Greek creation myths Greek creation myths by Daphne Elliott In the beginning, Chaos , an amorphous, gaping void encompassing the entire universe, and surrounded by an unending stream of water ruled by the god Oceanus , was the domain of a goddess named Eurynome , which means "far-ruling" or "wide-wandering". She was the Goddess of All Things, and desired to make order out of the Chaos. By coupling with a huge and powerful snake, Ophion , or as some legends say, coupling with the North Wind, she gave birth to Eros , god of Love, also known as Protagonus, the "firstborn". Eurynome separated the sky from the sea by dancing on the waves of Oceanus. In this manner, she created great lands upon which she might wander, a veritable universe, populating it with exotic creatures such as Nymphs , Furies , and Charites as well as with countless beasts and monsters. Also born out of Chaos were Gaia , called Earth, or Mother Earth, and Uranus , the embodiment of the Sky and the Heavens, as well as Tartarus , god of the sunless and terrible region beneath Gaia, the Earth.

Gaia and Uranus married and gave birth to the Titans , a race of formidable giants, which included a particularly wily giant named Cronus . In what has become one of the recurrent themes of Greek Mythology, Gaia and Uranus warned Cronus that a son of his would one day overpower him. Cronus therefore swallowed his numerous children by his wife Rhea , to keep that forecast from taking place. This angered Gaia greatly, so when the youngest son, Zeus , was born, Gaia took a stone, wrapped it in swaddling clothes and offered it to Cronus to swallow. This satisfied Cronus, and Gaia was able to spirit the baby Zeus away to be raised in Crete, far from his grasping father. In due course, Zeus grew up, came homeward, and got into immediate conflict with the tyrant Cronus, who did not know that this newcomer was his own son. Zeus needed his brothers and sisters help in slaying the tyrant, and Metis , Zeus's first wife, found a way of administering an emetic to Cronus, who then threw up his five previous children, who were Hestia , Demeter , Hera , Hades , and Poseidon .

Together they went to battle against their father. The results were that all of his children, led by Zeus, vanquished Cronus forever into Tartarus' domain, the Dark World under the Earth. Thus, Zeus triumphed over not only his father, and his father's family of Giants, he triumphed over his brothers and sisters as well, dividing up the universe as he fancied, in short, bringing order out of Chaos. He made himself Supreme God over all, creating a great and beautiful place for his favored gods to live, on Mount Olympus , in Thessaly. All the others were left to fend for themselves in lands below Mount Olympus. Zeus made himself God of the Sky and all its phenomena, including the clouds as well as the thunderbolts. Hestia became goddess of the Hearth. To his brother Poseidon, he gave the rule of the Sea. Demeter became a goddess of Fertility, Hera (before she married Zeus and became a jealous wife), was goddess of Marriage and Childbirth, while Hades, one of his other brothers, was made god of the Underworld.

Zeus did indeed bring order out of Chaos, but one of his failings was that he did not look kindly upon the people, those creatures that populated the lands over which he reigned. Many were not beautiful, and Zeus had contempt for anyone who was not beautiful. And of course they were not immortal, as the Olympian gods were, and they complained about the lack of good food and the everlasting cold nights. Zeus ignored their complaints, while he and the other gods feasted endlessly on steaming hot game from the surrounding forests, and had great crackling fires in every room of their palaces where they lived in the cold winter. Enter Prometheus , one of the Titans not vanquished in the war between Zeus and the giants. It is said in many myths that Prometheus had created d a race of people from clay, or that he had combined specks of every living creature, molded them together, and produced a new race, The Common Man. At the very least he was their champion before Zeus. Fire for cooking and heating was reserved only for the gods to enjoy.

Prometheus stole some of the sparks of a glowing fire from the Olympians, so that the people below Olympus could have fire for cooking and warmth in the winter, thus greatly improving their lot in life. Zeus was furious at this insult to his absolute power, and had Prometheus bound and chained to a mountain, sending an eagle to attack him daily. Adding insult to injury, Zeus had his fellow Olympian, Hephaestus , fashion a wicked but beautiful creature to torment Prometheus. It was a woman, whom they named Pandora , which means "all gifts". She was given a precious and beautiful box, which she was told not to open, but curiosity got the better of her, and out flew "all the evils that plague men." The only "gift" that stayed in the box was "Hope". So, from "far-ruling" Eurynome to the creation of the Common Man, Greek creation myths are inextricably filled with difficulties, though often ameliorated by the gift of Hope. A myriad of other myths tell of the joys and adventures of great heroes and heroines, other gods and goddesses, as well as fantastic creatures from all parts of ancient Greece.

Apologia Every myth, Greek or otherwise, that has ever been told or written, varies in the telling. The basic themes are repeated in many of them, but details, even story lines will differ considerably, from village to village, eon to eon. When one understands that the myths have been told for many centuries before being written down, which first occurred about 800 BCE, one can relish the differences in the tellings and enjoy the Greek's brilliant and artful imagination throughout the ages. Article details: Creation myths Creation myths by Bernard Doyle Most systems of myths have an explanation for the origin of the universe and its components. These myths are known as creation myths. An explanation of the origin of the universe is known as a Cosmogony. Creation myths as well as more modern theories such as Laplace's Nebula Hypothesis, the Continuous Creation Theory and the Big Bang Theory are all examples of Cosmogonies. Creation myths are amongst mankind's earliest attempts to explain some of the most profound questions about the nature and origin of the universe. These are questions that we are still attempting to answer today. One way of approaching creation myths is to outline some of the themes that commonly occur in them.

