Ancient Greece
Creation Myth
The Creation Myth: How it All Began
• Like all mythologies of the past, the Greek Mythology
started with the Creation Myth; the story that explains the
origins of life and of all things.
• This story is in essence an attempt to make sense of life's
mysteries; to impose structure and order in the universe and
to define the place of individuals, races and all people in
that universe. For how can we define where we are, without
first explaining where we came from?
The Creation Myth: How it All Began
• The most detailed account of early classical Creation myths
comes to us from Theogony, a poem composed by Hesiod,
a Greek poet in the eighth century B.C.
• It is worthwhile to note that the central recurring theme in
Hesiod's narration about the creation myth, is that the
driving force behind progression from generation to
generation of gods, is domination through conflict and war:
The Universe begins to take shape
• As the Creation Myth goes, at the beginning of everything
there was Chaos; this does not mean "Disorder" in the
contemporary sense, but rather "Chasm", in the sense of a
dark, gaping space.
• Afterwards came Gaia ("Earth") and Eros ("Sexual Love"),
which personifies the driving principle behind all
subsequent acts of procreation by which the cosmos became
populated.
The Universe begins to take shape
• Gaia was either born of Chaos or simply rising on its own. The Earth
surrounded and engulfed Chaos.
• From where Chaos and Gaia came is neither explained nor
elaborated.
• Hesiod simply states that they came first-and that the Earth came
into being to serve as a solid foundation for the home of gods.
• From these first three (Chaos, Gaia and Eros) and the possible
addition of Tartarus, a grim and terrifying region below the earth,
there originated all that exists.
From Love
came
light
and
earth
Known as
Gaea united with one of her
offspring, Uranus, the sky.
and
Frightening offspring were born to them
The Universe begins to take shape
• First, came the few beings that were born through
parthenogenesis that is the creation resulting from just one
gender:
• Human parthenogenesis or Virgin Birth
• Chaos gave birth to Erebus -the darkness of the Underworldand Nyx ("Night").
• In her sleep, Gaia gave birth to Uranus ("Sky") and Pontus
("Sea").
Uranus=Gaia
•Uranus came first-and
emerged as Gaia's equal.
The Universe begins to take shape
• After the birth of Erebus, Nyx, Uranus and Pontus,
virtually all of Creation came through mating.
• Uranus, the sky, emerged as big as his mother Gaia, so
that he might envelop her-which he quickly did.
Radiant with love for his Mother Earth, the Sky
showered her with fertile rain.
• Gaia then gave birth to the rest of the physical
world: the mountains, bodies of water, flora and
fauna.
• Nyx mated with Erebus, producing a daughter,
Hemera ("Day") and a son Aether ("Upper Air").
• As the creation myth goes, Night and Day share a house,
forever shrouded in darkness by the grim clouds of
Tartarus.
• Yet they never stay in the same house together. Instead,
they take turns, each waiting for the other to depart before
crossing the bronze threshold and entering the house.
The Universe begins to take shape
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Nyx also gave birth to another ominous breed of negative entities
Moros (Doom)
Thanatos (Death)
Hypnos (Sleep)
Nemesis (a goddess of retribution)
Eris (Strife)
Keres (female death spirits who would be charged with collecting and carrying
off the bodies of the dead)
Of these, the most interesting in terms of visual imagery were the
Fates:
• Their names were Clotho ,Lachesis ,Atropos
• Clotho ("the Spinner") would spin the thread of life of each
mortal,
• Lachesis ("the Measurer") would measure the length with a
rod
• Atropos ("the Inflexible") would cut it with shears, thus
ending it.
Titans and Giants
Gaia and Uranus also brought forth other divinities, the most important of which in relation to the
development of the rest of the Creation Myth, were the Titans (the "Overreachers").
• The Daughters
• Theia, who would become an early goddess of light
• Rhea, an earth goddess who would later become mother of the
Olympian Gods
• Themis, another earth or mother goddess
• Mnemosyne, a personification of Memory
• Phoebe, who would become an early moon goddess
• Tethys, who would become the most ancient goddess of the sea
The sons were named:
• 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
• Coeus, who would become the father of Leto, the mother of the Olympian Gods
Apollo and Artemis
• Crius, who would become the father of Astraeus
• Hyperion, who would become an early god of the son
• Iapetus, who would become the father of Prometheus
• Cronus, the youngest of the titans, but the craftiest and most daring.
The 12 Titans
Males
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Oceanus
