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Greek Mythology
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The Era of the Gods: Hesiod's Theogony
22-01-2013 20:50Hesiod has been the first poet to acknowledge the importance of the myths in the early years of Greek literature. It is believed that Hesiod had lived around 700 BC and was a contemporaneous poet to Homer. Theogony is Hesiod’s first work where he gives the genealogy of the Gods and therefore the way the world was born.
At the beginning of the world there was only Chaos, meaning something more than just a mere empty space but the very first feature of the universe. Chaos is preceded by three entities that came into existence independently: Gaia (earth), Tartaros (bowels of earth, abyss) and Eros (love, desire). Chaos found a family through parthenogenesis giving birth to some more children like: Erebos (black) and Nyx (Night) implementing negative qualities to them and to their offspings like: Moros (fate), Hypnos (sleep) and his brother Thanatos (death), Nemesis (retribution) and Eris (strife).
Gaia, representing the earth is one of the most important first deities and she was the one that gave birth to a series of families, generating some of the universal elements that the world is comprised of, implementing the positive forces of creation. She is considered to be the mother of all, the oldest being who nourishes all living creatures. Gaia began by generating two male partners from herself, Ouranos (sky) and Pontos (sea) and then mate with them to found two separate lines.
Tartaros (abyss) is the nethermost region of the completed universe, lying in earth’s deepest recesses, even lower than Hades (the world of the dead). Tartaros lies as far beneath the earth as heaven rises above the earth. Tartaros later served as a remote and secure prison for banished deities from where they could not escape back to the world of Gods.
Eros (love, desire) is depicted at this early stage of creation as the mighty cosmic force of nature that inspires all living creatures to mate and create life.
The most important line is the one generated from Gaia’s union with Ouranos that will create three groups of gods: Titans, Cyclops and Hekatoncheires or the Hundred-Handers with the Titans being the most important of them as they served as the second generation of Gods that ruled the world with Kronos being the king.
Out of Gaia’s mating with Pontos, a family of lesser importance was created, consisted mainly of sea beings and monsters like the sea-gods Nereus, Thaumas and Phorkys.
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