Greek primordial deities

{{Short description|First generation of deities in Greek mythology}} {{Greek deities (primordial)}}

The '''primordial deities''' of Greek mythology are the first generation of gods and goddesses. These deities represented the fundamental forces and physical foundations of the world and were generally not actively worshipped, as they, for the most part, were not given human characteristics; they were instead personifications of places or abstract concepts.

Hesiod, in his ''Theogony'', considers the first beings (after Chaos) to be Erebus, Gaia, Tartarus, Eros and Nyx. Gaia and Uranus, whose severed genitals created the goddess Aphrodite from sea foam,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aphrodite-Greek-mythology | title=Aphrodite | Mythology, Worship, & Art | Britannica }}</ref> in turn gave birth to the Titans, and the Cyclopes. The Titans Cronus and Rhea then gave birth to the generation of the Olympians: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera and Demeter. They overthrew the Titans, with the reign of Zeus marking the end of the period of warfare and usurpation among the gods.

== Hesiod's primordial genealogy == Hesiod's ''Theogony,'' ({{Circa|700 BC}}) which could be considered the "standard" creation myth of Greek mythology,<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA21 p. 21].</ref> tells the story of the genesis of the gods. After invoking the Muses (II.1–116), Hesiod says the world began with the spontaneous generation of four beings: first arose Chaos (Chasm); then came Gaia (the Earth), "the ever-sure foundation of all"; "dim" Tartarus (the Underworld), in the depths of the Earth; and Eros (Love) "fairest among the deathless gods".<ref>''Theogony'' 116–122 (Most, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.13.xml pp. 12, 13]). West 1966, p. 192 line 116 '''Χάος''', "best translated Chasm"; Most, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.13.xml p. 13], translates ''Χάος'' as "Chasm", and notes: (n. 7): "Usually translated as 'Chaos'; but that suggests to us, misleadingly, a jumble of disordered matter, whereas Hesiod's term indicates instead a gap or opening". Other translations given in this section follow those given by Caldwell, pp. 5–6.</ref> (Although in other myths, Eros was the name of Aphrodite's and Ares's son.)

From Chaos came Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). And Nyx "from union in love" with Erebus produced Aether (Light) and Hemera (Day).<ref>''Theogony'' 123–125 (Most, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.13.xml pp. 12, 13]).</ref> From Gaia came Uranus (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea).<ref>''Theogony'' 126–132 (Most, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.13.xml pp. 12, 13]).</ref>

== Chaos == In Hesiod's creation myth, Chaos is the first being to ever exist. Chaos is both seen as a deity and a thing, with some sources seeing chaos as an endless void of nothingness from which the universe sprang.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Bussanich|first=John|date=July 1983|title=A Theoretical Interpretation of Hesiod's Chaos|journal= Classical Philology|volume=78|issue=3|pages=212–219|jstor=269431|doi=10.1086/366783|s2cid=161498892}}</ref> In some accounts Chaos existed first alongside Eros and Nyx,<ref name=":3" /> while in others Chaos is the first and only thing in the universe. In some stories, Chaos is seen as existing beneath Tartarus.<ref name=":3" /> Chaos is the parent to Night and Darkness.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=Creation of Heaven and Earth|last=Van Kooten|first=George|publisher=Brill|year=2005|pages=77–89}}</ref>

== Gaia == Gaia was the second being to be formed, right after Chaos, in Hesiod's theogony, and parthenogenetically gave birth to Uranus (who would later become her husband and her equal), the Sea, and to the high Mountains.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=Homer and Hesiod, Myth and Philosophy |last=Gotshalk |first=Richard |publisher=University Press of America |year=2000 |location=Lanham, Maryland |pages=196}}</ref>

