Phanes - The First King Of The Universe

The origin of life, is a mystery that gives birth to many myths and legends. Every tradition and every religion, have their own story on how exactly life was formed. Ancient Greeks believed that it was god Fay-Ness, who created life. Fay-Ness is also called Protogonus, which has the meaning, ‘ the first born’. He is one of the primordial gods and the generator of life, from whom all subsequent life developed. According to Orphism, which is a religious belief of ancient Greeks, Fay-Ness is considered to be the first king of the universe. He then passed the throne to “Nyx”, who is the goddess of Night, which she passed to Uranus, who is the sky god. Because of his involvement in reproduction, Fay-ness is often equated with Eros, who is the god of love and desire.

At the very beginning, it is believed Khronos, the god of Time, and Ananke, the goddess of Inevitability, created a cosmic egg, also called the world egg, by mixing their powers. A serpent is entwined on the egg, to protect and care for it until it was hatched. When Fay-ness hatched from the egg, he had golden wings and wore a helmet. He also possess great beauty. He took the serpent to be his symbol as well. Before life, Fay-ness created light, illuminating every corner of the universe. He then gave birth to Nyx, who is the goddess of darkness and allowed her to spread darkness on his creation.

But contradicting this story, some say it was Nyx, that hatched from the egg in the form of a black bird and wind, and not Fay-ness. She then gave birth to Fay-ness and gave the name to him which has the meaning, “the bringer of light”.

Fay-ness possessed great power, much greater than any Olympian god could ever possess. Legend has it that it is Fay-ness’s power that got distributed among the Olympian gods. Zeus devoured Fay-ness, in order to absorb his power. His offspring then become gifted with some of Fay-ness’s power. So Zeus distribute Fay-ness’s power among the new generation of gods he would sire. But there’s another story saying that Zeus actually saved Fay-ness and brought him back to life. Fay-ness got defeated by Titans. They cut his limbs off and boiled them in a kettle, sliced his flesh and roasted it. While the titans were feasting on Fay-ness’s body, the goddess Athena managed to find his heart which was still beating. She stole the heart and took it back to Zeus. Zeus was able to recreate the god using his power and bring him back to life.

Not much is mentioned of Fay-ness in surviving texts. It is said that Hermes once disguised himself as Fay-ness to escape from Hera. Hera wanted to kill Zeus’s son, Dionysus, soon after he was born. Hermes stole the baby and fled with him, before she could murder Dionysus. But Hermes couldn’t last long hidden from Hera. So he disguised himself as Fay-ness. Upon seeing Fay-ness, she did not risk questioning the god and returned to the mount Olympus. After that, Hermes and Dionysus, hid themselves well from Hera.

Fay-ness sure is an interesting character. But the lack of support from the surviving text, opened door to deviate his story in many directions. So there’s a lot of debates and contradictions to the existing legends.

But in the early ages, Fay-ness seem to be a prominent and highly worshiped god. Even coins were found in Ephesus, which is a city of ancient greeks, issued in the name of Fay-Ness with the writing “I am the badge of Fay-Ness”. What do you think of this story?