birds" to demonstrate that flying creatures are well-known to be senior to all other living creatures – older, even, than many of the gods.</ref>

In Orphic literature, Phanes was believed to have been hatched from the world egg of Chronos and [[Ananke]] "Necessity, Fate" or Nyx in the form of a black bird and wind. His older wife Nyx called him ''Protogenos''. As she created nighttime, Phanes created daytime and the method of creation by mingling. He was made the ruler of the deities. This new Orphic tradition states that Phanes passed the [[sceptre]] to Nyx; Nyx later gave the sceptre to her son [[Uranus (mythology)|Ouranos]]; [[Cronus]] seized the sceptre from his father Ouranos; and finally, the sceptre held by Cronus was seized by [[Zeus]], who holds it at present. Some Orphic myths suggest that Zeus intends to pass the sceptre to [[Dionysus]].

According to the [[Platonic Academy|Athenian scholiast]] [[Damascius]], Phanes was the first god "expressible and acceptable to human ears" ("{{Lang|grc|πρώτης ητόν τι ἐχούσης καὶ σύμμετρον πρὸς ἀνθρώπων ἀκοάς}}").<ref>cf. Bernabe frr. 75–80, Kern 54{{full citation needed |date=May 2020 |reason=obscure}}</ref> Another ''Orphic Hymn'' states:
{{blockquote|You scattered the dark mist that lay before your eyes and, flapping your wings, you whirled about, and throughout this world you brought pure light. For this I call you Phanes, I call you Lord Priapos, I call you sparkling<ref>{{cite web |title={{math|ἀνταυγής}} |website=lsj.gr/wiki |url=https://lsj.gr/wiki/%E1%BC%80%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B1%CF%85%CE%B3%CE%AE%CF%82 |access-date=2021-06-06 }}</ref> with bright eyes.<ref name=Athanassakis-1977-Hymn6>{{cite book |title=The Orphic Hymns |chapter=Hymn&nbsp;6 to Protogonos |translator1=Athanassakis, Apostolos N. |translator2=Wolkow, Benjamin M. |orig-year=1977 |date=29 May 2013 |edition=Kindle |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |place=Baltimore, MD |isbn=978-1421408828 }}</ref>}}

The [[Derveni papyrus]] refers to Phanes: 
{{blockquote|Of the First-born king, the reverend one; and upon him all the immortals grew, blessed gods and goddesses and rivers and lovely springs and everything else that had then been born; and he himself became the sole one.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chrysanthou |first1=Anthi |title=Defining Orphism: The Beliefs, the 'teletae' and the Writings |date=20 April 2020 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-067845-1 |page=244 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cr3tDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA244 |language=en}}</ref>}}

In the ''Orphic Hymns'', Phanes-Protogonus is identified with [[Dionysus]], who is referred to under the names of Protogonus and Eubuleus several times in the collection.<ref>Otlewska-Jung, pp. 91&ndash;2.</ref>