Gaia is a mother earth figure and is the mother of the titans, while also being the seat on which they exist.<ref name=":3"/> Gaia is the Greek Equivalent to the Roman goddess, Tellus / Terra. The story of Uranus' castration at the hands of Cronus due to Gaia's involvement is seen as the explanation for why the Sky and Earth are separated.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Sale |first=William |date=Winter 1965 |title=The Dual Vision of "Theogony" |journal=Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=668–699 |jstor=20162994}}</ref> In Hesiod's story, Earth seeks revenge against Sky for hiding her children the Cyclopes deep within Tartarus. Gaia then goes to her other children and asks for their help to get revenge against their cruel father; of her children, only Cronus, the youngest and "most dreadful" of them all, agrees to do this. Gaia plans an ambush against Uranus where she hides Cronus and gives him the sickle to castrate Uranus. In the spots where his blood hit the earth, monsters and creatures grew including the Erinyes, the Giants, and the Melian nymphs.<ref name=":6">{{cite journal |last=Leftkowitz |first=Mary R. |date=September 1989 |title=The Powers of the Primeval Goddess |journal=American Scholar |via=EBSCOhost}}</ref> Cronus goes on to have six children with his sister, Rhea; who become the Olympians. Cronus is later overthrown by his son, Zeus, much in the same way he overthrew his father. Gaia is the mother to the twelve Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, and Cronus.<ref name=":5"/>

Later in the myth, after his succession, Uranus curses Cronus so that his own son (Zeus) will overthrow him, just as Cronus did to Uranus. To try to prevent this, Cronus swallows all of his children as soon as they are born. Rhea seeks out help in hiding her youngest son, Zeus, Gaia hears her distress and gives her a perfectly infant shaped rock that weighs and looks the same as a baby to give to Cronus. Zeus later goes on to defeat his father and become the leader of the Olympians.

After Zeus's succession to the throne, Gaia bears another son with Tartarus, Typhon, a monster who would be the last to challenge Zeus's throne.<ref name=":6"/>

Uranus and Gaia have three sets of children: the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires.

== Tartarus == Tartarus is described by Hesiod as both a primordial deity<ref>Hesiod, ''Theogony,'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D104&#x20 119]</ref> and also a great abyss where the Titans are imprisoned. Tartarus is seen as a prison, but is also where Day, Night, Sleep, and Death dwell, and also imagined as a great gorge that is a distinct part of the underworld. Hesiod tells that it took nine days for the Titans to fall to the bottom of Tartarus, describing how deep the abyss is.<ref name=":2"/> In some versions Tartarus is described as a "misty darkness"<ref name=":4"/> where Death, Styx, and Erebus reside.

== Eros == Eros is the god of love in Greek mythology, and in some versions is one of the primordial beings that first came to be parentlessly. In Hesiod's version, Eros was the "fairest among the immortal gods ... who conquers the mind and sensible thoughts of all gods and men."<ref name=":5" />

== Nyx == In some variations of Hesiod's Theogony, Nyx (Night) is told as having black wings; and in one tale she laid an egg in Erebus from which Eros sprang.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dietrich|first=B.C.|date=1997|title=Aspects of Myth and Religion|journal=Classical Association of South Africa|volume=20|pages=59–71|jstor=24591525}}</ref> One version of Hesiod's tale tells that Night shares her house with Day in Tartarus, but that the two are never home at the same time.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Johnson|first=David|date=Spring–Summer 1999|title=Hesiod's Description of Tartarus ("Theogony" 721-819)|journal=Phoenix|volume=53|issue=1/2|pages=8–28|jstor=1088120|doi=10.2307/1088120}}</ref> However, in some versions Nyx's home is where Chaos and Tartarus meet, suggesting to the idea that Chaos resides beneath Tartarus.<ref name=":4" />

Hyginus also includes Epaphus and Porphyrion among Nyx's children. Some accounts also include Hecate (Crossroads and Magic) among Nyx's children.<ref>Bacchylides Frag 1B</ref><ref>Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, ''Argonautica'' 3.467 with the Orphic hymns as the authority.</ref>

Aether, Hemera, and Eros are Nyx's only children who are among the primordial gods. Hesiod says Nyx and Erebus together had Aether and Hemera, but Nyx had the other children on her own. Cicero and Hyginus say Nyx had all her children with Erebus.

