The Creation

The Greek story of the Creation is told most fully in Hesiod’s “Theogony”. In the beginning Chaos came to be, then Gaea (Earth), Tartarus and Eros (Love). From them sprang Night, Uranus (Heaven), the Titans and finally the Olympians, after Zeus overthrew his father Cronus. It is an account of how the gods, and the order of the world, came into being (Hesiod, Theogony 116–122).

The Children of Chaos and Gaea

Hesiod says that first of all Chaos came to be, then “wide-bosomed” Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all, then murky Tartarus in the depths of the wide-pathed earth, and Eros, the fairest of the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind of gods and men (Theogony 116–122). Hesiod does not make Chaos a female being, and he does not say that Chaos and Gaea together produced the world; each has its own line of descendants.

Erebus and Nyx

From Chaos came Erebus (Darkness) and black Night (Nyx). Night and Erebus loved one another, and she bore Aether, the bright upper air, and Hemera, Day (Theogony 123–125). Night also bore children by herself, without a father. Hesiod lists Doom (Ker), Fate (Moros) and Death (Thanatos), Sleep (Hypnos) and the tribe of Dreams, Blame (Momus), painful Woe (Oizys), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates) and the Keres, Nemesis, Deceit (Apate), Friendship or Affection (Philotes), Old Age (Geras), and Strife (Eris) (Theogony 211–225). Strife in turn bore Toil, Forgetfulness, Famine, tearful Sorrows, Fightings, Battles, Murders and Quarrels, among others (Theogony 226–232).

Gaea and Uranus

Earth first bore starry Heaven (Uranus), equal to herself, to cover her on every side and to be a seat for the blessed gods. She also bore the long hills, and the sea, Pontus, without any union of love (Theogony 126–132). Then she lay with Uranus and bore three sets of children (Theogony 133–153):

• the twelve Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, and last Cronus, the youngest and most terrible, who hated his father
• the three Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes and Arges, who had a single eye in the middle of the forehead and later gave Zeus the thunderbolt
• the three Hundred-Handers (Hecatoncheires), Cottus, Briareos and Gyes, each with a hundred arms and fifty heads

The Castration of Uranus

Uranus hated the Hundred-Handers and the Cyclopes from the start. As soon as each was born he hid them in a secret place of Earth and would not let them come up into the light, and he rejoiced in the wrong he did. Earth groaned within, straitened by them, and devised a plan. She made a great sickle of grey flint, told her plan to her sons and asked them to punish their father. All were afraid except Cronus, the youngest, who said that he would do the deed (Theogony 154–175).

Cronus Revenge

Earth hid Cronus in an ambush and put the jagged sickle in his hands. When Uranus came, bringing night and longing for love, and lay upon Earth, Cronus stretched out his left hand from the ambush, took his father’s members with his right hand and cut them off and threw them behind him (Theogony 176–182). Hesiod does not say what became of Uranus afterwards; he is no longer part of the story. Uranus called his sons the Titans, saying that they had “strained” to do a fearful deed and that vengeance would follow (Theogony 207–210).

Earth received the drops of blood and in time bore the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants in shining armour and the Meliae, nymphs of the ash trees. The severed members, thrown into the sea, drifted a long while; white foam gathered round them, and in it grew a maiden, Aphrodite, who came first to Cythera and then to Cyprus (Theogony 183–200). Eros and Himeros (Desire) followed her (Theogony 201–202). Apollodorus gives a variant: in his account Earth was grieved that her children had been thrown into Tartarus and persuaded the Titans, all but Oceanus, to attack their father; Cronus cut off Uranus’ genitals with an adamantine sickle and threw them into the sea, and the Furies sprang from the drops of blood (Apollodorus, Library 1.1.4).

Cronus Devouring His Children

A New Ruler

Cronus became the next ruler of the gods. In Apollodorus he bound the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers again and shut them up in Tartarus, setting the she-dragon Campe to guard them (Library 1.1.4–5; 1.2.1). He married his sister Rhea, and she bore Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Cronus swallowed each child as it came from the womb to its mother’s knees, so that no other son of Heaven should hold the kingly office among the gods, for he had learned from Earth and starry Heaven that he was destined to be overcome by his own son (Theogony 453–467). Rhea suffered unceasing grief. When she was about to bear Zeus, she begged her parents, Earth and Heaven, to devise a plan; they sent her to Lyctus in Crete, and Earth took the child and hid him in a cave on Mount Aegeum. To Cronus Earth gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, and he thrust it into his belly (Theogony 468–491).

The Return of Zeus

The child was Zeus. In Hesiod he grew quickly in strength; in Apollodorus the Curetes guarded him in a cave and clashed their weapons so that Cronus would not hear the child cry, and the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida fed him on the milk of Amalthea (Theogony 492–493; Library 1.1.6–7). When Zeus was grown, Cronus was beguiled by the craft of Earth and by his son’s strength and brought up his offspring again; first he vomited the stone he had swallowed last (Theogony 494–497). In Apollodorus it is Metis, daughter of Ocean, who gives Cronus a drug that forces him to disgorge first the stone and then the children (Library 1.2.1).

