The Orphic Egg by Artist Jacob Bryant. In the Ancient Greek Orphic tradition is the cosmic egg from which hatched the primordial hermaphroditic deity Phanes/Protogonus, who in turn created the other gods. The egg symbolizes the belief in the Greek Orphic religion that the universe originated from within a silver egg. In Greek mythology Phanes is the golden winged Primordial Being who was hatched from the shining Cosmic Egg that was the source of the universe. The egg is often depicted with a serpent wound about it. Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and the Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into Hades and returned.