Meanderings of the Muse: Phanes

Phanes

I invoke Protogonus, of a double nature, great, wandering through the ether,
Egg-born, rejoicing in thy golden wings,
Having the countenance of a bull, the procreator of the blessed gods and mortal men,
The renowned Light, the far-celebrated Ericepæus,
Ineffable, occult, impetuous, all-glittering strength;
Who scatterest the twilight clouds of darkness from the eyes,
And roamest throughout the world upon the flight of thy wings,
Who bringest forth the pure and brilliant light, wherefore I invoke thee as Phanes,
As Priapus the king, and as dazzling fountain of splendour.
Come, then, blessed being, full of wisdom and generation, come in joy
To thy sacred, ever-varying mystery. Be present with the Priests of thy Orgies.

Chaos was generated first, and then
The wide-bosomed Earth, the ever stable seat of all
The Immortals that inhabit the snowy peaks of Olympus,
And the dark aerial Tartarus in the depths of the permeable Earth,
And Eros, the fairest of the immortal Gods,
That relaxes the strength of all, both gods and men,
And subjugates the mind and the sage will in their breasts.
From Chaos were generated Erebus and black Night,
And from Night again were generated Ether and Day,
Whom she brought forth, having conceived from the embrace of Erebus.
And Earth first produced the starry Heaven equal to herself,
That it might inclose all things around herself.

(Theog. v. 116.)

Within the Orphic mysteries, Nyx, a black-winged spirit rose from the emptiness of the Void of Khaos to lay the silver cosmic egg containing the golden winged spirit of love - Eros, also known as Phanes the Revealer, whose radiant beauty illuminated the earth. Nyx, primal Mother Night, within her dark starry realm also birthed the Fates, the Furies, the sperids, and Nemesis. To the ancients, Phanes thus represented the bearer of ‘Light’ of gnosis drawn from the dark void of ignorance. On the physical mundane realms, this was deemed visible in the light and power of the Sun. (Shani Oates copyright - ‘Tubelo's Green Fire’)

In short, that to the power of the Sun is to be referred the control and supremacy of all things, is indicated by the theologists, who make it evident in the mysteries by the following short invocation:

“Oh, all-ruling Sun, Spirit of the world, Power of the world, Light of the world”

(Macrob. Sat. lib. i. c. 23.)

The Egyptian alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis interpreted Adam as Thouth:"the First Man who is Thouth among us" is named Adam, "with a name borrowed from the tongue of Angels," by the Chaldeans...."Thus it is that the sensual Adam is named Thouth according to external patterning. As for the man who is inside Adam, the spiritual man, he has simultaneously a personal and a universal name...His Universal name is Phos (light).

First was Chaos and Night, and black Erebus and vast Tartarus;
And there was neither Earth, nor Air, nor Heaven: but in the boundless bosoms of Erebus.
Night, with her black wings, first produced an aerial egg,
From which, at the completed time, sprang forth the lovely Eros,
Glittering with golden wings upon his back, like the swift whirlwinds.
But embracing the dark-winged Chaos in the vast Tartarus.
He begot our race (the birds),2 and first brought us to light.
The race of the Immortals was not, till Eros mingled all things together;
But when the elements were mixed one with another, Heaven was produced, and Ocean,
And Earth, and the imperishable race of all the blessed Gods.

(Aristop. Aves. 698.—Suid. v. Chaos.)

First (I have sung) the vast necessity of ancient Chaos,
And Cronus, who in the boundless tracts brought forth
The Ether, and the sp lendid and glorious Eros of a two-fold nature,
The illustrious father of night, existing from eternity.
Whom men call Phanes, for he first appeared.
I have sung the birth of powerful Brimo (Hecate), and the unhallowed deeds
Of the earth-born (giants), who showered down from heaven
Their blood, the lamentable seed of generation, from when sprung
The race of mortals, who inhabit the boundless earth for ever.

(Arg. v. 12.)

First I sung the obscurity of ancient Chaos,
How the Elements were ordered, and the Heaven reduced to bound;
And the generation of the wide-bosomed Earth, and the depth of the Sea,
And Eros (Love) the most ancient, self-perfecting, and of manifold design;
How he generated all things, and parted them from one another.
And I have sung of Cronus so miserably undone, and how the kingdom
Of the blessed Immortals descended to the thunder-loving Zeus.

(Arg. 419.)

The theologist places around him the heads of a ram, a bull, a lion, and a dragon, and assigns him first both the male and female sex. To him also the wings are first given. Orpheus has the following theological speculation in allusion to Phanes. Therefore the first God bears with himself the heads of animals, many and single, of a bull, of a serpent, and of a fierce lion, and they sprung from the primeval egg in which the animal is seminally contained.

(Proc. in Tim.)