Greek Creation Myth of The Universe and the Origin of the Gods
Like all of the ancient mythologies, the Greek Mythology started with the Creation Myth[1]; the story that explains beginning of things, origins of life and how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. For the ancient Greeks this was their answer to the most fundamental question of existence. According to Greek poet Hesiod’s[2] epic poem The Theogony[3] the first formation, namely the beginnig of the Universe was chaos which meant uncertainty, infinite emptiness or disorder.[4] Chaos existed without form or purpose and he was made of Void, Mass and Darkness in confusion.
Chaos and Gaea
From Chaos, Gaea (or Gaia ‘Earth’)[5] the primordial being of the earth or mother goddess emerged. The Earth surrounded and engulfed Chaos. She was one of the deities who governed the universe before the Titans existed. The Earth which formed the foundation, was a universal mother giving birth to everything.
After this, Eros (Desire, Sexual Love), the basis of love and symbol of reproduction, and Tartarus the deepest place of the land of the dead, were born. Subsequently, Erebus, the darkness of the underworld and Nyx, the darkness of the night originated. The two of them merged and formed Aether, the light of heavens anf Hemera, the light of terrestrial regions.
Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life and main principle found at the source of all elements. In her sleep she created the Heaven (Uranus), the Sea (Pontus) and the mountains. Uranus came first-and emerged as Gaia’s equal. When Sky showered Earth with fertile rain Gaia then gave birth to the rest of the physical world: the mountains, bodies of water, flora and fauna. From this union of Mother Earth with Uranus, 6 male and 6 female, a total of 12 mighty Titans were born (Oceanus[6], Coeus[7], Crius[8], Hyperion[9], Iapetus[10], Theia[11], Rhea[12], Themis[13], Mnemosyne[14], Phoebe[15], Tethys[16] and Cronos[17]). These creatures were immortal and possessed great strength and power. Then Gaia gave birth to the three Cyclops named Brontes, Steropes and Arges, who were supernatural beings with a single round eye on their foreheads and could govern lighting, thunder and sky. Again from her union with Uranus, the Hecatonchires named Cottos, Briareus and Gyes were born, who were violents giants with a hundred arms. When Uranus saw the Cyclops’s and the Hecatonchires’s as vile creatures he he would imprison them away beneath the earth.
Cronus vs Uranus
As the Titans were born, Uranus feared that he would be deprived of his power and thus dumped them in the depths of the grounds. Deeply grieved by this, Gaia plotted a cunning scheme together with her sons and had the last remaining Titan Cronus who hated his Uranus cut his father’s genitals with a sickle. He then flung them across the earth before they landed in the sea. The blood spurting from him diffused on the Earth and impregnated it. Time went by and the Earth bore the Erinyes (the avenging Furies) the goddesses of retribution, the Gigantes (giants), and the Meliae (the ash-tree nymphs) who were woodland fairies.
The genitals, which were thrown into the sea, created sea foam, resulting in the creation of Aphrodite, one of the original Olympians[18]. Therefore, Cronus’s rule began and the development of the universe continued. He had deposed his father Uranus and taken his place but with the dying breath of Uranus, he prophesied a terrible fate for his traitorous son. Uranus predicted that one of Cronus’s children would overthrow him one day, just as he had overthrown his father. The prophecy would hang heavy on the head of the Titan. From Uranus to Cronus and then from Cronus to Zeus, the power was violently seized from the successor who was challenging his predecessor’s domination.
With Erebus (Darkness), Nyx[19] gives birth to Aether (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). Later, she continued to reproduce by herself gives birth to Moros (Doom, Destiny), the Keres (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Indignation, Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Friendship), Geras (Old Age), and Eris (Strife).[20] Her creations were dark powers symbolizing evil, hunger, devastation and death. These were Thanatos (death), Hypnos (sleep), the Hesperides, and the three Moirae named Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, and Nemesis who caused excessive self confidence, and Eris the goddess of strife. Her appearances are sparse in surviving mythology, but reveal her as a figure of such exceptional power and beauty that she is feared by Zeus himself.
