Eros

Black-winged Night was courted by Wind and laid a silver egg in the womb of Darkness. Eros emerged from the egg, and some called him Phanes. He was golden-winged and double-sexed. He had four heads, and could roar like a bull or lion, hiss like a serpent, or bleat like a ram. Once hatched, he set the universe in motion.

Night named him Ericepaius and Phaéthon Protogenus. She lived with him in a cave and appeared in three forms as Night, Order, and Justice. Before the cave sat Rhea, the inescapable mother, beating a brazen drum. Her music compelled people to attend to the goddess’s oracles. Phanes created the earth, sky, sun, and moon. The triple goddess ruled the universe until her sceptre passed to Uranus.

Another Orphic account says that Time created the silver cosmic egg. Phanes-Dionysos broke from it as the firstborn, Protogonos. He was androgynous and contained all the seeds of life. He created the universe, beginning with his daughter Nyx, or Night, and later creating Gaia, Ouranos, and the familiar gods. When Zeus came, he swallowed Phanes-Dionysos. By containing the source of being within himself, Zeus made the world new.

The Orphics also told that the Titans ate Dionysos. After Zeus destroyed the Titans, mankind arose from their ashes. Humans therefore contained the Titans’ evil and Dionysos’s goodness. In some accounts, Persephone, Demeter, or both restored the dismembered Dionysos to life.

Chaos came into being first. Gaia, the broad Earth, followed. Tartarus came next as a deep region beneath the earth. Eros then appeared among the first powers. He was the most beautiful of the immortal gods, and his force overcame the minds and plans of gods and humans. Erebus, the darkness of the Underworld, and Nyx, the darkness that covered the earth, also came from Chaos.

Eros brought attraction into the new cosmos. His power drew beings together and allowed generative unions. When the first powers mixed, the gods came into being. The heavier parts settled and became the earth, while the lighter parts rose and became the sky. Gaia produced Uranus, the starry sky, as her equal. Uranus covered her on every side and became a secure dwelling for the immortal gods.

Eros was the divine power of love and sexual desire. In one telling, he was a primordial power who appeared at the beginning with Gaia and Tartarus. In another, Eros came from the darkness and brought order by drawing the scattered parts of the cosmos together. Some accounts placed Darkness before Chaos and gave a different order to the births of Night, Day, Erebus, Air, Earth, Sky, Sea, and Tartarus.