#orphism

[jareckiworld]

František Kupka (1871-1957) — A Thought [oil on canvas, 1923]

[matriarca-inodora]

Who is Eros Protogonos?

A short introduction to Eros as a primordial deity

The Birth of Eros (1890) by Maximilian Pirner

I have been worshipping Eros for some years now. Like many gods, Eros is multifaceted. Perhaps of all hellenic gods, Eros is placed in a particular spot as having become almost an abstraction, a concept. From Plato's Symposion all the way to Freud, Eros has become an idea.

In general, in a modern context Eros is most often seen as the son of Aphrodite and Ares, the winged bringer of erotic love as Sappho or Anacreon may tell us:

"Once more Love stirs me up, the limb-loosener, a creature bitter-sweet, baffling"

Sappho Fragment 130, transl. Gillian Spraggs

"Golden-haired Eros once again hurls his crimson ball at me: he calls me to come out and play with a girl in fancy sandals. But she's from civilized Lesbos: she sneers at my hair because it's grey, and turning, gapes in wonder after another of her own gender."

Anacreon, transl. Gillian Spraggs

This beautiful imagery is an important facet of the deity's domain. The overwhelming passion that most humans (and other beings) go through, an uncontrollable force that, as the chorus of the Antigone will tell us, is "invincible in battle."

Indeed, the little we know of the cult of Eros in Ancient Greece seems to reinforce this. Pausanias and Plutarch both will mention the cult of Eros in the Academy at Athens, which seems to have been tied to homoeroticism between men. Elsewhere, like in Korinth, he is besides his mother Aphrodite and with other gods of her retinue.

Of Thespiae, where the cult of Eros is more prominent, Pausanias (Description of Greece 9. 27. 1 (trans. Jones) says the following:

"Of the gods the Thespians have from the beginning honoured Eros most, and they have a very ancient image of him, an unwrought stone. Who established among the Thespians the custom of worshipping Eros more that any other god I do not know. He is worshipped equally by the people of Parion on the Hellespont . . . Pamphos and Orpheus [legendary poets] wrote hexameter verse, and composed poems on Eros, in order that they might be among those sung by the Lykomidai to accompany the ritual. I read them after conversation with a Torchbearer. Of these things I will make no further mention . . .

This brings us to the role of Eros in theogony. Hesiod will place him as an elder deity:

"Verily at first Khaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Gaia, the ever-sure foundation of al1 the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympos, and dim Tartarosin the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros, fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them"

Theogony, 116, transl. Evelyn-White

Also in orphic theogonies it seems that Eros was primordial. He may be considered the same as Phanes, or Protogonos, in most cases a bright winged being that springs forth early on, two-formed (androgynous) and bringing the ability to the generation of life.

The idea of Eros as an elder deity has always resonated with me. While I also worship him as a god of love, more often than not I see him as a primordial being that exists in all life, the very force that brought together chains of proteins and generated the first forms of life, billions of years ago.

One may wonder, not without reason, why worship something so far removed from daily life? Well, I do not really think Eros Protogonos is far away, or distant. By definition Eros inhabits everything that lives. It is not merely a matter of sexual attraction or even more broadly, desire. It is a matter of what life even is. As Amin Malouf puts it, “Life is like a fire. Flames which the passer-by forgets. Ashes which the wind scatters. A man lived.”

Part of what has always pulled me towards Orphic interpretations and mysteries is exactly that contact with the impermanent. Life, like fire, requires always something more, just to keep existing. Time will, inevitably, cut it short. Yet, from the first time life sprung from the abyss until now that I type this or that you read this text, life continues. This unspoken spark, still singing as if first did since it sprung from the sea.

Honouring this impermanence and the beautiful spark of life is part of what brings me to Eros, again and again. As the orphic hymn to Protogonos says:

"Erikapaios, celebrated power, ineffable, occult, all shining flower. From eyes obscure thou wipest the gloom of night, all-spreading splendour, pure and holy light Hence Phanes called, the glory of the sky, on waving pinions thro' the world you fly."

There is much beauty to be found in worshipping Eros. Perhaps it's even attuned to what Plato alludes to in his Symposion and Phaedro. Some things, however, cannot be grasped by words guided by reason. That, too, is where true mystery resides.

[nancydrewwouldnever]

Marc Chagall, Paris Through the Window, 1913, oil/canvas (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York)

[msmarymillspaulos]

Prisme Solaire Simultane 1914

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979)

French Unkraine Artist

[stumbling-towards-the-light]

That moment when you begin to plot out the realistic movement/development of the Athenide's cult and worship along historical lines cuz the Traditional Athens Founding Myth only dates to around 400s BC aka when Athens became important

Cuz it wasn't for a loooooooong time and we shouldn' forget that just cuz of the Athens Golden Age.

But anyway what was the Athenide's birth myth before Athens tried to convince everyone they were cool? When did a diety that could be identified as the Athenide start to worshipped? What did she look like during Mycenaean Greece? Orphism? When did she become identified AS the Athenide aka when was Athena considered her mother?

[arkimessa]

The previous page of the Orpheus comic that I showed you (the one with the friendly, stalking maenads), Well, I think here you can already see where things are headed.

[porphurios]

Orphic ceremonial bowl (4th century C.E.) showing sixteen naked adepts, eight men and eight women. In the center is the Orphic Cosmic Egg or Omphalos, around which a dragon is coiled. The underside of the bowl shows four Eros figures and the following lines:

Gods, for it whirls through the infinite, great Olympus. Shining Zeus, may the cosmos be born. Hear from afar the swirling fire-wreathed circle. Heaven and earth were one form.

[sickdoctor-art]

Musings on Dionysus from last night:

—

Dionysus is young and old.

He is, in his earliest myths, a son of Persephone. It is with her that the seasons change, and he does also.

In the spring he is flowering and young, emblazoned with youthful vigor and excitement. Dionysus Intonsus. Dionysus the unshorn youth.

In summer, he is fertile- ripe and ready. Drunk and enticing in the warmest months. It is with him that your cares are taken from you, and celebration is an order. Dionysus Lyaeus. He who frees us from care.

In the fall, it is the slow descent into the cold. The vine is plucked, the wind turns. It is here he is pressed and he provides for all in the feast. Here he sits at the head of the table and offers council and comfort to all- Dionysus Hestius. Dionysus of the feast.

Finally, death is in winter. It is this time when the warmth of mulled wine is sweetest- when it fills the heart, even in the absence of the growing vine. It is when he guides through the cold and dark, encouraging in the final moments before he is born again that we can follow this cycle. He lights our way, and shows us through. Dionysus Lampterus- he of the torches.

—

Personally, I have always viewed Dionysus as a teacher and mature more figure- in line with his Bronze Age depictions. This is not to say that the younger depictions of him are incorrect- not at all. These concepts and aspects of him can exist simultaneously. They are not at odds, but instead work in tandem to create the full picture.

Dionysus isn’t only the young and carefree God. He is a God of Good Counsel, and he who guides the wild growth carefully.