- Looks after
- Light and creation, in Orphic myth
Phanes
Φάνης
Phanes is the first-born god of the Orphic poems, who emerges from a cosmic egg and makes the world.
Family at a glance
No parents are recorded for this figure in the sources used here.
Phanes belongs to a different account of the beginning from Hesiod's. In the poems attributed to Orpheus, he is the first god to appear, emerging from a silver egg, shining and with golden wings. He is also called Protogonos, first-born, and Eros.
In the Orphic story he creates the first gods, mates with Night, and passes rule on to Uranus, and so the order in Hesiod follows later. Eventually Zeus swallows Phanes and remakes the whole world from inside himself.
The Orphic literature is fragmentary and late, much of it preserved by Neoplatonists such as Proclus. Phanes was never worshipped publicly in the way the Olympians were.
In later art and language
His name comes from the Greek verb meaning to bring to light, and is related to the word phantom and to phenomenon.
The ancient evidence for Phanes is limited, so this page is short on purpose.
Ancient sources
- Orphic fragments (Orphicorum fragmenta, ed. Kern)
- Orphic Hymn 6
The family of Phanes
Descended from
No parents recorded
Brothers and sisters
None listed on this site
Partners
Children
None recorded