Chaos (mythology)

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> The Nothingness From Which All Else Sprang.
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**Chaos** is a god in Hesiod's and Homer's myth. It debuts, with her appearance in around 700 B.C. and usually ends at around the 9th Century. **Chaos** *(or **Khaos**)* was the first of the Protogenoi (primeval / primordial gods) and precedes the Universe.

## History

In Greek Mythology, Chaos, was the first thing to exist "at first Chaos came to be" (or was) "but next" from Chaos, came Gaia, Tartarus, and Eros. Unambiguously born "from Chaos" were Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). The Greek word "chaos", a neuter noun, means "yawning" or "gap", but what, if anything, was located on either side of this chasm is unclear. For Hesiod, Chaos, like Tartarus, though personified enough to have born children, was also a place, far away, underground and "gloomy", beyond which lived the Titans. And, like the earth, the ocean, and the upper air, It was also capable of being affected by Zeus' thunderbolts. However, Chaos also refers to the god of the same name.

**Chaos** *(or **Khaos**)* was the first of the Protogenoi (primeval gods) and precedes the Universe. It was followed in quick succession by Protogenus, Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld) and Eros (Love the life-bringer). Khaos was the lower atmosphere which surrounded the earth - invisible air and gloomy mist. Khaos was the Progenitor of the other substances of air: Nyx (Night), Erebos (Darkness), Aether (Light) and Hemera (Day), as well as the various emotion-affecting Daimones which drifted through it. It was also a god of fate like its daughter Nyx and granddaughters, the Moirai (Fates).

    Later authors defined Chaos as the chaotic mix of elements that existed in the primeval Universe, confusing it with the primeval Mud of the Orphic cosmogonies, but this was not the original meaning. Khaos has no father or mother or creator (possibly). It is self - created (possibly), It knowns everything that happens in the Universe and beyond every moment and is '' omni - potent ''. Its children are the Protogenoi, including Ouranos, Ananke, Gaia, Nyx, Eros, Erebos, and many others.

## Family

    Some say that Uranus, Gaia, Eros and Tartarus were born from Chaos, and of course so did Erebus and Nyx, and it is certain that Aether and Hemera were born from Erebus and Nyx, but some say that the first four were actually born from Aether and Hemera, rather than Chaos. Others say that there are no generations in - between all these gods and that they are all children of Chaos.

*Notes:*

* Solid lines denote parent-child blood relationships
* Dashed lines denote marriage relationships that result in offspring
* **†** denotes the deceased
* Chaos did not have any consorts.

## Ancient Text

*"Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire."*

- Hesiod, *Theogony* 116-138

## Appearance

* Gallery: Chaos (cosmogony)/Gallery
* Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos\_(cosmogony)

1. ↑ Chaos did not have any consorts obviously because how would you talk to a dark and meaningless void and how would you mate with it? Gaia did, but is unknown how.

Gallery: https://greek-myth.fandom.com/wiki/Chaos\_(cosmogony)/Gallery?so=search