Deity Profile: Phanes

As we develop a better sense of deities over time, we want to share our findings and encourage others to share their experiences as well. Though some of this information is taken from text sources in ancient Greece, much of it comes from my direct experiences with Phanes. If you have had different knowledge arise from your work with Phanes, please share in the comments!

Pantheon: Greek

Pronouns: He/His/Him or Ze/Zir/Zim or They/Their/Them

Original Text: Orphic Hymn to Phanes

To Phanes

[video shows a white button down top and a necklace with a crystal heart]

Invocation for Sovereign Phanes

"Great Winged One
Protogonos, come
We follow thee from dark to light
O scepter bearing Father of Night
Sovereign Phanes, come."

- Written by Rainbow Melissa ra Karit

At the Beginning

Phanes is the intersex creator deity of the Greek pantheon.

At the Beginning

I asked Phanes

How was it, at the beginning?

And Phanes answered:

It was like cupping the world in my palms

Like breathing the sacred breath

into them

The only source of light in the world.

I

in the black darkness

My great snakes coiling about me

With this tiny impossible spark

Shimmering, its surface shifting

A complexity beyond imagination.

My wings unfurled

And my daughter, Nyx, curled around this new world,

cradling it

I could let go

My heart breaking with fear and joy

Giving everything for the hope that

this life would survive