It should be noted at the outset however, that these themes or motifs are the creation of modern scholars of myths and mythology, not the people who created the myths in the first place. While they are useful and can provide us with a great deal of insight, individual creation myths cannot be expected to conform rigidly to a single modern stereotype. Rather, any one creation myth will have several thematic features to a greater or lesser degree. This is the rule rather than the exception. This article will attempt to deal with some of the main themes occurring in creation myths. One myth that may be used to illustrate several themes is the traditional Chinese creation myth. This is the myth of Pan-gu (also known as P'an-ku). There are written texts of this myth going back to the 6th century CE and there are parts of Southern China where the cult of P'an Ku still persists. The most common form of the myth is as follows :- The first living thing was P'an Ku. He evolved inside a gigantic cosmic egg, which contained all the elements of the universe totally intermixed together. P'an Ku grew by about 10 feet each day. As he grew he separated the earth and the Sky within the egg.

At the same time he gradually separated the many opposites in nature male and female, wet and dry, light and dark, wet and dry, Yin and Yang. These were all originally totally commingled in the egg. While he grew he also created the first humans. After 18,000 years the egg hatched and P'an Ku died from the effort of creation. From his eyes the sun and moon appeared, from his sweat, rain and dew, from his voice, thunder, and from his body all the natural features of the earth arose. The formless chaotic egg which was the birthplace of P'an Ku is an example of the idea of a primitive chaos, or featureless, undifferentiated universe. This is the most frequently found primordial stuff of the universe in creation myths. The Greeks referred to this initial formless state of the universe as chaos and this is the origin of the term. One very common variation on this idea describes the primordial universe as a great featureless body of water. For example this idea was used by the ancient Babylonians in their creation myth.

The story of the Japanese gods Izanagi and Izanami stirring the waters of the earth to produce the island of Okonoro is another example of this theme of a primordial sea. In this case the ocean is the precursor of the earth rather than the whole universe. In contrast to a primordial universe consisting of a some undifferentiated matter, there are some creation myths that describe a creation of the universe from nothing or ex nihilo. A god who exists in a void performs some action which results in the universe coming into being, sometimes in an undifferentiated state. The Egyptian creation myth as related in the Pyramid Texts is one example of creation from nothing. Atum is the first god who creates his brother and sister Shu and Tefnut . Another case of creation from nothing occurs in the most common of the Samoan creation myths. Tangaroa , who is the supreme god in Samoan mythology, but usually only the god of the ocean for other Polynesians created the world by thinking of it. A further examples of ex nihilo creation is the creation myth of the Kalahari Bushmen of Africa. Monotheistic religions also usually envisage an ex nihilo creation.

Numerous other instances of ex nihilo creation myths exist. It should be noted that creation myths may involve one or several stages of creation. In the latter case a primordial god typically creates part of the universe and has offspring who then further differentiate the primitive universe. They too have offspring who do further things. Often there is conflict between different generations of gods for mastery of the universe. Also at some stage, human beings and the world as we know it come into being. The creation myth of classical Greek mythology is a good example of a multi stage creation of the universe. The creation myth of P'an-ku is likewise a good example of a single stage creation myth. A second theme of creation myths that occurs in the story of P'an-ku is the idea of the earth and the sky forming by the separation of the original matter of the universe. Most often, the earth and sky are primordial deities of different sexes. In most cases the earth is female and the sky male. The Maori and Polynesian creation myth of Rangi and Papa is a good example of this. In this creation myth the primordial universe is the bodies of the two gods Papa and Rangi.

Their separation by their offspring is the act which creates the universe as we know it. A similar idea is embodied in the Egyptian creation myth of Nut and Geb. In contrast to most earth and sky deities, Nut, the sky god, is female. However, like Rangi and Papa, Nut and Geb are separated by their offspring. Another theme that occurs in the P'an Ku creation myth is the idea that the earth or the world or even the entire universe is the bodily remains of a primordial being or deity. This also occurs in the Norse creation myth where the primordial giant Ymir is killed by Odin , Vili and Ve . The earth is formed from the dead body of Ymir. His flesh becomes the land, his blood becomes the sea, his bones become the mountains and his hair becomes the trees. His skull becomes the vault of the heavens. A similar story occurs in the Babylonian creation myth related in the Babylonian epic Enuma elish written around 1100 BCE. The Babylonian god Marduk fights and kills Tiamat , the primordial goddess of the ocean. He cuts her body in two. One half becomes the sky, the other half the earth.

The Norse and Babylonian creation myths also involve the notion whereby the creation of the universe involves a struggle between primordial gods and/or beings. This idea is also a common theme in many other creation myths. Classical Greek mythology, for example, has several struggles. There is the original one between Uranus and his offspring, ending in the death of Uranus at the hands of Cronus . Later on there is the struggle between Zeus and the Titans . The final general aspect of creation myths shown in the P'an Ku myth is that they always involve the creation of human beings at some stage by gods or other supernatural entities. By doing this, a connection is established between the everyday world of human beings and the supernatural world of the god or gods who created the universe. It also establishes the place of human beings in the hierarchy of life inhabiting the universe. Man is placed below gods and other supernatural beings but above animals and plants. This aspect shows us the aetiological or explanatory function of creation myths. Article details: Ancient Greece - Ancient History Encyclopedia Ancient Greece by Joshua J.

Mark published on 13 November 2013 Greece is a country in southeastern Europe , known in Greek as Hellas or Ellada, and consisting of a mainland and an archipelago of islands. Greece is the birthplace of Western philosophy ( Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle ), literature ( Homer and Hesiod ), mathematics ( Pythagoras and Euclid ), history ( Herodotus ), drama ( Sophocles , Euripedes, and Aristophanes ), the Olympic Games , and democracy. The concept of an atomic universe was first posited in Greece through the work of Democritus and Leucippus. The process of today's scientific method was first introduced through the work of Thales of Miletus and those who followed him. The Latin alphabet also comes from Greece, having been introduced to the region by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BCE, and early work in physics and engineering was pioneered by Archimedes , of the Greek colony of Syracuse , among others.

