Creation

In the beginning was Chaos, a formless, dark, and primordial state that required no independent and preexisting creator. Out of Chaos emerged Gaea (the earth), followed by specific attributes of the cosmos: Eros, original impulse and generative force; the grim figures of Erebus and Night, manifestations of the unbounded emptiness and darkness; and Pontus (the sea), with whom Gaea, the universal mother, generated monsters and semi-divine figures linked to the cycles of life, and who would be the ancestors of the human race. The appearance of Uranus, the starry sky, introduced a male element as a counterweight to Gaea, earth and mother.

From the union of Gaea and Uranus were born the different forces of the universe. These represented atmospheric and volcanic phenomena, rivers and seas, celestial bodies, or even abstract concepts like justice.
As soon as Gaea gave birth to her children, Uranus hid them in the depth of the earth, inside their own mother, until Gaea, exhausted, incited her progeny to rebel. Cronus placed himself at their head, seizing power and castrating his father: the blood from Cronus's mutilated genitals fertilized the earth and gave birth to the Giants and the Erinyes, or Furies, while his seed, spilled into the sea, produced the foam from which Aphrodite was born.
But Cronus, who married his sister Rhea, took the same attitude toward his children as his father had done: as soon as they were born he devoured them. Like Uranus, he was to be overthrown by one of them.
Zeus, who had escaped his father's ferocity, forced him to vomit up his brothers and sisters and they recognized him as the supreme deity. Finally, after a series of struggles with the "old" gods, Zeus, his brothers and sisters, and their progeny imposed the rule of Olympus on the universe.

Last Edited On: 08/13/99

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