Protogonos
A Protogonos or Protogenos ( Pl. Protogonoi or Protogenoi , Greek Πρωτόγενοι, first born ) is a name in Greek mythology for Phanes , the first god in the cosmogony of the Orphics .
A parody of the altorphic cosmogony of Aristophanes shows that Phanes was not the first god among the early Orphics, but Chronos created an egg for Aither . Nyx gave birth to the egg from which the creator god Eros was born.
In a broader sense, the Protogonoi are divine embodiments of the original principles, which in many theogonies of Greek authors form the first generation of gods, provided that further generations of gods, nymphs or other mythical figures come from these . For example, the chaos and parts of the first generation of gods that emerged from it are from the theogony of Hesiod Protogonoi, as well as the first orphic generation of gods after Phanes.
List of Protogonoi
- Aither - personifies the "upper heaven", seat of light and gods
- Ananke - personifies the impersonal fate
- Chaos - the opposite of cosmos
- Chronos - personifies time with expiration and lifetime
- Erebos - personifies the darkness
- Gaia - personifies the earth, one of the first deities
- Hemera - personifies the day
- Hydros - Gaia comes from its water and mud
- Nesoi -
- Nyx - personifies the night
- Okeanos - personifies a mighty stream flowing around the inhabited world
- Ourea - personifies the mountains
- Phanes - also called Eros or Protogonos (the firstborn)
- Phusis -
- Pontus - sea deity, son of Gaia
- Tethys - titan and sea goddess, goddess of earthly fresh water sources
- Thalassa - embodiment of the sea, the inner Mediterranean
- Uranos - heaven in the form of a god, rules the world in the first generation
Web links
- Protogonoi in Bulfinch's Mythology
- Protogonoi in the Theoi Project
- Creation myth of Hesiod's theogony in German translation in Das Mythentor
Individual evidence
- ↑ z. B. Orpheus : fragment 54.
- ↑ Aristophanes : The birds 690–703.