Note 1547 — Chapter XII · ORPHIC COSMOGONY.
Reading edition
The world-egg is of course an element common to many cosmogonies. It may very likely be one of the many elements primarily borrowed by Orphism from the Egyptians. The Egyptian demiurgus Chnoum gave birth to a cosmic egg, see Euseb. de praep. ev. 3. 11. According to Diodorus (I. 27) Osiris says εἰμὶ δὲ υἱὸς Κρόνου πρεσβύτατος καὶ βλαστὸς ἐκ καλοῦ τε καὶ εὐγενοῦς ᾠοῦ, σπέρμα συγγενὲς ἐγεννήθην ἡμέρας. Our concern here is merely with the particular form taken by the doctrine in Orphism.