Sunday, July 21, 2019

Eurynome and the Universal Egg

  Once upon a time, when nothing existed, there came the first of all goddesses: Eurynome (pronounced your-enemy) and her little sister Epimetheus. Not much is known about their looks and features, but we do know that they might have been a part-demon, though I bet they probably didn't look like it.

  Eurynome's very form separated the earth and the sky for life to grow. Afterward, she danced naked in the oceanic waters in order to create the wind. With this wind, she rubbed it in the palms of her hands in order to create the first serpent, Ophion, who became her husband. Ophion was a kind of ocean god, as he was in the form of a great sea serpent of universal size. Despite being a snake, he could still speak the human language.

   If he would have had friends at that time, then it probably would have been weird telling them "Hey!, I'm married to Eurynome! (your-enemy, get it?).
  In time, Eurynome became pregnant. Before she was going to give birth however, she transformed herself into a dove and flew away. Soon, she laid an egg, which the serpent Ophion guarded very carefully.

  It wasn't long before the egg hatched. Out of the egg came Chronos and Ananke, who got married.
 Chronos was the god of time (also known as Old Father Time/ or Old Grandfather Time, depending on which one you prefer). Don't get him confused with another Cronus, who we will talk about later.
  Ananke was the queen/goddess of destiny, beyond space and time. She was associated with the Fates, who thread destiny, who are sometimes said to be her daughters.

  Chronos and Ananke, together, used their powers and created their son Phanes from some primordial mixture that came out of the egg. Phanes became the god of light and creation. He is depicted as a marvelous, mixed-gender diety, wrapped in the coils of a snake.

  All the universe came from that very egg, which was produced by Eurynome and Ophion. They began to argue about who truly was the creator of the universe. Talk about an unhappy couple!
  Ophion claimed that it was he, who was the creator, and this angered Eurynome to no end, forcing her to banish Ophion into oblivion. Why couldn't they just get a divorce? Oh right! divorce didn't exist yet!!!

  Once again, there was nothing that existed in the universe except, Eurynome and Chaos, The primordial void of nothing.
(pic credit link )

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