Creation of the World :: essays research papers

Creation of the WorldIn the beginning there was only chaos. Then out of the quash appeared Erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and Night All else was empty, silent, endless, darkness. Then somehow Love was born bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. in one case there was Light and Day, Gaea, the earth appeared. Then Erebus slept with Night, who gave birth to Aether, the heavenly light, and to Day the earthly light. Then Night alone produced Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis, and others that come to man out of darkness. stave Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus, the heavens. Uranus became Gaeas mate covering her on all sides. To restoreher they produced the three Cyclopes, the three Hecatoncheires, and twelve Titans. However, Uranus was a bad father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires. He imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaeas womb. This angered Gaea and she plotted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle a nd tried to get her children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid except, the youngest Titan, Cronus. Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush of Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night. Cronus grabbed his father and weaken him, with the stone sickle, throwing the severed genitals into the ocean. The fate of Uranus is not clear. He either died, withdrew from the earth, or exiled himself to Italy. As he departed he promised that Cronus and the Titans would be punished. From his spilt blood came the Giants, the modify Tree Nymphs, and the Erinyes. From the sea foam where his genitals fell came Aphrodite. Cronus became the next patternr. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires in Tartarus. He married his sister Rhea, under his rule the Titans had many offspring. He ruled for many ages. However, Gaea and Uranus both had prophesied that he would be overthrown by a son. To avoid this Cronus swallowed each of his children as they were born. Rhea was ireful at the treatment of the childr en and plotted against Cronus. When it came time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself, then she left the child to be raised by nymphs. To obliterate her act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as the baby to Cronus, who swallowed it. This child was Zeus.