Hesiod says that Zeus set the stone fast in the wide-pathed earth at Pytho, under the glens of Parnassus, as a sign and marvel for mortals (Theogony 498–500). Pausanias saw at Delphi a stone of no great size, over which olive oil was poured daily and on which unworked wool was laid at festivals, and which the Delphians believed was the stone given to Cronus in place of the child (Pausanias 10.24.6). He distinguishes it from the Omphalos (Navel), a different object of white marble which the Delphians said marked the centre of the earth (Pausanias 10.16.3). Strabo adds that Pindar told how two eagles let loose by Zeus, one from the east and one from the west, met at Delphi (Strabo 9.3.6). Zeus also freed his father’s brothers whom Uranus had bound, and they gave him thunder, the thunderbolt and lightning, which Earth had hidden before (Theogony 501–506).

The Titanomachy

Gods vs Titans

The Titans fought from high Mount Othrys, and the gods whom Rhea bore to Cronus fought from Olympus. The war lasted ten full years and the issue hung evenly balanced (Theogony 617–638). On Earth’s advice Zeus brought the Hundred-Handers up to the light again, set before them nectar and ambrosia, and appealed to them to help; Cottus answered that they would fight the Titans (Theogony 617–653). In Apollodorus Earth prophesied victory to Zeus if he had as allies those who had been hurled down to Tartarus. He killed their jailer Campe and set them free, and the Cyclopes gave Zeus thunder and the thunderbolt, Poseidon a trident and Hades a helmet (Library 1.2.1). The Titans are named as Cronus’ allies, and Menoetius, a son of Iapetus, was struck by Zeus’ thunderbolt in the fight and hurled down to Tartarus (Library 1.2.3).

The Decisive Battle

Hesiod describes no trick of war. The Hundred-Handers hurled three hundred rocks at a time from their hands and overshadowed the Titans with their missiles, while Zeus came down from Olympus with thunder and lightning, so that the earth, the sea and the sky seethed and the Titans were buried beneath the wide-pathed earth and bound in bitter chains (Theogony 664–735). The Titan Prometheus, in Aeschylus’ play, says that he advised his fellow Titans to win by craft rather than force; when they refused, he joined Zeus with his mother, and it was by his counsel that “the cavernous gloom of Tartarus” now hides Cronus and his allies (Prometheus Bound 205–221).

Tartarus and Atlas

The Titans were imprisoned beneath the earth, and the Hundred-Handers were made their guards (Theogony 717–735; Library 1.2.1). Atlas, son of the Titan Iapetus, was given a different punishment: he upholds the wide heaven with his head and tireless arms, standing at the ends of the earth before the Hesperides (Theogony 507–520; Library 1.2.3).

The Final Challenge

Zeus and Typhon

When Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, Earth bore her youngest child Typhoeus, by Tartarus, and by the aid of golden Aphrodite. He had a hundred snake heads that flashed fire and gave out every kind of sound. Hesiod says that he would have come to reign over gods and mortals had Zeus not quickly noticed. Zeus thundered; Olympus reeled and the whole earth seethed. Zeus leaped from Olympus and struck Typhoeus with lightning and burned all his heads, and the monster was hurled down, a maimed wreck, into Tartarus (Theogony 820–868).

In another account Zeus pursued Typhon to Sicily, and the monster lay under Mount Etna; Pindar speaks of Typhon of the hundred heads whom the cliffs beyond Cumae and Sicily weigh upon, and of Etna as the burden that crushes his hundred heads (Pindar, Pythian 1.15–28; Olympian 4.6–8). Apollodorus gives a longer version in which Typhon wrests the sickle from Zeus and cuts the sinews of his hands and feet; Hermes and Aegipan steal them back and Zeus completes the victory (Library 1.6.3).

Zeus Becomes King of the Gods

When the gods had settled their struggle for honours with the Titans, they urged Zeus, on Earth’s prompting, to be king, and he divided the honours among them (Theogony 881–885). In Apollodorus the three brothers cast lots for the sovereignty: Zeus received the sky, Poseidon the sea and Hades the realm of the dead (Library 1.2.1; compare Iliad 15.187–193). Zeus first married Metis, wisest of gods and mortals; when she was about to bear Athena, he deceived her and swallowed her, on the advice of Earth and Heaven, so that no other would hold the kingship in his place (Theogony 886–900). Hesiod later tells that Athena was born from his head (Theogony 924–926).

The Creation Sources

The main source is Hesiod’s Theogony (116–210, 211–232, 453–506, 507–520, 617–735, 820–868, 881–926), whose title can be translated “The Birth of the Gods.” Also used are Apollodorus’ Library (1.1.4–7, 1.2.1, 1.2.3, 1.6.3), Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound (205–221), Pindar (Pythian 1.15–28, Olympian 4.6–8), Pausanias (10.16.3, 10.24.6), Strabo (9.3.6) and Homer’s Iliad (15.187–193).

See Also: Chaos, Creation II, Uranus, Cronus, Zeus, Titanomachy, Typhon