In the beginning…… …was Chaos (shapeless nothingness) Chaos had two children: Night (darkness) Erebus (death) “All was black, empty, silent, endless.” Mysteriously, Love was born of darkness and death.

And then . . . . When Love was born, order and beauty began to flourish. Love created Light and Day. Earth was created. She was the solid ground, but also a personality. The ancient Greeks thought of the earth-mother goddess Gaia as a gentle giver of life and nourisher of all her children The Earth bore Heaven to cover her and be a home for the gods.

The First Parents Mother Earth = Gaea (Gaia) Father Heaven = Ouranos (Uranus) They had three kinds of children: Three monsters with 100 hands and 50 heads Three cyclopes The titans These were the first characters that had the appearance of life, although it was unlike any life known to man.

The Grandchildren Gaia had many grandchildren, including - the three fates - the nine muses - the two young titans Prometheus Epimetheus

The Titans (The Elder Gods) There were 12 Titans Each with ENORMOUS size and incredible strength Oceanus (Titan god of the great oceanic river that forever circles the world. Tethys (Sister and Wife of Oceanus) Hyperion (First sun god Thea (Sister and Wife of Hyperion) Coeus (Husband and brother of Phoebe) Phoebe (Moon goddess) Cronus ( Husband and brother of Rhea) Rhea (Sister and Wife of Cronus) Crius Iapetus Themis(The Goddess of Justice) Mnemosyne (The Goddess of Memory)

The sacred Marriage of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky) is the primary generative element of the cosmos. Earth gives birth to all things; Uranus is the father of most of them. As each of his children was born, Uranus hid them all in the depths of Gaia and did not allow them to emerge into the light. And he delighted in his wickedness. But huge Earth in her distress groaned within and devised a crafty and evil scheme . . . Hesiod, Theogony

One Big Unhappy Family In some versions of the creation story Chaos was married to Nyx, the goddess of night who bore a son Erebus. Erebus overthrew his father and was overthrown by his children, Aether (light) and Hemera(day). Uranus did not allow his children to see the light of day because he was afraid of their power or perhaps his family history. So Uranus forced his sons and daughters back inside their mother’s womb (Earth), deep in the black cavern of Tartarus where he kept them chained.

ENOUGH The pain of carrying the numerous children angered Gaia, and she made a plan for revenge against Uranus. She called upon the Titans to help her. The youngest, Cronus (master of time), came to her aid. Cronus, with his mother’s help, created a sickle and cut off his father’s genitals when his father came to be with his mother. Cronus cast the cut off genitals into the sea. According to some versions of the myth, the goddess Aphrodite was created from the blood that dropped into the sea. In addition some of the blood dropped on to the earth creating all types of scary offspring.

Cronus takes the sickle his mother gives him and castrates his father Uranus. From the blood that falls from the severed genitals into the ocean, Aphrodite is born. So are the Furies. Cronus: Forum Romanum Aphrodite: VRoma After defeating his father, Cronus married his sister Rhea. Cronus and his sister/wife, Rhea, become king and queen of the Universe.

The Next Generation of Gods Cronus and Rhea had six children (3 boys and 3 girls). These children were born in the following order: Hestia Demeter Hera Hades Poseidon and Zeus.

The Family Tree Titan Children Rhea Cronus Mother Earth (Gaea) Father Heaven (Uranus) Titan Children Monster Children Rhea Cronus Hestia Demeter Rhea Hades Poisedon Zeus

The Plot Thickens….. Cronus was a fearful king because his mother Gaia had prophesied that one of his children would overthrow him. So of course, Cronus made the same mistake his father did. He refused to let the world go forward. As each of his children was born, he had Rhea bring them to him where he would swallowed them whole. Their in the stomach of Cronus the children resided helpless.

What are the parallels between the first and second generations? ENOUGH Rhea was determined to stop her husband from eating her children but she was afraid of his great strength. She needed to overthrow him not by force but by trickery. When Zeus was born Rhea covered a large stone and gave the stone to Cronus. Cronus devoured the stone believing it was their sixth born child, Zeus. What are the parallels between the first and second generations?

Clear-voiced muse, sing a hymn to the mother of all gods and all mortals too. The din of castanets and drums, along with the shrillness of flutes, are your delight, and also the cry of wolves, the roar of glaring lions, and the resounding forests. Homeric Hymn to the Mother of Gods Zeus was hidden away on Crete, raised by nymphs, fed with honey from bees and the milk of the goat Amalthea. Curetes (kouroi, young men) clashed their shields to keep his cries from being heard by Cronus. This dancing and clashing may be related to the worship of Cybele, an eastern mother-goddess similar to Rhea.

Once Zeus was strong enough, he returned and gave his father a poison and forced his father to cough up his siblings: Sisters Hestia, Demeter, and Hera Brothers Hades and Poseidon There followed a huge battle for dominance between the gods and Titans . . . the Titanomachy.

Titanomachy The battle raged for 10 years, Titans vs. Zeus. With Zeus were the gods, the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires, and a few Titans: among them Themis and Prometheus.

After the battle, Zeus cast lots with his brothers to divide up the known universe. Zeus won kingship of land and sky. Hades won the realm of death. Poseidon won the oceans.

The Titans were bound and imprisoned in Tartarus. The idea of binding is important for Zeus – the powers are still there, but they are controlled and subordinated. The natural powers cannot and should not be destroyed, but Zeus can control or at least manage them, in his ordered universe. The Titanic powers of Helius, Selene, Eos, and Oceanus are obviously still working today . . . in service of order. Zeus and his brothers cast lots to determine who would rule what – but fate clearly makes sense, when Zeus, who freed his brothers, wins kingship over the world.

Zeus defeated (then apparently reintegrated) the Titans, establishing order. But he then had to defeat the giants. Gigantomachy

Gaia, upset at Zeus for seizing power over the rest of her children Gaia, upset at Zeus for seizing power over the rest of her children. She gave birth to the hundred-headed giants Typhon and Enceladus who could breath fire and pile mountain upon mountain. The gods of Olympus was terrified and disguised themselves as animals to escape attention. Gaia emerges from the earth as her sons, the giants, are defeated by the gods.

Even the Titans and other primal concepts (like Night, shown here) fight on the side of order against the giants. She is slinging a serpent-wound jar at a Giant who is part-serpent himself. Giants represent ancient, primal chaos – the old times, before order and law. Night vs. a giant

From the shoulders of this frightening dragon a hundred snake-heads grew; fire blazed from all their eyes. In all the terrible heads voices emitted all kinds of amazing sounds; for at one time he spoke so that the gods understood, at another his cries were those of a proud bull bellowing in his invincible might. But are Zeus’s struggles over? Noooooo . . . Typhoeus (a.k.a. Typhon), another chaos monster, rises to attack him.

Zeus defeated Typhoeus with his thunderbolt. The thunderbolt, made by the Cyclopes, was also the decisive weapon in the battle with the Titans. It shows Zeus as a sky god, and emphasizes his uncontestable power. The natural world is firmly integrated into these spiritually meaningful stories about the establishment of cosmic order.