Hydros
Orphic · deity · Orphic traditional religion; continuing · deity
Hydros is where the Orphic world begins: water, with Thesis and Mud, before anything had shape. The Mud settles into Gaia, and Gaia with Hydros brings forth Chronos and Ananke, Time and Necessity, who wind their serpent coils round the cosmic egg and crack it to let Phanes out. The later Rhapsodies tidy this up, dropping Chronos and Ananke from the sequence so that Phanes comes straight from Hydros and Gaia. He has no cult, no temple and no myth of his own — he is a first principle, and the theogonies want him only for where he stands.
Domains
- primordial waters
- creation
Relations
Sources
- Reference treatment of Hydros and of the Orphic cosmogony in which he, Thesis and Mud come first.
- Damascius's outline of the Hieronyman theogony, as reported in the reference literature.