Orphic Creation

The Orphic Creation Myth is another scenario of the Cosmic Egg origin, but without the Creator Goddess, Eurynome (see Eurynome and Ophion).

Behind the myth is the religion of salvation for the human soul. This religion was named after the mythical singer Orpheus, who was reputedly said to be the founder of the Orphic Mysteries.

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In the beginning, there was Time, which the Greeks called Chronus or Khronos (Χρόνος). This was a period called the Unaging Time when nothing existed and nothing grew old; indeterminate and (almost) limitless time, which some people would call Aeon. Existing at the same time as Chronus was Adrasteia (Ἀδραστεια), or Ananke (Ἀνάγκη), meaning "Necessity".

Chronus and Adrasteia combined to create primordial Spirit and Matter, which were called Aether (Αἰθήρ) and Chaos (Χάος). (Hesiod referred to Aether as the upper atmosphere, where the air was clean and pure; he referred to Aether as a male entity, while in the Orphic myth, Aether was seen as a female being. Chaos was fathomless void, abyss or the yawning gap. With Hesiod, Chaos was a male primordial being, whereas in Orphic myth, the role had changed.) A third primordial being came out of Time and Necessity, Erebus – "Darkness". Chronus then combined with Aether, or possibly with Chaos and Aether, and the primeval beings caused mists to form and solidify into a Cosmic Egg.

The Orphic myth was not the only one to use the Egg motif for their cosmogony. The World Egg can be found in many different Creation myths such as from Egypt, Persia and India. After all, the egg was the symbol of new birth and new life: the god and the world were created from the Cosmic Egg. It wasn't even an original idea in Greek myths. The Athenian comedy playwright Aristophanes wrote in the Birds that Nyx (Νύξ, Night) laid the egg, which Eros (Ἐρως, Love) was born from. In Apollonius' epic, Argonautica, it was Eurynome who created the Egg, from which the world as we know it came into existence.

The Cosmic Egg was the first definable matter that was created out of infinity. The World Egg was gigantic and silver in colour. When the great, resplendent silver Egg hatched, out sprang Protogonus (Πρωτογονυς) which literally means First-born, the first god. According to one Neo-Platonist writer, the Egg shell split in two and the two shells formed heaven and earth.

Protogonus was known by several other names, such as Phanes (Φανης), the god of light; Ericapaeus (Ἐρικαπαεος) meaning "Power", and Metis (Μἣτις), which means "Intelligence". Writers often called him Phanes. As Phanes, he was the primeval sun god with golden wings. He had four eyes which allowed him to look in any direction. He was said to possess a number of heads in the shapes of various animals. He had the voice of a bull and that of a lion. Though he was said to be invisible, he radiated pure light.

Protogonus was identified with Eros (Love); Hesiod's Eros was also an earlier god, born at the same time as Gaea and Tartarus. Sometimes Phanes was called Dionysus (Διόνυσος); if this was the case, then he was the first of three incarnations of Dionysus.

Though people speak of him as a god, Protogonus/Phanes was in fact an androgynous being. Without a partner, he conceived and gave birth to Nyx (Night). (Different accounts say that it was Nyx who laid the Cosmic Egg, therefore she was Protogonus' mother, not his daughter.)

Protogonus (Phanes) was the first supreme ruler of heaven. Either Nyx ruled with Protogonus or on her own. Some time later, he lay with his own daughter, and then he became the father of Earth and Heaven which were named Gaea and Uranus. So it was Protogonus who created the earth and heaven. It was also Protogonus who had created the Golden Age of Man.

Nyx ruled after Protogonus, before she abdicated in favour of her son Uranus, who made Gaea his consort.

What follows is similar to Hesiod's Theogony. Heaven and Earth were the parents of the three Hundred-Handed (Hecatoncheires) and the three Cyclopes. They were also the parents of the Titans; they had seven sons and seven daughters (see the tables for the list of the children of Uranus and Gaea, in the Titans page).

Among Uranus' children was Cronus, the evil Titan who dethroned his father. In Hesiod's account, it was Gaea who conspired with his son to get rid of her husband, but in the Orphic myth it was both Nyx and Gaea who brought about Uranus' downfall using the Titans. Cronus castrated Uranus and threw his father's genitals into the sea. Foam formed in the sea, which drifted until it reached Cyprus and the love goddess Aphrodite sprung out of the sea.

Rhea was Cronus' consort, as well as his sister. In the Orphic myth, she was also confused with Demeter (Ceres), the corn goddess. Perhaps Demeter was another aspect of Rhea. Cronus and Rhea had six children including Zeus. Like Hesiod's Theogony, Cronus swallowed each child that Rhea bore him except his youngest child, Zeus. Rhea hid the infant Zeus in a cave. Rhea wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes and gave it to her husband, which Cronus promptly swallowed, thinking he had swallowed his latest baby. Her name changed into Demeter after Rhea gave birth to Zeus.

The Cretan nymphs Adrasteia and Idaea brought up Zeus, whom they fed the milk of the goat Amaltheia. The Curetes also assisted the nymphs.

How Zeus became the new supreme ruler of universe differed from Hesiod's account. Zeus used honey to make Cronus drunk, disgorging Zeus' siblings, before Zeus dismembered his father just as had Cronus done with his own father (Uranus).

