An Ancient Greek Hypothesis
In the beginning there was only chaos, emptiness, darkness, a formless void. Out of
this darkness came Ge, goddess of the Earth, and Uranus, god of the heavens and together,
they gave birth to a race of beings called Titan gods. Uranus was a bad father, however, and
one of the titans, Kronos, rebelled against Uranus, overthrew him, and became ruler of the
world. But Kronos had been warned that he would also be overthrown by one of his own
children and so to avoid this he swallowed his children one by one as they were born. Rhea,
the wife of Kronus, was not happy about this so she set out to trick him about their youngest
child, Zeus. She hid the infant on the island of Crete and left him to be raised by wood
nymphs, then wrapped a stone in baby clothes and gave it to Kronos, who swallowed it. So it
was that Zeus grew up in safety and eventually overthrew the rule of his father and became
King of the Gods.
Lapetus, another of the children of Gaia and Uranus, had fathered a Titan called
Prometheus who had aided Zeus in overthrowing Kronos. Zeus gave Prometheus the task of
creating man, so Prometheus came down to earth, scooped up some clay, moistened it with
water from a river, and shaped it into the image of the gods. Then the goddess Athene,
daughter of Zeus, breathed life into the clay figure and it came alive. Prometheus wanted to
give man the gift of fire, but Zeus would not permit it because he thought it would make man
too powerful. Prometheus defied Zeus and stole fire from the sun and gave it to Man. Zeus
was outraged and punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock where, for eternity, a
vulture would feast on his liver by day, and it would grow back each night.
To punish Man, Zeus ordered Hepaestus, god of fire and metalworking, to create a
mortal with the gift of beauty. This was the first woman, Pandora. Pandora was sent to live
on the earth and was given a box that she was forbidden to open. But Pandora’s curiosity got
the better of her and when she opened it out flew evil, sorrow, plague, and all manner of
misfortune. However, at the bottom of the box was one good thing – hope!
Comparative Hypotheses p. 2