Other Creatures
From the union of Earth Mother with the sea (Pontus[21]) came forth the sea gods Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea), Thaumas (the awe-striking “wonder” of the Sea, embodiment of the sea’s dangerous aspects), Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and the “Strong Goddess” Eurybia. With the sea goddess Thalassa (whose own name simply means “sea” but is derived from a Pre-Greek root), he fathered the Telchines and all sea life. For Hesiod, Pontus seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho pontos, “the Road”, by which Hellenes signified the Mediterranean Sea.
The 50 daugthers of Nereus[22] were born from the union of Nereus and Doris, daugther of Oceanus (the father of rivers). From the union of Electra, another daugther of Oceanus, and Thaumas, who was one of the sons of Gaia, came forth Iris who sembolized the rainbow and was assosiated with communication, and the Harpies which had women’s faces, wings and sharp claws.
From the union of Phorcys[23] and his sister Ceto came forth the Graeae[24] and Gorgons who were old women from their birth. Gorgons vary and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Of these Gorgons named Stheno, Euryale and Medusa, only Medusa was mortal. Perseus behaded Medusa and from her blood shed on the ground emerged Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chrysaor. Chrysaor and Oceanus’s daughter Callirrhoe married and begat Geryones, who was a giant with three heads, and Echidna, who was an enormous half-woman, half-snake monster. Echidna’s union with giant Typhoon brought forth Cerberus the dog of Hades, Hydra the swamp monster, and fire-breathing monsters such as Chimera.
Notes
[1] Cosmogonic myth
[2] Ἡσίοδος. 8th century bc, Greek poet and the earliest author of didactic verse. His two complete extant works are the Works and Days, dealing with the agricultural seasons, and the Theogony, concerning the origin of the world and the genealogies of the gods.
[3] Theogonía (Θεογονία) is a Ancient Greek poem about the genealogy or birth of the gods describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed c. 700 BC
[4] Hesiod, Theogony 116–122, trans. C.S. Morrissey
[5] Gaea (Γαῖα) first appears as a character of divine being in the Homeric poems, in the Illiad, black sheep were sacrificed to her, and people were declaring oaths to invoke her (Homer. Iliad, 3.104 ff). Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.
[6] Oceanus, the first born of the Titans, both the god of the primordial river and the river itself, who flowed from the Underworld in a circular and never ending stream around the edge of the earth
[7] Coeus, who would become the father of Leto, the mother of the Olympian Gods Apollo and Artemis
[8] Crius, who would become the father of Astraeus
[9] Hyperion, who would become an early god of the son
[10] Iapetus, who would become the father of Prometheus
[11] Theia, who would become an early goddess of light
[12] Rhea, an earth goddess who would later become mother of the Olympian God
[13] Themis, another earth or mother goddess
[14] Mnemosyne, a personification of Memory
[15] Phoebe, who would become an early moon goddess
[16] Tethys, who would become the most ancient goddess of the sea
[17] Cronus, the youngest of the titans, but the craftiest and most daring.
[18] In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the twelve Olympians are the major deities of the Greek pantheon, commonly considered to be Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus.
[19] Greek Νύξ. the goddess of the night, daughter of Chaos. Roman counterpart: Nox
[20] Hesiod, Theogony 123
[21] Πόντος was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the Greek primordial deities. According to Hyginus, Pontus is the son of Aether and Gaia.
[22] Νηρεύς, was the eldest son of Pontus (the Sea) and Gaia (the Earth).
[23] Φόρκυς,is a primordial sea god. According to the Orphic hymns, Phorcys, Cronus and Rhea were the eldest offspring of Oceanus and Tethys.
[24] Graeae, Graiai (Γραῖαι) or Graiae, old women”, “grey ones”, or “grey witches” were three sisters who shared one eye and one tooth among them. Their names were Deino (or Dino), Enyo, and Pemphredo (or Pephredo).