Mainland Greece is a large peninsula surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea (branching into the Ionian Sea in the west and the Aegean Sea in the east) which also comprises the islands known as the Cyclades and the Dodecanese (including Rhodes ), the Ionian islands (including Corcyra ), the isle of Crete , and the southern peninsula known as the Peloponnese . Remove Ads Advertisement The geography of Greece greatly influenced the culture in that, with few natural resources and surrounded by water, the people eventually took to the sea for their livelihood. Mountains cover eighty percent of Greece and only small rivers run through a rocky landscape which, for the most part, provides little encouragement for agriculture. Consequently, the early Greeks colonized neighboring islands and founded settlements along the coast of Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor , modern day Turkey ). The Greeks became skilled seafaring people and traders who, possessing an abundance of raw materials for construction in stone, and great skill, built some of the most impressive structures in antiquity. Greece reached the heights in almost every area of human learning.

Etymology of Hellas The designation Hellas derives from Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha who feature prominently in Ovid's tale of the Great Flood in his Metamorphoses. The mythical Deucalion (son of the fire-bringing titan Prometheus ) was the savior of the human race from the Great Flood, in the same way Noah is presented in the biblical version or Utnapishtim in the Mesopotamian one. Deucalion and Pyrrha repopulate the land once the flood waters have receded by casting stones which become people, the first being Hellen. Contrary to popular opinion, Hellas and Ellada have nothing to do with Helen of Troy from Homer's Iliad. Ovid, however, did not coin the designation. Thucydides writes, in Book I of his Histories: I am inclined to think that the very name was not as yet given to the whole country, and in fact did not exist at all before the time of Hellen, the son of Deucalion; the different tribes, of which the Pelasgian was the most widely spread, gave their own names to different districts.

But when Hellen and his sons became powerful in Phthiotis, their aid was invoked by other cities , and those who associated with them gradually began to be called Hellenes, though a long time elapsed before the name was prevalent over the whole country. Of this, Homer affords the best evidence; for he, although he lived long after the Trojan War , nowhere uses this name collectively, but confines it to the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes; when speaking of the entire host, he calls them Danäans, or Argives, or Achaeans. Early History of Greece Greek history is most easily understood by dividing it into time periods. The region was already settled, and agriculture initiated, during the Paleolithic era as evidenced by finds at Petralona and Franchthi caves (two of the oldest human habitations in the world). The Neolithic Age (c. 6000 - c. 2900 BCE) is characterized by permanent settlements (primarily in northern Greece), domestication of animals, and the further development of agriculture.

Archaeological finds in northern Greece (Thessaly, Macedonia, and Sesklo, among others) suggest a migration from Anatolia in that the ceramic cups and bowls and figures found there share qualities distinctive to Neolithic finds in Anatolia. These inland settlers were primarily farmers, as northern Greece was more conducive to agriculture than elsewhere in the region, and lived in one-room stone houses with a roof of timber and clay daubing. Remove Ads Advertisement The Cycladic Civilization (c. 3200-1100 BCE) flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea (including Delos , Naxos and Paros ) and provides the earliest evidence of continual human habitation in that region. During the Cycladic Period, houses and temples were built of finished stone and the people made their living through fishing and trade. This period is usually divided into three phases: Early Cycladic, Middle Cycladic, and Late Cycladic with a steady development in art and architecture. The latter two phases overlap and finally merge with the Minoan Civilization , and differences between the periods become indistinguishable.

The Minoan Civilization (2700-1500 BCE) developed on the island of Crete, and rapidly became the dominant sea power in the region. The term `Minoan' was coined by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who uncovered the Minoan palace of Knossos in 1900 CE and named the culture for the ancient Cretan king Minos. The name by which the people knew themselves is not known. The Minoan Civilization was thriving, as the Cycladic Civilization seems to have been, long before the accepted modern dates which mark its existence and probably earlier than 6000 BCE. The Minoans developed a writing system known as Linear A (which has not yet been deciphered) and made advances in ship building, construction, ceramics, the arts and sciences, and warfare . King Minos was credited by ancient historians (Thucydides among them) as being the first person to establish a navy with which he colonized, or conquered, the Cyclades. Archaeological and geological evidence on Crete suggests this civilization fell due to an overuse of the land causing deforestation though, traditionally, it is accepted that they were conquered by the Mycenaeans.

The eruption of the volcano on the nearby island of Thera (modern day Santorini) between 1650 and 1550 BCE, and the resulting tsunami, is acknowledged as the final cause for the fall of the Minoans. The isle of Crete was deluged and the cities and villages destroyed. This event has been frequently cited as Plato's inspiration in creating his myth of Atlantis in his dialogues of the Critias and Timaeus. Advertisement The Mycenaeans & Their Gods The Mycenaean Civilization (approximately 1900-1100 BCE) is commonly acknowledged as the beginning of Greek culture, even though we know almost nothing about the Mycenaeans save what can be determined through archaeological finds and through Homer’s account of their war with Troy as recorded in The Iliad. They are credited with establishing the culture owing primarily to their architectural advances, their development of a writing system (known as Linear B, an early form of Greek descended from the Minoan Linear A), and the establishment, or enhancement of, religious rites.

The Mycenaeans appear to have been greatly influenced by the Minoans of Crete in their worship of earth goddesses and sky gods, which, in time, become the classical pantheon of ancient Greece. The gods and goddesses provided the Greeks with a solid paradigm of the creation of the universe, the world, and human beings. An early myth relates how, in the beginning, there was nothing but chaos in the form of unending waters. From this chaos came the goddess Eurynome who separated the water from the air and began her dance of creation with the serpent Ophion. From their dance, all of creation sprang and Eurynome was, originally, the Great Mother Goddess and Creator of All Things. By the time Hesiod and Homer were writing (8th century BCE), this story had changed into the more familiar myth concerning the titans, Zeus ' war against them, and the birth of the Olympian Gods with Zeus as their chief. This shift indicates a movement from a matriarchal religion to a patriarchal paradigm. Whichever model was followed, however, the gods clearly interacted regularly with the humans who worshipped them and were a large part of daily life in ancient Greece.

