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A Retelling of an Orphic Cosmogony*
This is an article I wrote for an issue of the newsletter "He Epistole" which can be found at this website.
In the beginning were two winged serpents, named Khronos and Ananke, who entwined and coupled in the darkness. [1] Khronos then made the Aither [2], and in it he created a brilliant egg. He wrapped himself around the egg, tighter and tighter, until he crushed it. When it broke open Phanes [3] emerged. Light radiated from his body and he illuminated everything. However, he was so bright that he could not been seen by anyone. A very unusual creature, Phanes was a winged hermaphrodite, and had four eyes and horns. He also had the heads of a ram, a bull, a lion, and a serpent. He mated with himself and gave birth to the goddess Nux. He then mated with Nux and together they generated Ouranos and Gaia.
From the adyton of Nux, Phanes then began to create the physical world. First he put the sun and moon in their places, and fashioned a place for the gods to live. He then produced a nourishing rain from the top of his head so his creations would flourish. Another of his creations was a scepter [4] which was 24 measures long. After some time Phanes handed the scepter onto Nux, along with the gift of prophecy. She was then the ruler of all creation, and Phanes set out on his journey. With his car and horses he rode all around the large circle. [5]
Eventually, Nux decided to pass the scepter on to her son Ouranos. He then married Gaia, and together they gave birth to the Moirai, the Hundred-Handers, and the Cyclopes. However, Nux had previously told him that one of his children was destined to overthrow him. Concerned about the children he had borne, he threw them all into Tartaros in order to protect his rule. Gaia was heartbroken, and secretly she gave birth to the Titans, of which there were seven males and seven females. They were named Dione, Hyperion, Iapetos, Koios, Kreios, Kronos, Mnemosyne, Oceanos, Phoibe, Phorkys, Rhea, Tethys, Theia, and Themis. Of these children, Nux took special care of Kronos. [6] Gaia, seeking revenge against Ouranos, asked for the Titans’ help in attacking Ouranos. Oceanos would not agree to this, and thus he separated himself from them all. The rest of the Titans, however, did agree. When Ouranos approached Gaia with love, the Titans attacked. They threw him from his chariot [7], and when his blood spilled on the ground, the Giants were created. His genitals were cast into the sea, and this caused a great foam upon the water. From this the goddess Aphrodite was born.
Kronos then became the king, and he had this throne on Olympos. The Titans married one another, and produced children. [8] Kronos married Rhea, and they had many children together, including Hera, Hestia, and Zeus. However, Kronos was a cruel ruler, and he swallowed his children as they were born. [9] Rhea was able to hide Zeus, the youngest, in the cave of Nux. There he was cared for by the nymphs Adrastea and Ida. Adrastea stood in front of the cave and clashed bronze cymbals to disguise the baby’s cries. The Kouretes also helped guard the child. Rhea then took the name of Demeter, and she brought a stone disguised as a baby to Kronos, which he swallowed. This caused him to vomit, thereby freeing the children he had previously swallowed.
From within her cave, Nux told Zeus that he was to become the next ruler of the gods, but in order to do so he must overthrow his father. Zeus asked for advice on how this could be done, as he wanted to preserve both the unity and individuality of what had already been created. She explained to him that this could be done by suspending everything on a golden chain, and enveloping everything in the aither. Rhea-Demeter wanted to help her son, so she arranged a huge feast for all the gods, taking care to have much honey. She created a drink especially for Kronos, which made him so drunk that he fell asleep. At this point Zeus bound and castrated him, and was thus able to take control of the scepter. The Cyclopes then gave the thunderbolt to Zeus. [10]
However, Zeus’ task was not yet completed. He realized that he needed the help of his father, and so he asked him for guidance. Kronos described what the new creation would be like. Nux helped by pointing out the god Phanes, and Zeus promptly swallowed him. In so doing, he swallowed not only the god, but everything he had created. Zeus now contained within him all the physical world, the gods, and the aither. He then began to bring forth each thing according to the plan previously described to him by Kronos, and thus became the creator, and therefore the rightful ruler, of the world.
Zeus continued to be advised by Nux, and she told him to keep Nomos at his side, along with Dike, the daughter of Nomos. One prophesy of Nux was that Themis would be a virgin until Rhea gave birth to a son. Now that this had come to pass, Zeus and Themis came together to give birth to the Horai and the Moirai. [11] Zeus also mated with his daughter Eunomia [12] and they gave birth to the Charities. Hera became his bride, and she gave birth to Hephaistos. Apollon and Artemis were born to Zeus and Leto. Dione ran from Zeus’ advances, and he ejaculated into the sea, from which Aphrodite was born. [13] Zeus also generated a child by himself, Athena, who came forth from his head. Athena was then appointed as the leader of the Kouretes.
Zeus also pursued his mother Rhea-Demeter. In an effort to avoid him she turned herself into a snake. However, he also changed into a snake, and coiling into the Heracleot knot the two mated. From this union Persephone was born. She had two faces with four eyes and horns. Rhea-Demeter was frightened at the child’s appearance and ran without nursing her. She (Persephone) thus became known as Athela, the unsuckled. Zeus was not frightened by her, and he again assumed the form of a snake and mated with the goddess, who then gave birth to Dionysos.
Rhea-Demeter decided to pass the queenship onto Persephone, but as she did, she also foretold that Persephone would unite with Apollon, and their children would have faces of fire. Persephone stayed in her mother’s house, guarded by the Kouretes, and she began to weave a robe with images of flowers and animals. As she was weaving a scorpion Haides abducted her and took her as his bride. Together they gave birth to the nine Eumenides.
While this was taking place, Dionysos was born from Zeus’ thigh, and he was given to Hipta. [14] She put the child in a winnowing basket, and a snake coiled itself around it. Dionysos was brought to Mount Ida, and there he was guarded by the Kouretes for five years. Zeus decided that even though he was young, Dionysos was ready to be the new king of the gods, and he passed the scepter onto him. The Titans were overcome with jealousy, and they plotted against the young god. They asked Hephaistos to make them a mirror. Then they made their faces white with gypsum, [15] and gave the mirror to Dionysos. They also lured him away with the Hesperides’ apples, a ball, a pine-cone, puppets, a bull-roarer, wool, knucklebones, and a narthex. [16] Once he was far enough away from the other gods, they attacked him, cutting his body up into seven pieces. They proceeded to boil and then roast the pieces for a meal. However, Athena was able to save Dionysos’ heart, which was still beating. She put it in a casket and brought it to Zeus, while the other gods were mourning. Zeus, angry at the Titans for what they had done, hurled his thunderbolts at them. One Titan, Atlas, was punished by being made to hold up the sky. Apollon was given the remains of Dionysos, and he brought them to Parnassus to be buried. However, from the heart of Dionysos Zeus was able to restore him to life.
When the Titans were struck with the thunderbolts they left a soot on the ground. This was taken by Zeus, and from it he fashioned human beings, animals, and birds. There had been humans before, a golden race made by Phanes, and a silver race made by Kronos. This race, however, would be so foolish that they would not know good from evil. Zeus made their bodies mortal, but their souls were immortal. They would undergo a series of incarnations in which the soul, after being in an animal body, would float on the wind until it is caught by another animal body. However, after being in a human body it will be led into the Underworld by Hermes, where it will remain for three hundred years. If the person lived a good life, the soul would have a pleasant stay in the Underworld, but if the person led an evil life, the soul would pass its time in Tartaros. After such time the souls are reborn. Zeus instituted purification rituals, and appointed Dionysos and Persephone to help humans escape from the circle of reincarnation through regular sacrifices and rituals.
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