Eukles
Orphic · deity · Orphic traditional religion; continuing · deity
Eukles is a name on a gold sheet folded into a grave. The leaves buried with Orphic initiates carry instructions for the soul arriving below, and among the powers they name are Eukles and Eubouleus — the glorious one and the good counsellor, both of them titles as much as names. The usual reading takes Eukles for the lord of the dead addressed obliquely, on the same instinct that produced Plouton, 'the rich one', rather than saying Hades outright. He is recorded as his own entry because the leaves address him as one, with that alternative stated. Eubouleus is already carried in this registry as an alias of the Orphic Dionysos.
Domains
- underworld
Relations
- ally: Brimo
Sources
- The Orphic gold leaves.
- Scholarly study of the divinities in the Orphic gold leaves: Euklês, Eubouleus, Brimo, Kybele, Kore and Persephone.