Prior to the coming of the Romans, the only road in mainland Greece that was not a cow path was the Sacred Way which ran between the city of Athens and the holy city of Eleusis , birthplace of the Eleusinian Mysteries celebrating the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone . By 1100 BCE the great Mycenaean cities of southwest Greece were abandoned and, some claim, their civilization destroyed by an invasion of Doric Greeks. Archaeological evidence is inconclusive as to what led to the fall of the Mycenaeans. As no written records of this period survive (or have yet to be unearthed) one may only speculate on causes. The tablets of Linear B script found thus far contain only lists of goods bartered in trade or kept in stock. No history of the time has yet emerged. It seems clear, however, that after what is known as the Greek Dark Ages (approximately 1100-800 BCE, so named because of the absence of written documentation) the Greeks further colonized much of Asia Minor, and the islands surrounding mainland Greece and began to make significant cultural advances. Beginning in c.

585 BCE the first Greek philosopher, Thales, was engaged in what, today, would be recognised as scientific inquiry in the settlement of Miletus on the Asia Minor coast and this region of Ionian colonies would make significant breakthroughs in the fields of philosophy and mathematics. From the Archaic to the Classical Periods The Archaic Period (800-500 BCE) is characterized by the introduction of Republics instead of Monarchies (which, in Athens, moved toward Democratic rule) organised as a single city-state or polis , the institution of laws (Draco’s reforms in Athens), the great Panathenaeic Festival was established, distinctive Greek pottery and Greek sculpture were born, and the first coins minted on the island kingdom of Aegina . This, then, set the stage for the flourishing of the Classical Period of Greece given as 500-400 BCE or, more precisely, as 480-323 BCE, from the Greek victory at Salamis to the death of Alexander the Great .

This was the Golden Age of Athens, when Pericles initiated the building of the Acropolis and spoke his famous eulogy for the men who died defending Greece at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. Greece reached the heights in almost every area of human learning during this time and the great thinkers and artists of antiquity (Phidias, Plato, Aristophanes, to mention only three) flourished. Leonidas and his 300 Spartans fell at Thermopylae and, the same year (480 BCE), Themistocles won victory over the superior Persian naval fleet at Salamis leading to the final defeat of the Persians at Plataea in 379 BCE. Democracy (literally Demos = people and Kratos = power, so power of the people) was established in Athens allowing all male citizens over the age of twenty a voice in government. The Pre-Socratic philosophers, following Thales' lead, initiated what would become the scientific method in exploring natural phenomena.

Men like Anixamander, Anaximenes , Pythagoras, Democritus, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus abandoned the theistic model of the universe and strove to uncover the underlying, first cause of life and the universe. Their successors, among whom were Euclid and Archimedes, continued philosophical inquiry and further established mathematics as a serious discipline. The example of Socrates, and the writings of Plato and Aristotle after him, have influenced western culture and society for over two thousand years. This period also saw advances in architecture and art with a movement away from the ideal to the realistic. Famous works of Greek sculpture such as the Parthenon Marbles and Discobolos (the discus thrower) date from this time and epitomize the artist's interest in depicting human emotion, beauty, and accomplishment realistically, even if those qualities are presented in works featuring immortals. All of these developments in culture were made possible by the ascent of Athens following her victory over the Persians in 480 BCE. The peace and prosperity which followed the Persian defeat provided the finances and stability for culture to flourish.

Athens became the superpower of her day and, with the most powerful navy, was able to demand tribute from other city states and enforce her wishes. Athens formed the Delian League , a defensive alliance whose stated purpose was to deter the Persians from further hostilities. The city-state of Sparta , however, doubted Athenian sincerity and formed their own association for protection against their enemies, the Peloponnesian League (so named for the Peloponnesus region where Sparta and the others were located). The city-states which sided with Sparta increasingly perceived Athens as a bully and a tyrant, while those cities which sided with Athens viewed Sparta and her allies with growing distrust. The tension between these two parties eventually erupted in what has become known as the Peloponnesian Wars. The first conflict (c. 460-445 BCE) ended in a truce and continued prosperity for both parties while the second (431-404 BCE) left Athens in ruins and Sparta, the victor, bankrupt after her protracted war with Thebes . This time is generally referred to as the Late Classical Period (c. 400-330 BCE).

The power vacuum left by the fall of these two cities was filled by Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BCE) after his victory over the Athenian forces and their allies at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE. Philip united the Greek city states under Macedonian rule and, upon his assassination in 336 BCE, his son Alexander assumed the throne. Alexander the Great & the Coming of Rome Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) carried on his father's plans for a full scale invasion of Persia in retaliation for their invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. As he had almost the whole of Greece under his command, a standing army of considerable size and strength, and a full treasury, Alexander did not need to bother with allies nor with consulting anyone regarding his plan for invasion and so led his army into Egypt , across Asia Minor, through Persia, and finally to India . Tutored in his youth by Plato’s great student Aristotle, Alexander would spread the ideals of Greek civilization through his conquests and, in so doing, transmitted Greek philosophy , culture, language, and art to every region he came in contact with.

In 323 BCE Alexander died and his vast empire was divided between four of his generals. This initiated what has come to be known to historians as the Hellenistic Age (323-31 BCE) during which Greek thought and culture became dominant in the various regions under these generals' influence. After a series of struggles between the Diodachi (`the successors' as Alexander's generals came to be known) General Antigonus established the Antigonid Dynasty in Greece which he then lost. It was regained by his grandson, Antigonus II Gonatus, by 276 BCE who ruled the country from his palace at Macedon . The Roman Republic became increasingly involved in the affairs of Greece during this time and, in 168 BCE, defeated Macedon at the Battle of Pydna . After this date, Greece steadily came under the influence of Rome. In 146 BCE the region was designated a Protectorate of Rome and Romans began to emulate Greek fashion, philosophy and, to a certain extent, sensibilities. In 31 BCE Octavian Caesar annexed the country as a province of Rome following his victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.

