Have you ever heard of the god Priapus being the same as the god Phosphorus?
09.06.2025 02:56
It may seem odd to us that gods of earthly fertility get conflated with stars in the sky and the sun since they seem so far apart, but, keep in mind, ancient people attributed fertility powers to the Sun, and that’s not totally unscientific. Sunlight is responsible for the lifecycles of the plant life on earth and all who eat it. Zeus impregnates Danae in the form of a golden ray of light, some say, so, in a similar way, the idea of male procreative fertility is associated with the Sun and sunlight.
From eyes obscure you wiped the gloom of night, all-spreading splendor, pure and holy light
Phanes: He comes forth winged from the darkness and from him and his immense power all generated life descends. He is the explosion of life, the explosive life force, and, let’s not be squeamish, he’s orgasmic energy, the bursting of “semen.” And this poem which is reverencing him clearly is calling him Phanes and acknowledging him as the mighty origin force of the universe.
Priapus: Those familiar with Priapus know that he is the god with the largest penis. His origin story differs. Many say he’s the son of Aphrodite and Dionysus, whom she cheats on with Adonis, and, to curse her, Hera curses him as he’s forming in her womb to have a disproportionate body, a ridiculously large penis for his size. However, in Greek myth, Priapus is cursed to be always “in the mood” or, erect when no sex is taking place, and when opportunity arrives, he slackens, so, he’s unable to actually have sex. Still, he is greatly reverenced in the role of protecting gardens and inspiring the fertility of harvest plants, associated with bees and the fertilization of flowers that brings forth food. As far as I’m aware, he has no unusual birth, and his father differs, sometimes Zeus, sometimes Dionysus, sometimes Adonis. (These associations are important). Though he is ridiculous and often seen so today, there were cults to him which speak of him as being powerful and wonderful and a true thug about protecting the gardens he watches over.
Pan: Just like Priapus, Pan is a pastoral or rustic deity associated with fertility and wildlife, (and the phallus) and also just like Priapus, his father differs. Some say Zeus is his father, some say it was Hermes. Just saying Hermes carries this idea of the Logos or the Word of god and that also connotes a “firstborn” quality to him that is also synonymous with Phanes and Phosphorus.
When we dive further, we find similarities between the gods Phanes, Priapus and Phosphorus.
In Orphism, the Protogenos, the progenitor of all life, who is classically called Eros (the Primordial Eros) is called by the name Phanes. Classically, there are several versions of the Origin story, but by the 5th century BC we see this story where an egg is fertilized in the vast darkness and from it the golden-winged god Eros is born and he weds Chaos and from the union come the race of immortal gods. [Aristophanes]. Per this story, these are beautiful, winged gods who create all life by their whirling, winged dance.
And he lives on in the idea of the Passover Lamb and traces of this worship can still be seen in the rites of both Easter and Christmas. But that’s a whole other story.
And right in St. Peter’s courtyard we get this…
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(I like him here. He has a very “Adonis” feel here and Adonis, being born out of a tree is very Panian. Phusis is the Protogenos of nature, the female source of all life. "Mother Nature" and is rather like Myrrh, Adonis’ tree mother).
Bull-roarer, glorying in your golden wings, from whom the race of Gods and mortals springs.
Cosmology
There is a fantastic energy at this time of day that could be called Priapic. It has subtle orgasmic or regenerative vibrations. This energy, when we sync with the sun, wakes us from sleep.
But, alternatively, we also get the “Satanic” lore. Because the morning star (Venus) rises and is faded out by the Sun, we get this prophetic language from the bible about the “fall of Lucifer,” as well. The morning star rises stronger than all other stars and tries to climb high and reign over all the others but can never reach its zenith because the sun always “kills” it first by rising. Because Venus and Mercury are inner planets, they never stray far from the Sun. So, we don’t see them at “night.” Only around dawn and dusk. This is aptly seen in the myth of Semele when she’s killed by Zeus’ glory. She turns to ash, like the star which is “burned” by the Sun, but, within Zeus, or the Sun, the little boy survives, and he’ll emerge again at dusk and be the “evening star” who sets just behind the sun.