Coeus
Hyperion
Crius
Iapetus
Cronus *
Females
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Tethys
Rhea *
Themis
Mnemosyne
Phoebe
Thia
Three Giants
• Though not as well known as the Titans who came after
them, the first children of Gaia and Uranus were three
giants: Cortus, Briareus and Gyges.
• Each of these brothers had 50 heads and 100 arms.
• These Hundred-Handed giants would be the mightiest of all
Gaia's and Uranus's offspring.
• Their great strength and imposing presence caused
even Titans and later Olympians to quake with fear.
Hecatonchires
(100-handed monsters)
• Briareus the Vigorous
• Cottus the Furious
• Gyges the Big-Limbed
Gaia also lay with her other son Pontus ("Sea").
She gave birth to five children:
• Nereus, a sea god who would become known as the Old
Man, was renowned for his truthfulness, gentle manner and
fairness.
• Phorcys, another sea god and Thaumas were the brothers
of Nereus.
• They also had two sisters: Ceto, a sea monster and
Eyrybia.
• Nereus fathered fifty lovely sea nymphs in union with
Doris, a daughter of Oceanus.
• Thaumas had a liaison with Electra, thus bringing forth the
wind-swift Harpies and Iris, divine messenger and goddess
of the rainbow.
• Phorcys lay with his sister Ceto, and they produced
numerous monstrous creatures
• Among them were the Graiai (women already old at birth),
the Gorgons (one of them was Medusa) and the hideous
Echidna, nymph above the waist and serpent below it.
• Echidna in turn would mate with Typhoeus, to produce
Cerberus, Lerna Hydra, Orthos and Chimaira.
• Two more creatures, the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion
would be the offspring of the mating between Orthos and
Chimaira.
• Most of these creatures, play a significant role in the
heroic exploits of the greek heroes Hercules, Perseus.
Three Cyclopes
• The next children born to Gaia and Uranus were no less
intimidating.
• They were the three Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes and
Arges.
• Each had only one eye, yet their enormous stature and
mighty limbs more than made up for their limited vision.
The Cyclopes
 Huge beings each with only one
eye in the middle of their
foreheads. They were great
builders and smiths.
 They would become the forgers of
thunder and lightning.
Uranus hated these creatures and imprisoned
them in the center of the earth.
Uranus oppresses his children
• In the development of the creation myth, Uranus proved to
be not such a fatherly figure.
• Because of his being immortal, he never wanted his power
to be diminished and pass the torch to the earlier generation,
as is the case in the mortal world.
• Being intimidated by an oracle stating that he would be
overthrown by one of his children, he performed some not
so fatherly acts:
• First, in order to prevent the giants from becoming a threat,
he hurled all of them (the Cyclopes and the Hundred Hand
Giants) into the deepest recesses of Tartarus, condemning
them to a life of imprisonment.
• As for the Titans, no sooner had Gaia given birth to one of
these children, than Uranus thrust the baby back into the
darkness of their mother's womb
• Forcing his own children to remain in the deepest, darkest
hollows of the Earth, Uranus refused to let them into the
light again.
As a result, all of his children hated Uranus with a passion.
• This was especially true in the case of Cronus, who could
not wait for an opportunity to seize the power from his cruel
father.
Gaea, wishing to free her
children and vent her wrath
upon Uranus for his
treatment of her offspring,
enlisted the aid of Cronus,
her Titan son. With a
weapon similar to a sickle,
Cronus wounded his father.
From the blood and wounded
parts sprang up a strange
collection of beings:
Gaia grew very uncomfortable, with
all her mighty children in her
womb, condemned by Uranus. She
thus devised a scheme to avenge
her cruel husband:
• She crafted an enormous and very sharp sickle of iron.
• She then pleaded her children to take action to punish their
father, but everyone was reluctant, except Cronus who
volunteered to perform the horrible deed.
• When given the chance when Uranus was in a
compromising position, Cronus severed his genitals with
the iron and then hurled the castrated organ into the sea.
In the sea, the organ bobbed on the water, giving rise to foam.
• As the myth goes, from this foam emerged the fully formed
goddess of love: Aphrodite (whose name in Greek just
means that, "emerging out of foam").
• Naked and riding on a scallop shell, Aphrodite first touched
land on the island of Cythera, but found the place too small
for her comfort.
• Instead she stepped ashore on Cyprus.
• From Uranus's severed manhood, fell countless drops of
blood, which spattered all over Gaia.
• From this strange conception, Gaia bore many children,
including
Gigantes
Erinyes
Aphrodite
Alecto, Tisiphone and Megara