Octavian became Augustus Caesar and Greece a part of the Roman Empire . About the Author Greek Gods Greek Gods Greek Gods - The Historical Background Greek gods are an integral part of Greek mythology. Our formal knowledge of the ancient Greek gods can be traced back to the writings of Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey (8th century BC). In addition, many scholars believe that the myths were heavily influenced by the Mycenaean culture that existed in Greece between 1700 and 1100 BC. Remarkably, there is evidence that the beginnings of Greek mythology can be traced back to the ancient Middle Eastern cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia. There are many similarities between the mythology of these ancient Middle Eastern cultures and the ancient Greeks. Greek Gods - The Religious & Social Background The Greek gods were created by man to explain the world around them, act as a means of exploration, provide legitimacy and authority to ancient Greek aristocracy, and provide entertainment for the masses. The religion of the ancient Greeks did not have a single source of written scripture such as the Bible or the Qur'an. Furthermore, the ancient Greeks did not believe in absolute truth as practiced by modern faiths such as Christianity and Judaism.

Generally, a Greek city-state would devote itself to a particular god or a set of gods, and depending on the location of the city-state, the characteristics of the gods could vary widely. Many city-states erected temples to their particular gods, and these gods were honored in festivals and animal sacrifices. The ancient Greek gods normally took on human form and lived in a society similar to human society. They exhibited all the emotions of human beings and frequently intervened in human history. The most significant difference between the Greek gods and humans was that the gods were immortal and human beings were not. Greek Gods - The Creation Myths It is difficult to trace the ancestry of the ancient Greek gods since there are several creation myths. A combination of the account put together by the Greek Poet Hesiod in the 8th century BC and an account written by the mythographer (compiler of myths) Apollodrous would have been recognized by most ancient Greeks. It was as follows: The god Chaos (gaping void) was the foundation of all creation. Out of this god arose Gaea (earth), Tartarus (underworld) and Eros (love). The god Eros was necessary to draw Chaos and Gaea together so that they would produce offspring.

Chaos then created night and the first born of Gaea was Uranus (god of the heavens). The union of Chaos and Gaea also resulted in the creation of the mountains, seas, and gods known as Titans. The interaction of these early gods resulted in the creation of several other gods. These included well-known figures such as Aphrodite, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Zeus eventually waged war on his father (Cronus) and the Titans. As a result of this conflict, Zeus established a new regime on Mt. Olympus. Zeus ruled the sky, his bother Poseidon ruled the seas, and his brother Hades ruled the underworld. The creation of human beings is the result of conflicting myths. Many creation stories held that human beings sprang directly from the ground. In some cases, separate Greek societies had their own unique creation events. This is true for the Arcadians and Thebans, which both trace their beginnings to different earth-born men created in different areas. One myth states that humans were created out of earth and water, aided by the Titan, Prometheus, with his gift of fire.

Greek Gods - The Great Flood The ancient Greeks believed in a flood that destroyed all mankind similar to the account described in the Bible. In the Greek myth, the flood took place during the age of Deucalion 1 (1450 BC). Deucalion 1 and his wife, Pyrrah 1, were warned in advance of the coming deluge and told to construct a chest and fill it with provisions. The source of the coming deluge was the anger of Zeus towards mankind. Zeus had become disgusted at the degeneration of humans, and in particular, the practice of human sacrifice. Zeus assembled the gods and decided to wipe out mankind by water. Deucalion and Pyrrah survived the flood by floating in the chest they built. They floated in the chest for nine days and nine nights and came to rest on a mountain in Phocis. Once Zeus realized that the world was a stagnant pool of water survived only by Deucalion and Pyrrah, he stopped the rains and restored the land. In order to repopulate the world, the gods instructed the survivors to cast stones over their heads. The stones cast by Deucalion became men and the stones cast by Pyrrah became women.

This recreation by stone was used to explain the hardness of the human race. There are a great number of differences between the Greek myth and the account of the flood described in the Bible. For example, there is evidence that the biblical flood took place closer to 2500 BC. Furthermore, unlike the Greek myth, Noah and his family were saved along with sufficient animal life to repopulate the planet. However, both accounts maintain that the world was destroyed as the result of mankind's sin, and the human race was saved as a result of a few individuals leading a righteous life. Read Greek Gods Page 2 Now! WHAT DO YOU THINK? - We have all sinned and deserve God's judgment. God , the Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him. Jesus , the creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He died for our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was buried , and rose from the dead according to the Bible . If you truly believe and trust this in your heart, receiving Jesus alone as your Savior , declaring, " Jesus is Lord ," you will be saved from judgment and spend eternity with God in heaven. What is your response?

Birth of the Olympian Gods and Goddesses Birth of the Olympian Gods and Goddesses Birth of the Olympian Gods and Goddesses Despite generations of gods eating or trying to destroy their children. Apollo. Clipart.com By N.S. Gill Updated August 09, 2016. How did the world start according to your world view? Was there a sudden cosmic spark emerging from nowhere? Did life then emerge from some sort of almost living form? Did a supreme being create the world in seven days and form the first woman from the rib of the first (male) human? Was there a great swirling chaos from which emerged a frost giant and a salt-licking cow? A cosmic egg? Greek mythology contains creation stories that are very different from either the familiar story of Adam and Eve or the Big Bang. In Greek myths about the early world, themes of parental treachery alternate with tales of filial betrayal. You'll also find love and loyalty. There are all the essentials of good plot lines. Birth and cosmic creation are linked. Mountains and other physical parts of the world are born through procreation.

Granted, it is procreation between things that we don't think of as procreating, but this is an ancient version and part of the ancient mythological worldview. continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know 1. Parental Treachery: In Generation 1, the sky (Uranus), who is seemingly without any love at all for his offspring (or maybe he just wants his wife all to himself), hides his children inside his wife, Mother Earth (Gaia). 2. Filial Betrayal: In Generation 2, the Titan father (Cronus) swallows his children, the newborn Olympians. 3. In Generation 3, the Olympic gods and goddesses have learned from the examples of their ancestors, so there is more parental treachery: Zeus swallows one mate and sews the soon-to-be born offspring of another inside himself after he kills the mother. Hera, the wife of Zeus, creates a god -- without a mate, but even he isn't safe from his parents, for Hera (or Zeus) hurls her son from Mt. Olympus.