Pan/Phanes who becomes “Lucifer”
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Poetically, Pan dies because he wastes away after Echo. He is caught in a fatal love triangle falling tragically in love with the nymph Echo who becomes cursed by the goddess Hera. Echo ends up falling in love with Narcissus who rebuffs her cruelly only to fall in love with his own reflection. She wanders off and wastes away into a sound, the god Pan follows suit and wastes away himself. Thus, they only remain as an “echo” a distant memory in human history. “Lucifer” or, all his alternate forms: Phanes, Pan, Phosphorus, the “morning star” are all killed by the Sun aka Christianity.
It’s a matter of “lost in translation,” and it’s also a result of the Church despising these pagan fertility gods (and the rites to them) and wanting the glory of the Protogenos belonging only to Jesus. Curiously, when the ancient religion was overturned and the goddess’ temples were destroyed, and worship shifted to a Supreme male deity and a subsequent Patriarchy, the god Pan dies.
Per Plutarch, a sailor named Thamus passed the Greek isles a voice called out to him from the shore saying “The great Pan is dead!” Platonism and the rise of Sophism and Science kill this god just as the Sun kills the morning star.
Now, let me just say, because we see the term “Ericapaeus” used, this suggests to many scholars that this entire idea is Babylonian and not Greek. Many think this title is from ancient Hebrew/Babylon, hence, the debate.
Priapus, dark-eyed splendor, thee I sing, genial, all-prudent, ever-blessed king,
Hmm, hmm, hmm…which, I would say is very Priapic, a very ridiculously large phallus for a monument.
With joyful aspect on our rights divine and holy sacrifice propitious shine.”
The “morning star” or Venus, rises before dawn and climbs high only to be completely faded out by the Sun when it breaks the horizon.
From these stellar births and deaths we get all these birth, death, resurrection myths that are also connected to: Dionysus, Adonis, Jesus, and so forth.
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In Orphism, Eros is named Phanes and in one hymn, his being the source of all life is highlighted with the words:
This is very deep. How best to connect the dots here…hmm…well, here goes:
Here is where we see Phanes and Priapus mentioned in synonymous ways.
Phosphorus: Phosphorus is the son of the dawn goddess Eos. Just as Phanes comes forth from the night or darkness and brings light to the world, Phosphorus is the morning star (Venus) who heralds the coming daybreak and the Sun. In this way, he is like Phanes, golden-winged, and a “light-bringer.”
Well…to connect these dots you have to go deep into the Orphic Hymns. Everything gleaned from them is debatable classically.
Mythology
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O Mighty first-begotten, hear my prayer, two-fold, egg-born, and wandering through the air,
The odd thing is how Lucifer became Satanic in all this. From the Greek, you see, we get all this reverence, all this poetry for Phanes and Priapus, and the phallus, right? It seems to be all sunshine and happiness, literally and poetically. So, it’s odd how dark and “Satanic” this figure shifts into. But, in Catholicism, Phosphorus is Lucipher, and he becomes the Devil, horned, grotesque, with hooves and a pitchfork, which, curiously, would resemble Pan and Pan and Priapus are close associates.
Hence Phanes called, the glory of the sky, on waving pinions through the world you fly.
Still, it’s there. If you look at every church ever built, reverence for the phallus is there. The steeple is quite obviously, a phallic symbol.
In no way per the classic writings are any of them synonymous, but they are connected in the mysteries. They belong in the same synchronism with the rest of the sun gods/heroes. (The Orphics love to synchronize the gods!)
Conversely, there is a male darkness fertility in here as well. The Cosmic egg is laid by Nyx in Erebus, and Erebus is a male darkness realm-god. In a similar way, Hades and darkness come into play as being sources or progenitors of life since seeds (both plant and human as well as many animals) germinate in the dark and emerge or are birthed later into the light.
Ericapæus, celebrated power, ineffable, occult, all shining flower.
In a similar way, people who reverence procreative power would reverence this time of day as being orgasmic, the night being impregnated by the morning star and giving birth to the Sun, poetically. From this comes the poetry and the worship we see in hymns like this. It’s even blossomed into hymns about Jesus when he is called, in scripture, the Firstborn, and “the Daystar” and so forth.