Chaos and the First Beginning
In the beginning, there was Chaos, an immense and boundless abyss. It was as wild and dark as the sea, a place where confusion reigned. These words, although Milton's, perfectly capture the Greek conception of the very first origin of things. Long before the gods emerged, in an era lost in time, there existed only the shapeless emptiness of Chaos, overshadowed by an unbroken darkness.
Then, in a mysterious and unexplained manner, two beings were born from this formless void. Night was the child of Chaos, as was Erebus, which represented the unfathomable depth where death resides. In the entire universe, nothing else existed; everything was black, empty, silent, and endless.
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| chaos in Greek mythology |
The Birth of Love and Light
And then, from this terrifying void, a wondrous event occurred. In some miraculous way, from the darkness and emptiness, the best of all things came into being Love. The comic playwright Aristophanes describes this event in words often quoted:
"Black-winged Night,
Into the bosom of Erebus dark and deep,
Laid a wind-born egg, and as the seasons rolled,
Forth sprang Love, the longed-for, shining, with wings of gold."
Love emerged from the darkness and death, and with its birth, order and beauty began to replace the chaotic void. Love created Light and its companion, radiant Day.
The Emergence of Earth
What followed next was the creation of Earth, although no one ever tried to explain how it happened. It simply occurred. With the arrival of Love and Light, it seemed natural that Earth would appear as well. Hesiod, the first Greek poet to attempt explaining the origins of things, writes:
"Earth, the beautiful, rose up,
Broad-bosomed, she that is the steadfast base
Of all things. And fair Earth first bore
The starry Heaven, equal to herself,
To cover her on all sides and to be
A home forever for the blessed gods."
At this early stage, no distinction had been made between places and persons. Earth was both the solid ground and vaguely a personality in itself. Heaven was the vast blue vault above, yet it acted in ways similar to how humans behave. To the early storytellers, everything in the universe had the same kind of life they experienced themselves. They saw the world as alive, full of forces and movements that brought about change.
Personification of Natural Forces
As time went on, these natural forces began to be personified more clearly. The early storytellers defined these forces not as vague entities, but as distinct, human-like individuals. They began to attribute human traits to them, showing them walking, eating, and behaving like humans. But Earth and Heaven were different. If they were alive, it was in a way unique to them alone.
The first beings with a semblance of life were the children of Mother Earth and Father Heaven (Gaea and Ouranos). These creatures were monstrous. The Greeks did not imagine them as lizards or mammoths but as beings that resembled men yet were unhuman. They were endowed with overwhelming strength—akin to earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions. These beings seemed to belong to a world without life, only immense, irresistible forces.
The Monsters and the Titans
Three of these monsters had a hundred hands and fifty heads, while others, known as the Cyclopes, each had one enormous eye in the middle of their forehead. These Cyclopes were gigantic and powerful, towering like mountain crags. Along with them were the Titans, who were also immense in size and strength, but not purely destructive. Some of the Titans even proved to be beneficent.
It was natural to think of these terrifying creatures as the children of Earth, born from her depths in the early days of the world. However, the fact that they were also the children of Heaven was strange. Heaven, in this mythology, was not a loving father. He hated the monstrous offspring, especially those with a hundred hands and fifty heads. Every time one of them was born, he imprisoned it deep within the Earth. The Cyclopes and Titans were allowed to roam free, but Earth, angered by the mistreatment of her other children, appealed to the Titans for help. Only one, Cronus, responded.
The Fall of Heaven and the Rise of Cronus
Cronus, a Titan, lay in wait for his father and inflicted terrible wounds on him. From the blood of Heaven, the Giants, the Erinyes (Furies), and other fearsome creatures emerged. The Furies, with their snakes for hair and eyes that wept tears of blood, were tasked with punishing sinners. The other monsters were eventually driven from the Earth, but the Furies remained. As long as sin existed, they could never be banished.
For countless ages, Cronus ruled the universe alongside his sister-queen, Rhea. However, one of their sons—Zeus—would eventually challenge his father. Cronus, having learned of a prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, tried to prevent this fate by swallowing his offspring as soon as they were born. But when Rhea gave birth to Zeus, she secretly sent him to Crete and gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed, believing it to be the child.
The War of the Gods
As Zeus grew up, he forced Cronus to disgorge the swallowed children, and they were set free, including the five siblings who had been eaten. The siblings were later reunited at Delphi, where, centuries later, the Greek traveler Pausanias described a stone that the priests anointed daily with oil, believed to be the same one Cronus had swallowed.
This act set the stage for a great war between Cronus, aided by the Titans, and Zeus, supported by his siblings. The war nearly destroyed the universe. The whole earth trembled, the sky groaned, and even the heavens themselves were shaken. The Titans were ultimately defeated, partly due to Zeus' release of the hundred-handed monsters, who fought for him using their mighty weapons: thunder, lightning, and earthquakes. Prometheus, the wise son of the Titan Iapetus, also sided with Zeus, ensuring his victory.
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| Cornelis van Haarlem (1562–1638), The Fall of the Titans, oil on canvas, 1588–1590, 2,390 x 3,070 mm, Statens Museum for Kunst, KMS1, acquired 1621. More info: Google Arts & Culture |
The Punishment of the Titans
Zeus punished the Titans severely, binding them in chains beneath the earth in a place called Tartarus. The punishment was so harsh that, according to Hesiod, it was as though a bronze anvil fell for nine days and nights before reaching the Earth, and on the tenth day, it fell into Tartarus. The torment was unending.
But the worst fate befell Atlas, the Titan who was condemned to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders. He stood forever, holding the great pillar that separated the Earth and Heaven. This burden was not only physically unbearable but also symbolized the eternal separation of day and night, as Night and Day never meet in the same place.
The Birth of Typhon and the Final Victory
After the Titans were defeated, Earth gave birth to one last and most terrifying creature: Typhon, a monster with a hundred heads. Typhon rose against the gods, bringing death and destruction in his wake. His eyes burned with fire, and his jaws were a source of destruction. But Zeus, having now mastered the thunder and lightning, struck Typhon down with his thunderbolt. Typhon’s fiery rage continues to be felt in the form of volcanic eruptions, particularly from Mount Etna in Sicily.
Finally, even the Giants attempted to challenge Zeus. But by this time, the gods were stronger than ever and were aided by Hercules, the mighty son of Zeus. The Giants were defeated and cast down into Tartarus. With this final victory, the gods of Heaven secured their reign over the universe.
Zeus and the Reign of the Gods
From that point on, Zeus and his siblings ruled the world, undisturbed and undisputed, as the rightful lords of all things.