Among the symbols found in the mythology attributed to Orpheus, few are as striking as the Cosmic Egg. (Indeed, it is the Orphicaeum logo!) In the essay that follows, we will systematically examine this symbol: First in its cosmogonic aspect, where the Egg gives birth to the Universe, and then in its psychological and spiritual dimensions, where the Egg becomes an allegory for the immortal soul. By unfolding the layers of the story, we find that the Orphic Egg reveals a vision of reality as both microcosm and macrocosm, bound together by Necessity, Time, and the Divine Mind.
In the Hieronyman Theogony, Orpheus posits that the first principles, the things which existed before anything else, and to which everything else owes its own existence, were Water and Mud (with Earth being a compacted form of Mud)1. From the mixture of these two principles, a third was born: a serpent or dragon (the original Greek word used is δράκωντα) with wings and the faces of a Bull and a Lion, and in its center the face of a God. This third principle is called both Unaging Time (Chronos) and Herakles2. Necessity (Ananke), also called Adresteia, then united with Unaging Time because they are of the same nature, and Necessity is further described as “incorporeal, spread throughout the whole Cosmos, touching its limits”3. Damascius then detours briefly to describe that this Chronos is the same Chronos in the Orphic Rhapsodies4. Damascius says that in the Rhapsodies, Chronos generates an Egg, and that the Hieronyman tradition, too, makes the Egg an offspring of Time5. The God that hatches from the Egg is described as being both male and female, having the heads of Bulls on either side and a serpent coiled around, and this God is called Protogonos6. Two separate authors apart from Damascius tell us that the upper half of the Eggshell became Ouranos, the Heavens, and the lower half became Ge, the Earth7. One of them also says that Protogonos is called Phanes as well8.
According to the Rhapsodies, Chronos comes before anything else9. We are told that Time “never gets old and has imperishable counsel”, and in the same line, that at the beginning of the Universe, Time gave birth to Aether and “a great Chasm” which stretches infinitely in all directions10. This Chasm is clearly the same as Ananke in the Hieronyman Theogony. The Rhapsodies continue that everything in the dark mist was undivided11 and everything in the Aether was covered by gloomy Night12. Time laid a shining Egg with the Aether13, and the son of Aether, Protogonos Phaethon14, “began to move in an incredible circle”15. We are then told that “the hermaphrodite and highly-honoured Protogonos”, also called Phanes, broke through the divided shell of the Egg and “sprang upwards first of all”16, separating the misty chasm and windless Aether17. Phanes is also equated with Eros18 and Metis19, “in whose tracks the mighty daimon forever trod”20. Later, the Rhapsodies tell us that the infant Dionysus is made the King of the Cosmos by Zeus21: “and so father Zeus formed all things, and Bacchos completed them”22. Dionysus, also called Oinos, was not able to hold the throne for long, however, as Hera and the Titans conspired against him with a knife23, dividing him into seven equal pieces and leaving only his heart, preserved by Athena24. Zeus had Apollo gather “all the parts of Oinos in the world”25, then struck down the Titans in anger, generating mortal life in the process26.
Due to the similarity in pronunciation of their names, Chronos is often equated with Kronos, whom we are told by the anonymous author of the Derveni Papyrus is the Striking Mind which excites the things-that-are to jump around27. In the same stroke, the Derveni author tells us that the upper half of the Egg shell, the Heavens or Ouranos, is similarly called so because it is the Determining Mind which sets boundaries for the things-that-are28. Both of these Gods as described in the Derveni Papyrus are notable in that they share a grim mythological event: castration leading to overthrow. The Derveni author tells us that the genital organ in these myths is a symbol of generation, and specifically it refers to the generative power of the Sun. Kronos castrates and overthrows Ouronos, and Zeus does the same to Kronos, encircling creation within Himself. Orpheus equates the Sun & the penis of Ouranos/Kronos with Phanes, saying “the reverend one He swallowed, who first sprung forth from the Aether”29.