It was Nyx (Night) who advised Zeus to swallow her father/consort Protogonus (Phanes), the first god and the original Creator. Zeus swallowed Protogonus and the entire universe that Protogonus had created, which included the other gods. With Protogonus in his belly, Zeus gained new power and knowledge which he then used to create a new universe. A whole new sun, planets, stars, mountains, land and seas were created. The other gods were also reborn.

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Zeus ruled supreme, but he shared the world with his brothers: Poseidon received the sea and Hades got the subterranean domain of the dead, the netherworld (Underworld). Zeus ruled the sky, but they all shared the earth.

Zeus married many times. He had as many as seven wives, and three of them were his own sisters: Hestia, Demeter (or Rhea) and Hera. (Well, sometimes Demeter, as Rhea, was seen as Zeus' mother.)

Zeus had many children from various wives and mistresses. Some of these children became important deities; among them were Athena, Hermes, Apollo and Artemis, Ares and Hephaestus. See the Olympians page.

From Demeter, Zeus became the father of Persephone (Kore). Demeter and Persephone lived in the Dictean cave of the island Crete, where they were guarded by snakes.

(According to other writers, after Zeus had overthrown his father Cronus, Rhea or Demeter tried to escape from the nuptials with her own son by assuming the form of a snake. Zeus also turned himself into a snake and raped Rhea. So Rhea (Demeter) became the mother of Persephone.)

Zeus wanted a son to one-day rule in his place, and decided that his own daughter, Kore or Persephone, would be the mother of that son. Zeus secretly transformed himself into a snake and lay with his daughter. Persephone became pregnant and became the mother of Dionysus (Zagreus).

Earlier Orphic writers called him Dionysus, but the Neoplatonist writers sometimes called him Zagreus. The Neoplatonists also believed that Dionysus/Zagreus was a reincarnation of Protogonus/Phanes, whom Zeus had swallowed earlier. For the sake of convenience I will call Dionysus son of Persephone, Zagreus, so we can distinguish one Dionysus from the other.

While Zagreus was still an infant, Zeus placed the sceptre in his son's tiny hand and announced before all the gods that Zagreus would become their new ruler.

Zeus' other wife, Hera, was jealous that Zagreus would become the next ruler of the gods, so she incited the Titans to murder the infant Zagreus (Dionysus). The Titans, who had been dispossessed, had become Zeus' worst enemies so they readily agreed.

The Titans painted their faces white, and they lured the infant Zagreus from the safety of the cave with toys, such as a mirror, a doll, knuckle bones, and a spin-top called bull-roarer. Zagreus left the cave before he realised that he was in danger. Zagreus tried to escape by assuming various transformations. When the Titans caught him, they tore him to pieces before they devoured him. Athena arrived in time to save Zagreus' heart, which she brought to her father. Athena managed to keep the heart alive and beating by breathing life into it.

Enraged that the Titans had attacked his son, Zeus hurled his mighty thunderbolts, blasting the Titans to ashes. From the ashes of the Titans, mankind rose.

(The dual nature of the Orphic belief comes from the fact that all men have two different natures: good and evil, earthly and spiritual (immortal), Dionysiac and Titanic. Since the Titans had consumed Dionysus, the evil nature came from the Titans, while the good came from the Dionysiac part. To gain entry to Elysium, the initiated of the Orphic Mysteries must live a good, ascetic life in three separate incarnations. See Orphic Mysteries.)

It was still Zeus' intention to leave the kingship of the universe to one of his sons, and that son would have been Zageus/Dionysus. Zeus swallowed Zagreus' heart and visited a mortal woman named Semele, daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes, whom he seduced and made pregnant. (According to Hyginus, Zeus created mead out of Zagreus' heart, which he gave to Semele to drink. This was how she became pregnant.)

The myth of Semele's death and the birth of Dionysus is the same as the usual myth about Dionysus. The jealous Hera duped Semele into asking for a fatal boon from Zeus, so she died, but Zeus saved the unborn child by sewing the baby into his thigh. When it was time, Dionysus was born again from the thigh of Zeus. (Hyginus omitted Dionysus being born from Zeus' thigh.)

Dionysus was a reincarnation of the god Zagreus, son of Persephone.

There is also an Orphic version of the abduction and rape of Persephone (Kore) by Hades, and the myth of Demeter's wandering. Several aspects of the myth of Demeter and Persephone have also changed.

Since Dionysus' life in the Orphic myth was the same as what I've told elsewhere, the Orphic Creation ends here. But there is no doubt that when the time came, Zeus would step down from the throne. Then Dionysus would ascend, and be crowned.

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According to the Orphic myths, six rulers reigned in heaven: Protogonus/Phanes, Nyx, Uranus, Cronus, Zeus and Dionysus. Dionysus was the reincarnation of Zagreus/Dionysus, as well as the reincarnation of Protogonus.

If you are interested in learning more about the Orphic Mysteries then I would suggest that you go to the Mysteries page.

In Hesiod's account about the creation, he only mentioned Cronus swallowing his children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon and Hades, and later on Zeus swallowing the pregnant Metis.

In the Orphic myths, the cannibalism of the gods is even more evident. Cronus swallowed his children; Zeus swallowed Phanes/Protogonus and the entire universe; Zeus swallowed Metis; the Titans devoured Dionysus/Zagreus and Zeus swallowed the heart of Dionysus/Zagreus. It seemed that birth was followed by death, which in turn was then followed by rebirth.