1st Generation "Generation" implies a coming into being, so that which was there from the beginning is not and cannot be generated. What has always been there, whether it be a god or a primeval force (here, Chaos), is not the first "generation." If, for convenience, it requires a number, it can be referred to as Generation Zero. Even the first generation here gets a bit tricky if examined too closely, since it could be said to cover 3 generations, but that's not terribly relevant for this look at parents (particularly, fathers) and their treacherous relations with their children. According to some versions of Greek mythology, in the beginning of the universe there was Chaos. Chaos was all alone [ Hesiod Theog. l.116], but soon Gaia (Earth) appeared. Without benefit of a sexual partner, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (Sky) to provide covering and father half-siblings. With Uranus serving as father, mother Gaia gave birth to the 50-headed Hecatonchires, Hades, and, lastly, Zeus. Cursed by his father (Uranus), the Titan Cronus was afraid of his own children.

After all, he knew how savage he had been towards his father. He knew better than to repeat the mistakes his father had made in leaving himself vulnerable, so instead of imprisoning his children in his wife's body (or Tartarus), Cronus swallowed them. Like her mother Earth (Gaia) before her, Rhea wanted her children to be free. With the help of her parents (Uranus and Gaia), she figured out how to defeat her husband. When it was time to give birth to Zeus, Rhea did it in secret. Cronus knew she was due and asked for the new baby to swallow. Instead of feeding him Zeus, Rhea substituted a stone. (No one said the Titans were intellectual giants.) Zeus matured safely until he was old enough to force his father to regurgitate his five siblings (Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, and Hestia). As G.S. Kirk points out in The Nature of Greek Myths, with the oral rebirth of his brothers and sisters, Zeus, once the youngest, became the oldest.

At any rate, even if the regurgitation-reversal doesn't persuade you that Zeus could claim to be the oldest, he became leader of the gods on snow-capped Mt. Olympus. 4th Generation Zeus, a first generation Olympian (although in the third generation since the creation), was father to the following second generation Olympians -- put together from various accounts: Athena, Parents of Aphrodite and Hephaestus Although they may have been Zeus' children, the lineage of 2 second-generation Olympians is in question: Some claim Aphrodite ( the goddess of love and beauty) sprang from the foam and severed genitals of Uranus. Homer refers to Aphrodite as the daughter of Dione and Zeus. Some (including Hesiod in the introductory quote) claim Hera as sole parent of Hephaestus, the lame blacksmith god. "But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Tritogeneia (29), the awful, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles.

But Hera without union with Zeus -- for she was very angry and quarrelled with her mate -- bare famous Hephaestus, who is skilled in crafts more than all the sons of Heaven." -Hesiod Theogony 924ff It is interesting, but to my knowledge insignificant, that these two Olympians who had uncertain parentage married. Zeus as Parent Many of Zeus' liaisons were unusual; for instance, he disguised himself as a cuckoo bird to seduce Hera. Two of his children were born in a manner he might have learned from his father or grandfather; that is, like his father Cronus, Zeus swallowed not only the child, but the mother Metis while she was pregnant. When the fetus had fully formed, Zeus gave birth to their daughter Athena. Lacking the proper feminine apparatus, he gave birth through his head. After Zeus had frightened or burned his mistress Semele to death, but before she was completely incinerated, Zeus removed the fetus of Dionysus from her womb and sewed it into his thigh where the wine god-to-be developed until ready for rebirth. *Apollodorus, a 2nd Century B.C.

Greek scholar, wrote a Chronicles and On the Gods, but the reference here is to the Bibliotheca or Library, which is falsely attributed to him. Greek_Culture I. Culture and History The Greeks wanted a good life. The question then, as well as now, is how to know what the good life is? How does one recognize the good life? The GOOD itself? How does one gain the knowledge needed to pursue the good life and distinguish it from another that is less good or even not good but appearing as good for those who are foolish, impetuous and ignorant, lacking in wisdom? The Greeks at the time of Socrates and Plato were undergoing a major change in the way in which they would think about the world, themselves and reality itself. Greek culture rose to great heights in the period from 525 BC to 350 BC, the period that brackets the lifespan of Socrates and Plato. In this period Athens, the Greek city-state, would rise to the height of its political and military powers and would come to represent the height of Greek cultural achievement as well.

The Greeks during this time, and particularly in Athens, were moving from an oral to a literate culture and from a foundation of religious belief and mythology to another based upon the inventions and creations of artistic endeavor and rational thought. The Greeks, prior to Plato, had a culture (the way a people learn to think, feel and act from the previous generation) that was transmitted orally. Few could read or write. There was little material to write upon. Papyrus from Egypt would be arriving and be popularized after Socrates death. If the average Greek were to learn about anything it would need to be through hearing whatever it was spoken about. What they heard they made every effort to remember and then repeat. This pattern for transmitting information became a pattern for life itself. The tales of the gods and goddesses, the titans, heroes and heroines were placed in rhyme and meter to make it easier to remember. What they remembered of the tales they endeavored to repeat not only in the telling of the tales but also in their lives. The gods and goddesses supplied the examples, the paradigms, and the models for behavior. If the gods did it, it must be good and so I should do it as well: so went the thinking.

