Phanes and Dionysos in the Derveni Theogony

Abstract

Since its discovery in 1962 the Derveni papyrus has been the subject of intense scholarly debate and has in more than one way been crucial for our understanding of Orphism and presocratic philosophy. In most reconstructions of this fragmented text scholars have relied on other Orphic theogonies written at least 300 years after the Derveni papyrus was placed on the funeral pyre. In this article I consider the methodological problems connected to this approach and suggest that we should reconstruct the text on its own premises rather than using other texts to reconstruct it. By concentrating the analysis on the text itself I argue that in the Derveni papyrus it is Zeus, not Dionysos, which is the main deity and that the Orphic god par excellence Phanes is not even present.