In Virgil's ''Aeneid'', Nox is said to be the mother of the Furies by Hades.<ref>Virgil, ''Aeneid'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Aphi%2C0690%2C003%3A7%3A339 6.250] (mother of the "Eumenides" another name for the Furies), [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D7%3Acard%3D323 7.323–330] (Allecto a daughter of Pluto and Night), [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0054:book=12:card=843 12.845–846] (Night mother of the Furies).</ref>

Some authors made Nyx the mother of Eos, the dawn goddess, who was often conflated with Nyx's daughter Hemera.<ref>Quintus Smyrnaeus, [https://archive.org/details/falloftroy00quin/page/112/mode/2up?view=theater 2.625–26]; cf. Aeschylus, ''Agamemnon'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0004%3Acard%3D258 265]</ref> When Eos' son Memnon was killed during the Trojan War, Eos made Helios (the sun god) downcast, and asked Nyx to come out earlier so that she would collect her son's dead body undetected by the Greek and the Trojan armies.<ref>Philostratus of Lemnos, ''Imagines'' [https://topostext.org/work/225#1.7.2 1.7.2]</ref>

Nyx's daughter Eris went on to have many children of her own who were also personifications of abstract concepts.<ref>Hesiod Theogony 226</ref>

== Non-Hesiodic theogonies == The ancient Greeks entertained different versions of the origin of primordial deities.

===Homeric primordial theogony=== The ''Iliad'', an epic poem attributed to Homer about the Trojan War (an oral tradition of {{circa}} 700–600 BC), states that Oceanus (and possibly Tethys, too) is the parent of all the deities.<ref>{{cite book |author=Homer |author-link=Homer |title=Iliad |at=Book 14}}</ref>

=== Other Greek theogonies === * Alcman (fl. 7th century BC) called Thetis the first goddess, producing ''poros'' (path), ''tekmor'' (marker), and ''skotos'' (darkness) on the pathless, featureless void.<ref>Alcman, Fragment 5 (from Scholia) = Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2390.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Campbell|first=D. A.|url=https://archive.org/details/greeklyric0002unse/page/392/mode/2up|title=Greek Lyric II: Anacreon, Anacreontea, Choral Lyric from Olympis to Alcman|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1989|isbn=0-674-99158-3|location=Cambridge|pages=388–395}}</ref> * Aristophanes ({{circa}} 446–386 BC) wrote in his play ''The Birds'' that Nyx was the first deity also, and that she produced Eros from an egg.

=== Philosophical theogonies === Philosophers of Classical Greece also constructed their own metaphysical cosmogonies, with their own primordial deities:

* Pherecydes of Syros, ({{circa}} 600–550 BC) in his ''Heptamychia,'' wrote that there were three divine principles, who came before all things, and who have always existed: ''Zas'' (Ζάς, Zeus), ''Cthonie'' (Χθονίη, Earth), and ''Chronos'' (Χρόνος, Time).<ref>Damascius. ''Difficulties and Solutions Regarding First Principles.'' 214 (Kirk, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC&pg=PA56 p. 56]).</ref><ref>{{cite LotEP |year=1925 |chapter=Pherecydes|§=119|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=William|url=http://archive.org/details/dictionaryofgree03smituoft|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology|date=1870|publisher=Boston, Little|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|pages=258}}</ref> * Empedocles ({{circa}} 490–430 BC) wrote that there were four elements which ultimately make up everything: fire, air, water, and earth.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Empedocles |volume= 09 |last= Wallace |first= William |author-link= William Wallace | pages = 344–345; see third para, lines four to six |quote=...There are, according to Empedocles, four ultimate elements, four primal divinities, of which are made all structures in the world—fire, air, water, earth.}}</ref> He said that there were two divine powers, ''Philotes'' (Love) and ''Neikos'' (Strife),<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Reynolds|first1=Frank|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XdHPgPmSgYEC|title=Myth and Philosophy|last2=Tracy|first2=David|date=1990-10-30|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-0418-8|language=en}}</ref> who wove the universe out of these elements. * Plato ({{circa}} 428–347 BC) introduced (in ''Timaeus'') the concept of the demiurge, who had modeled the universe on the Ideas.