When faced with a conflict or problem the Greeks had sought answers in the stories that they heard as they grew and which they believed were true and served as guides through life for each of them. By the time of Socrates there had grown a considerable amount of doubt about the stories. There was skepticism and outright denial as well. The tales when examined often displayed a number of troublesome features including contradictions amongst the many stories and examples of divine beings acting in a morally outrageous manner, such as involving murder, patricide, matricide, rape, theft, lies etcï¿½ The playwrights were encouraging audiences to reflect upon the tales and consider the values and morality within them. Orators were distorting the tales for personal gain and some, such as Socrates, were examining the entire basis for the moral order. The tales appear to describe a number of gods and goddesses who have each an assigned place in a general hierarchy. As the divine beings had an order, so too should the human community have an order. The question had arisen: upon what was the order to be based? Should it be based upon moira, fate or destiny, as with the gods or upon something else? The Greeks, as with most humans, hated chaos, disorder.

As the gods enjoyed a cosmos, order, so too should humans have an order. The Greeks look for the order in the tales of the gods but by the time of Socrates that approach was no longer working. Greek culture was mythopoetic, based upon myths and transmitted through poetry. These tales had an imaginative character and an emotional one as well. The myths proclaim a truth, which transcends reasoning. These myths try to bring about the truth that they proclaim: the moral truths. The myths are a form of action or ritual behavior, which must proclaim and elaborate a poetic form of truth. The logic of the events, the order of causality, is anthropomorphic. If one asks "why" things are as they are , then the answer will be in the form of "who" is responsible or the agent behind the events. The function of these myths, as in most cultures, is to explain, unify, and order experience. The myths dispel chaos. They reveal a structure, order, coherence and meaning not otherwise evident. The tales spoke of Zeus, Chronos, Poseidon, Hera, Athena and dozens of other divinities, each with a genealogy and an assigned place in the pantheon or general organization of the divine community.

The divinities did not get along all that amicably. The tales told of terrible and violent conflicts. This is probably due to the coming together of the tales and divinities of two different peoples that became the Greeks of Platoï¿½s time. There were the original peoples of the land now called Greece and there were the Aryan invaders, the Ionians and Dorians. These peoples had different conceptions of the world and of the realm beyond it. The indigenous or autotocthonous , peoples were matriarchal with theriomorphic divinities. They tended to be pacific and agrarian. The Aryans, from Anatolia, were patriarchal with anthropomorphic deities. They were nomadic and belligerent. The tales of Homer and Hesiod contain an amalgamation of tales in which the deities (many female) are woven into the tales of the invading peoples in order to accommodate the belief systems of the indigenous peoples. For example, while Zeus is placed at the top of a hierarchy of deities, he has a wife, Hera, who is supposed to be by his side, but whom he regularly disrespects or insults.

Hera is she who has no specific name; ï¿½sheï¿½ or ï¿½herï¿½ the name for the highest female deity of the indigenous peoples. Athena, one of the highest of the native deities (the ï¿½thï¿½ indicates she was a deity of the indigenous peoples) is given a place very high in the order. Athena is reported to have been born or to have emerged directly from the head of Zeus, knowing no woman as mother! Athena, the protective deity of Athens, represents wisdom (what philosophers seek) and she also offers assistance to warriors. She takes on the form of an owl to bring information and advice to humans. (Owls are associated with wisdom in much of the western world to this day.) The physical conflicts between the two peoples who merged into the Greeks is mirrored in the tales of the deities. Zeus takes several wives and has affairs, possibly to appease the indigenous peoples beliefs in the high order of their female deities. The deities of the indigenous peoples are transformed, metamorphosed, into human like beings with super human qualities.

The tales organized under Homer and Hesiod were used by the people as an encyclopedia, as the foundation of the educational system. The tales were entertaining, containing stories of adventure. There was a great deal of sex and violence in them s well. They held the interest of generations of listeners and offered instruction on how to conduct war, raise children, administer assistance to the wounded, resolve family conflicts and much more. The tales, epic works, gave the Greeks a sense of history and their place in the general scheme of things. The myths provided a set of moral exemplars, which each Greek was to follow. Each Greek was to be the best that they could be, pursue virtue (arï¿½te), accept fate and prepare for the next life. For a presentation of the Greek Myths you could look into a well known work by Thomas Bullfinch. Understanding the Origin of the Greek Gods - dummies Understanding the Origin of the Greek Gods Understanding the Origin of the Greek Gods Understanding the Origin of the Greek Gods The most complete version of the Greek creation myths that survives is a poem called the Theogony (“Birth of the Gods”) by a poet named Hesiod, who lived in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C.

(that is, the low-numbered 700s or high-numbered 600s BC). Not much is known about Hesiod except that his dad lost all of his money when his ship sank, and his brother tried to rob him of his inheritance. These two facts may account for the tone of what you’re about to read. Remember that this is just one version of the Greek creation myth — a particularly good and complete one, but by no means the only one. And fans of the Hercules and Xena TV series will certainly recognize many of the names. In the beginning, there was Chaos. Darkness covered the earth. Hesiod’s creation story doesn’t involve something being created from nothing; there was stuff (Chaos), but it was shapeless, mixed-up, and dark. The first generation of gods After Chaos, five divinities came into being (it isn’t clear how) and began giving shape to things, separating the muddle into specific places and times, and to set the stage for more creation.

The divinities were: Gaia (the mother Earth), Tartarus (the underworld), Erebus (the darkness that covers the underworld), Night (darkness that covers Earth), and Eros (Love). Night and Erebus got together and had some children: Hemera (Day), Phôs (Light), and (a cheery set of quintuplets) Doom, Death, Misery, Deceit, and Discord. Discord later gave birth to the following other forces: Murder, Slaughter, Battle, and Crime. The earth is born Earth held the Sky up above itself. Or rather “herself,” because Earth, called “Gaia,” was female, and the Sky, called “Uranus” (Earth’s child), was male. Gaia and Uranus had a bunch of kids. First, they had a bunch of monsters; then, perhaps having worked out the kinks in the system, they produced some gods known as Titans. Our children are real monsters! Gaia and Uranus’s first three kids were monsters with 100 hands (Hekatoncheires) and 50 heads each, which must have been a bit surprising to their parents.

