Phanes is a Greek deity, hatched from the World-Egg by Kronos and Ananke, and is the primeval deity of procreation and the generation of new life. He is often equated with Eros.
Phanes was ruler of the Gods, and passed the sceptre of kingship to Nyx, its daughter, who in turn gave it to her son Ouranos (later taken by Kronos).
Phanes has been depicted as an hermaphroditic deity emerging from a cosmic egg. A serpent entwines around Hir body. There is a crescent moon with tips emerging from behind the shoulders and a sun above the head. Three animal heads are across its body at the front of the chest; a lion, a goat and a bull. Around all this is the circle of the zodiacal glyphs. In the corners around this deity are the four Greek gods of the winds. It has been equated with the emergence of cosmic light. Sometimes the primordial consciousness itself emerging from the dawn of time. It is also equated with Mithras.
Phanes was hatched from the world egg (the primordial mixture of elements) when it was split into its constituent parts by the ancient gods Khronos (Time) and Ananke (Inevitability).
Phanes was the first king of the universe, who passed the royal sceptre on to his daughter Nyx (Night),who in turn handed it down to her son Ouranos (Heaven).
Orphica, Theogonies Fragment (from the Deveni Papyrus) :
Phanes (fa - nays): In Greek myth, particularly Orphic thought, Phanes is the golden winged Primordial Being who was hatched from the shining Cosmic Egg that was the source of the universe.
Called Protogonos (First-Born) and Eros (Love) — being the seed of gods and men — Phanes means "Manifestor" or "Revealer," and is related to the Greek words "light" and "to shine forth."
This ancient bas relief shows Phanes emerging from the Cosmic Egg, surrounded by the four winds and the twelve signs of the zodiac.
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