Uranus

Not to be confused with Uranus, the planet.

Uranus (Ouranos) was Sky, the Greek personification of the heavens and, for a while, the ruler of the world. In Hesiod he is born from Gaea alone, becomes her husband and fathers the Titans, the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers. A cruel husband, he hid each child back inside Gaea, until his son Cronus cut him down with a sickle.

Uranus’ Birth

In Hesiod’s Theogony, Gaea (Earth) bore Uranus “equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods” (Hesiod, Theogony 126–128). Hesiod names no father. After him she bore the tall mountains (Ourea), the nymphs who live in them, and the barren sea, Pontus, “without sweet union of love” (Theogony 129–132). Only afterwards did she lie with Uranus. Apollodorus begins his account with Sky as the first to rule over the whole world, married to Earth; he does not name Sky’s parents (Apollodorus, Library 1.1.1).

Uranus’ Rule

By Gaea, Uranus had eighteen children. First came the twelve Titans, Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronus, the youngest and most cunning (Theogony 133–138). Then came the three Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes and Arges, who gave Zeus thunder and made the thunderbolt (Theogony 139–146), and the three Hundred-Handers, Cottus, Briareos and Gyges, each with a hundred arms and fifty heads (Theogony 147–153).

Hesiod calls these the most terrible of Gaea’s children, and says they were hateful to their father from the first. As each was born, Uranus hid it away in a hollow of the earth and did not let it come to the light, and he took pleasure in this evil deed, while Gaea groaned within, straining under the weight (Theogony 154–160). Apollodorus adds that Sky bound the Cyclopes and cast them into Tartarus (Library 1.1.2).

Uranus Challenged

Gaea made a great sickle of grey adamant and told her children to punish their father, who had been the first to devise shameful deeds (Theogony 161–172). All were afraid except Cronus, who agreed to do it. His mother set him in an ambush and put the jagged sickle in his hands (Theogony 173–175). When Uranus came at nightfall to lie with Gaea, Cronus reached out with his left hand, took the sickle in his right and cut off his father’s genitals, flinging them behind him (Theogony 176–182). Apollodorus gives a variant in which all the Titans except Oceanus attacked their father, and after the Titans deposed Uranus they freed their brothers from Tartarus and gave the kingship to Cronus (Library 1.1.4).

Uranus’ Curse and the Prophecy

Uranus called his sons Titans, reproaching them for overreaching, and said that they would one day pay for what they had done (Theogony 207–210). The saying came back later: Cronus swallowed his children because he had learned from Gaea and starry Uranus that he was fated to be overcome by his own son (Theogony 463–465).

The Children of Uranus

Before his fall, Uranus and Gaea had eighteen children: the twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes and the three Hundred-Handers (Theogony 132–153). Apollodorus lists the six Titan sons and seven Titanides, Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Dione and Thia, so that he adds Dione to Hesiod’s list (Library 1.1.3).

Gaea’s other Children and Aphrodite

Gaea received all the drops of blood from the wound, and as the years went round she bore the powerful Erinyes (Furies), the Giants in shining armour, and the nymphs called the Meliae (Theogony 183–187). The genitals that Cronus threw from the land into the sea drifted for a long time, and white foam rose around them; from it a maiden grew. She was Aphrodite, who came to Cythera and then to Cyprus (Theogony 188–200). Hesiod does not name a mother for her.

Uranus Sources

The story of how Uranus brought about his own downfall is told by Hesiod in the Theogony (126–210, and 463–465 for the prophecy). Apollodorus summarizes it in Library 1.1.1–4, with some differences in detail.

See Also: Gaea, The Creation, Cronus, Titans, Hecatoncheires, Cyclopes, Aphrodite