The Erinyes (Furies) - Alecto, Tisiphone and Megara,
who avenge perjury crimes against one's own family (such
as patricide)


The race of Giants, who were born in full armor, with
spears in their arms
The ash tree nymphs, who would soon come to inhabit all
forests of Greece.
The New Generation of Gods
• After gaining their own freedom, the Titans made Cronus
their king and freed the Cyclopes and their Hundred Handed
brothers from Tartarus.
• However, due to their arrogant nature and their resistance
to authority, the latter (Cyclopes and Giants) were soon
thrown back to Tartarus by Cronus.
• As for the twelve titans, they retained their freedom and
began pairing off, breeding a new generation of gods.
• Of the dozen, at least eight - four brothers and four sisters married and had children:


Theia and Hyperion - both associated with the sun - gave
birth to Helius ("Sun"), and two daughters: Selene
("Moon") and Eos ("Dawn")
Phoebe and Coeus - had two daughters: Leto, the future
mother of Apollo and Artemis, and Asteria


Oceanus and Tethys - their union was the most prolific of
all:
Their offspring included all the 3,000 rivers - each with its
own (usually male) god - and the 3,000 female Oceanids


Cronus and Rhea - this was by far the most glamorous
union of all, since it produced six divine children, who
would later inhabit Mount Olympus and thus become
known as the Olympians.
These were three daughters and three sons: Hera, Demeter,
Hestia, Hades, Poseidon and finally Zeus.
Cronus, the new Lord of the Universe,
took his sister Rhea for his bride.
When Cronus defeated Uranus,
becoming lord of the universe, Uranus
prophesied that Cronus’ children would
in turn overthrow him.
Thus, Cronus
swallowed each of his
children as soon as
they were born.
Rhea tricked Cronus. She hid her last baby and
gave Cronus a rock to swallow instead.
Zeus grew up in the
care of nymphs on
Mt. Ida. The goat
Amalthea provided
him with milk, and
one of her horns
was later presented
by Zeus to the
nymphs.
When the time was right, Zeus
came back. He gave his
father a poison drink which
made Cronus violently ill.
He vomited up his
children, who were now
fully grown . . .
. . . AND ANGRY!
Children of Cronus and Rhea
Hades
Poseidon
Zeus
Children of Cronus and Rhea
Hestia
Demeter
Hera
Aphrodite
Artemis
Athena
WAR BETWEEN THE TTITANS AND GODS
Zeus - Supreme God; God of the
Sky
Poseidon - God of the Sea
Hades - God of the Underworld
ALL HAVE POWER ON EARTH
The Metals Theory
_Golden Race_______________________________
The Silver Race_____________________________
The Bronze Race____________________________
The Age of Heroes___________________________
The Iron Race______________________________