== Interpretation of primordial deities == Scholars dispute the meaning of the primordial deities in the poems of Homer and Hesiod.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Greek Mythology and Poetics|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GOO5Z7wqZS0C|publisher = Cornell University Press|date = 1992-01-01|isbn = 978-0801480485|first = Gregory|last = Nagy}}</ref> Since the primordials give birth to the Titans, and the Titans give birth to the Olympians, one way of interpreting the primordial gods is as the deepest and most fundamental nature of the cosmos.

For example, Jenny Strauss Clay argues that Homer's poetic vision centers on the reign of Zeus, but that Hesiod's vision of the primordials put Zeus and the Olympians in context.<ref name="Clay 9">{{cite book |first=Jenny Strauss |last=Clay |date=2006-05-26 |df=dmy-all |title=The Politics of Olympus: Form and Meaning in the Major Homeric Hymns |publisher=Bristol Classical Press |location=London, UK |isbn=9781853996924 |edition=2 |page=9}}</ref> Likewise, Vernant argues that the Olympic pantheon is a "system of classification, a particular way of ordering and conceptualizing the universe by distinguishing within it various types of powers and forces."<ref>{{Cite book|title = Myth and Society in Ancient Greece|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DWIbAAAAYAAJ|publisher = Harvester Press|date = 1980-01-01|isbn = 9780855279837|first = Jean Pierre|last = Vernant}}</ref> But even before the Olympic pantheon were the Titans and primordial gods. Homer alludes to a more tumultuous past before Zeus was the undisputed King and Father.<ref>{{Cite web|title = The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} The Iliad by Homer|url = http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html|website = classics.mit.edu|access-date = 2016-01-21|pages = Book I (396–406); Book VIII (477–83)|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110714194245/http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html|archive-date = 2011-07-14|url-status = dead}}</ref>

Mitchell Miller argues that the first four primordial deities arise in a highly significant relationship. He argues that Chaos represents ''differentiation'', since Chaos differentiates (separates, divides) Tartarus and Earth.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = 'First of all': On the Semantics and Ethics of Hesiod's Cosmogony - Mitchell Miller - Ancient Philosophy (Philosophy Documentation Center)|url = https://www.pdcnet.org//pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=ancientphil&id=ancientphil_2001_0021_0002_0251_0276&onlyautologin=true|journal = Ancient Philosophy|access-date = 2016-01-21|doi = 10.5840/ancientphil200121244|date = October 2001|volume = 21|issue = 2|pages = 251–276|last1 = Miller|first1 = Mitchell|url-access = subscription}}</ref> Even though Chaos is "first of all" for Hesiod, Miller argues that Tartarus represents the primacy of the ''undifferentiated,'' or the unlimited. Since undifferentiation is unthinkable, Chaos is the "first of all" in that he is the first ''thinkable'' being. In this way, Chaos (the principle of division) is the natural opposite of Eros (the principle of unification). Earth (light, day, waking, life) is the natural opposite of Tartarus (darkness, night, sleep, death). These four are the parents of all the other Titans.

== See also == {{Portal|Ancient Greece|Myths}} * Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus) * ''Ex nihilo'' * Family tree of the Greek gods

== Notes == {{Reflist}}

== References == * Hard, Robin, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology"'', Psychology Press, 2004, {{ISBN|9780415186360}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC Google Books]. * Hesiod, ''Theogony'', in ''Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia'', edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99720-2}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL057/2018/volume.xml Harvard University Press]. * {{Cite book|last1=Kirk|first1=G. S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC|title=The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts|last2=F.B.A|first2=Regius Professor of Greek G. S. Kirk|last3=Raven|first3=J. E.|last4=Schofield|first4=M.|date=1983-12-29|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-27455-5|pages=|language=en}}

== External links == *{{Commons category-inline}}

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