How the World and Mankind Were Created
The Beginning:
● Beginning of the universe there is only Chaos
● Chaos gives birth to two children, Night and Erebus
● Love is born from the two
● Love gives birth to Light and Day
● Earth emerges from Love, Light and Day, however it’s specific creation is never
explained.
● Earth gives birth to Heaven
Father Heaven and Mother Earth
● The first creatures to appear were the children of Father Heaven and Mother Earth
(Gaea and Ouranos)
● The first creatures were the monsters: Cyclopes (men with 100 hands and 50 heads)
and the Titans
● Cronus, who is a Titan, kills Heaven.
● Another race of monsters, the Giants, spring from Heaven’s blood, as did the Erinyes
● Titans then ruled the universe.
Cronus
● Has a sister-queen Rhea (Ops)
● Cronus learns one of his children is fated to kill him.
● Zeus (Jupiter) rebels against Cronus.
● Cronus goes against fate and swallows his children as soon as they are born.
● Zeus was Rhea’s sixth child, and she had him secretly carried off to Crete before he
could be swallowed by Cronus.
● A terrible war between Cronus and the Titans vs. Zeus and his brothers and sisters.
● War almost wrecked the universe.
Titans were Conquered
● Zeus released from prison the hundred-handed monsters whom fought with their
weapons: thunder, lightning, and earthquakes.
● Punished them terribly by chaining them to the bowels of the Earth.
● Zeus punished Prometheus’ brother Atlas even worse by condemning him “To bear on
his back forever the cruel strength of the crushing world.”
● Zeus was still not completely victorious, Earth gave birth to her last child: Typhon. Zeus
struck him down with thunder and lightning.
Three Stories about the Creation of Humankind
● Prometheus and Epimetheus: Put in charge of making humans. Epimetheus mixes the
up the job and accidently gives useful traits and qualities to animals. Prometheus gives
humans the appearance and shape of gods and gives them fire. Prometheus also
teaches humans to trick Zeus into choosing the less-desirable parts of animal sacrifice.
He is punished by Zeus by being chained to a rock and having his liver eaten by an
eagle.
●
The Gods make Humans: The gods use metals. They start with the golden race, then
the far inferior silver race (much less intelligent), then the brass race, which were terrible
men. They were followed by a splendid race of godlike men. The fifth race were the iron
race, eventually destroyed by Zeus. Zeus then created the first woman on earth,
Pandora. She brings suffering to the world by opening a forbidden box given to her by
the gods, and she releases all the evils. However hope is left in the box.
●
The third and final creation myth is about humans who were created from inanimate
material. Zeus is very upset with the evil and wickedness in the world. He then floods the
world. Two mortals survive: Deucalion and the daughter of Pandora and Epithemeus,
Pyrrha. The two cast stones behind them which become the first ancestors. They were
called the “Stone People” and were a very tough and enduring race.