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For links to many more fragments: The Orphic Fragments of Otto Kern.

SUMMARY: This set of fragments state that Ericepaeus (and thus also Phanes) is both female and male.

81. (62) σχόλιον Πρόκλου επὶ Τιμαίου Πλάτωνος 30 c. d (I 429, 26 Diehl):

διὸ καὶ ὁλικώτατον ζῶιον ὁ θεολόγος ἀναπλάττει κριοῦ καὶ ταύρου καὶ λέοντος καὶ δράκοντος αὐτῶι περιτιθεὶς κεφαλάς, καὶ ἐν αὐτῶι πρώτῶι τὸ θῆλυ καὶ τὸ ἄρρεν ὡς ζώιωι πρώτωι·

θῆλυς καὶ γενέτωρ κρατερὸς θεὸς Ἠρικεπαῖος,

|^{430 Diehl} φησὶν ὁ θεολόγος· αὐτῶι δὲ καὶ αἱ πτέρυγες πρώτον (v. fr. 78) καὶ τί δεῖ πολλὰ λέγειν; εί γαρ έκ τοΰ πρωτογενούς ὠιοῦ τὴν πρόοδον ἔσχε, δηλοῖ καὶ ὅδε ὁ μῦθος, ὅτι τὸ πρώτιστον ζῶιόν ἐστιν, εἴπερ τὴν ἀναλογίαν προσήκει φυλάττειν· ὡς γὰρ τὸ ὠιὸν τὴν σπερματικὴν αἰτίαν τοῦ ζῷου προείληφεν, ὅυτως ὁ κρύφιος διάκοσμος ἑνοειδῶς περιέχει πᾶν τὸ νοητόν, καὶ ὡς τὸ ζῶιόν ἤδη διηιρημένως ἔχει ὅσα ἦν ἐν τῶι ὠιῶι σπερματικῶς, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὁ θεὸς ὅδε προάγει τὸ ἄρρητον καὶ ἄληπτον τῶν πρῶτων αἰτίων εἰς τὸ ἐμφανές.

“Hence also, the theologist represents it as a most total animal; surrounds it with the heads of a ram, a bull, a lion, and a dragon; and ascribes to it primarily the female and the male, as to the first animal.

‘Female and father, strong and mighty God, Ericapæus,’

“...says the theologist. He is likewise the first God that is represented with wings. And what occasion is there to be prolix? For if he has his progression from the primogenial egg, this fable manifests that he is the first animal, if it is fit to preserve the analogy. For as the egg antecedently comprehends the spermatic cause of the animal, thus also the occult (κρύφιος, “concealed”) order ^[1], uniformly comprehends the whole of the intelligible. And as the animal now possesses in a distributed manner, such things as were in the egg spermatically, thus likewise this God produces into a visible subsistence that which is ineffable and incomprehensible in first causes. Concerning these things however, what has now been said may suffice for the present.”

^[1] i.e. The first triad of the intelligible order, which is called by Plato in the Parmenides τὸ ἓν ὄν, the one being, or being characterized by, and absorbed as if it were in The One.

(trans. Thomas Taylor, 1820)

in σχόλιον Πρόκλου επὶ Τιμαίου Πλάτωνος 31 a (I 450, 24 Diehl):

θῆλυς καὶ γενέτωρ (sc. ὁ Φάνης ἀνυμνεῖται)

“(Phanes, however, proceeds by himself alone, and is celebrated as) female and father.” (trans. Thomas Taylor, 1820)

Lactantius Institutiones Divinae IV 8, 4 p. 296, 2 Brandt:

nisi forte existimabimus (existimavimus RV, existimabamus H) deum, sicut Orpheus putavit, et marem esse et feminam, quod aliter generare non quiverit (nequierit H), nisi haberet vim sexus utriusque, quasi aut ipse secum coierit aut sine coitu non potuerit procreare.

“Unless by chance we shall [profanely] imagine, as Orpheus supposed, that God is both male and female, because otherwise He would have been unable to beget, unless He had the power of each sex, as though He could have intercourse with Himself, or without such intercourse be unable to produce.”

(trans. William Fletcher, 1886)

Lobeck I 490; Herwerden Herm. V 1871, 139.

The story of the birth of the Gods: Orphic Theogony.

We know the various qualities and characteristics of the Gods based on metaphorical stories: Mythology.

Dictionary of terms related to ancient Greek mythology: Glossary of Hellenic Mythology.

Introduction to the Thæí (the Gods): The Nature of the Gods.

How do we know there are Gods? Experiencing Gods.

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We know the various qualities and characteristics of the Gods based on metaphorical stories: Mythology.

Dictionary of terms related to ancient Greek mythology: Glossary of Hellenic Mythology.

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