The next three were the Cyclopes, giants with one eye in the middle of their foreheads. They were as big as mountains and immensely strong. The three Cyclopes were Brontes (“Thunderer”) Steropes (“Lightning Flash”) Arges (“Shining Guy”) Eventually, these three would get jobs manufacturing the thunderbolts that Zeus (their nephew who hadn’t been born yet) used to blow folks up. The word Cyclops means round-eyed or wheel-eyed. The first part of the word is in the modern words “cycle,” “bicycle,” and “encyclopedia”; the second part gives us words such as “optical,” “optician,” and “myopia” (nearsightedness). If you have only one of these round-eyed monsters, you have a “Cyclops,” which rhymes with “high-tops”; if you have a bunch of them, you have “Cyclopes,” which rhymes with “high-top, please.” Meet the Titans, the second generation of gods Uranus and Gaia had many more children, but their most famous batch of kids was the Titans. They were big and strong, too.

Uranus hated all these kids, and as each one was born, he shoved it back up into Gaia. Gaia didn’t like that. Nevertheless, the Titans, their six sons and six daughters, were Oceanus: God of the Sea. Thetis: Sister and wife of Oceanus. Hyperion: God of the Sun. Theia: Sister and wife of Hyperion. Themis: An earth goddess. Cronos : The brightest, strongest, and cleverest of all. These Titans were the generation before the better-known Olympian gods — Zeus and others. Gaia’s sweet revenge and the prodigal son Gaia was understandably mad about Uranus shoving her kids back up into her body (they were still alive in there), so she asked her other children, the Cyclopes and the Titans, to help her out. One of her sons, the Titan Cronos, agreed to attack his dad for her. Gaia made a huge sickle out of flint and gave it to Cronos with some pretty explicit instructions. When Uranus came to have sex with Gaia, he found a nasty surprise waiting for him.

Cronos (who was, remember, inside Gaia’s womb) reached out with the sickle and attacked Uranus, or specifically, that part of Uranus that was nearest at hand. Cronos cut off his father’s genitals and threw them into the sea. From the blood were born several more monsters: the Giants and the Furies. As Uranus’s genitals fell into the water, the sea foamed up like certain headache remedies, and the foam produced the goddess Aphrodite. Her name means “gift of the sea foam.” She floated around in the sea for a while, and then came to shore on the island of Cyprus, which is why she is often called Cyprian Aphrodite. The third generation of gods: The Olympians The third generation of Greek gods were known as the Olympian Gods, because they eventually made their home on Mount Olympus. After Cronos castrated his father Uranus, Cronos set himself up as king of Heaven. He married his sister, the Titan Rhea, and they had a bunch of kids. Like his father, Cronos didn’t want all of his kids to live.

He had heard a prophecy that one of his sons would dethrone him and he had no intention of allowing that to happen. So every time Rhea had a baby, he swallowed it whole. Rhea, like Gaia, wasn’t at all happy to see all of her children eaten by their father. So she did what you would expect a young bride to do: She asked her parents, Gaia and Uranus, for help. Gaia and Uranus had some experience in these matters (and apparently had gotten over any lasting bitterness from their own marital difficulties), so they came up with a plan. When Rhea had her sixth child, Zeus, she smuggled him away to the island of Crete and gave her husband a baby-sized rock wrapped in a blanket instead. Cronos obviously didn’t know much about babies, because he swallowed the stone and never gave it another thought. First among equals: Zeus After his mother smuggled him away, Zeus grew up safely on Crete.

The Nymphs gave him milk from a magical goat named Amalthea, and the Curetes, minor gods who had the job of protecting him, banged their spears against their swords every time baby Zeus cried, and that way Cronos never heard him. Zeus had no particular reason to love his dad, so he got together with his grandmother Gaia and they made Cronos throw up the children he had eaten. The first thing Cronos tossed was the stone Rhea had given him instead of Zeus, so he knew he had been tricked. The other five babies had grown up in his belly, and they emerged as full-fledged deities. These deities were the Olympians: Hera: Goddess of marriage. Poseidon: God of the sea. Hades: God of the underworld. Hestia: Goddess of the hearth. Demeter: Goddess of crops and the harvest. During his fight with his father, Zeus cut off Cronos’s genitals — like father like son! — which dropped into the sea just as Uranus’s privates had. Dirty Harry feels lucky: Zeus punishes the Titans and battles the Giants After castrating his father Cronos, Zeus bound the Titans in Tartarus, the underworld.

He sentenced Atlas, Prometheus’s brother, to hold up the sky on his shoulders. Zeus gets his thunderbolts Gaia had one more baby, the monster Typhon. Typhon had 100 heads and was covered with flame. But Zeus by now had taken control of thunder and lightning, and shot down Typhon with his thunderbolt. Typhon’s hopes of terrorizing the universe were ended, but he still needed a job, so he moved to Sicily, where he supplied the volcanic magma for Mount Etna. Cool thrones for everybody! After this, the Giants (the ones born when Cronos cut off Uranus’s testicles) rebelled against Zeus’s control. Zeus and his siblings, aided by the hero Heracles (a.k.a. Hercules, a.k.a. Kevin Sorbo), beat the Giants and sent them down to the underworld. Now, Zeus and his brothers and sisters were the ultimate rulers of heaven and earth. Zeus really showed his stuff in the way he escaped the fate of his father, Cronos, and his grandfather, Uranus.

After the dust had settled from the Battle with the Titans, Zeus married Metis (a goddess who was the personification of “Cunning Intelligence”). Just like his father before him, Zeus received a prophecy that his wife would bear a child who would become King of the Gods. Instead of waiting for the child to be born, Zeus was proactive, and swallowed his wife. The child was born anyway, but it came out of Zeus’s head — thus avoiding the important detail of the prophecy that Metis would bear the child. The baby was Athena, the wise goddess, who, although she was Daddy’s girl, had a lot of her mom’s cunning intelligence in her.

Question: What was the name given in Ancient Greek mythology to the time/situation before the creation of the universe?
Answer: Chaos