How the World was Created (Greek mythology)

In the beginning there was only Chaos. Then out of the void 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. Erebus slept with Night and Night laid an egg. Out of the egg Love was born; and Love created Light and Day. Gaea, the Earth, also suddenly appeared.

The first children of Gaea and Uranus, Mother Earth and Father Heaven, were the Hecatoncheires, monsters with a hundred hands and fifty heads. Next were the three Cyclopes, the wheel-eyed, for they had only one eye the size of a wheel. Then there were the twelve Titans, the elder gods.

A cyclops, from the original "Clash of the Titans" movie.

The Titans. Graphic courtesy of CrystalLinks.Com

However, Uranus was a poor father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires. He imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's womb. But the Cyclopes and the Titans he let roam on the earth.

 

The imprisonment of her children angered Gaea and she plotted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle and 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 wounded him terribly. From the blood of Uranus came the Giants, and the Erinyes or the Furies, monsters with snakes for hair whose job is to punish sinners.

Cronus became the next ruler. He threw the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes into hell-prison of 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 angry at the treatment of the children and plotted against Cronus. When it came time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself in Crete, then she left the child to be raised by nymphs. To conceal her act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as the baby to Cronus, who swallowed it.

Photo courtesy of ElfinSpell.Com.

This child was Zeus. He grew into a handsome youth on Crete. Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son and Zeus was allowed to return to Mount Olympus. As the cupbearer of Cronus, Zeus secretly made his father drink a potion which made him vomit the five earlier children—Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hestia—and the stone which was passed off as him.

Then came a terrible war between the Titans led by Cronus and the Gods led by Zeus. The Gods almost became defeated when Zeus freed the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires from Tartarus, who fought with their weapons of thunder, lightning, and earthquake. Also, Prometheus, son of the Titan Iapetus, sided with the Gods.

The Fall of the Titans, by Cornelis van Haarlem. Photo courtesy of Mlahanas.De.

Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against him into Tartarus. Atlas, who was the leader in battle, was singled out for the special punishment of holding the world on his shoulders.

Altas carrying the world on his shoulders.

Zeus defeats Typhon, Art on a Greek postage stamp, courtesy of www.mlhanas.de.

However, even after this victory Zeus was not safe. Gaea angry gave birth to a last offspring, Typhon, a fire-breathing monster with a hundred heads. But Zeus, now the master of thunder and lightning, defeated Typhon, which was buried under Mount Etna in Italy, a volcano.



The Giants (Gigantes) attempt to climb and conquer Mount Olympus.

Finally, the Giants rebelled against Zeus. They went so far as to attempt to invade Mount Olympus, piling mountain upon mountain in an effort to reach the top. But, the gods had grown strong and with the help of Hercules the Giants were subdued or killed.

 

(Story retold by J.M.Hunt, edited and collated from Edith Hamilton by Sir G)