In the Beginning....There was Chaos

I’ve been talking about gods and goddesses but where did they come from? From where did all life spring in Greek tradition? The sources may surprise and intrigue you as much as it did me, having heard the PG-13 versions of these stories far too often. So this is my cliffnotes/sparknotes of Greek creation myth.

Greece went into their Dark Ages around 1150 BCE and for the next several hundred years all sources of writing mysteriously disappeared. It’s not sure what exactly happened, having no surviving records of the time but we have 3 main hypothesis’s:

1) A group of Greeks that lived in the northern part of the country, called the Dorians, descended and invaded. The back up for this assumption is because the Dorians had iron technology (Whereas, the rest of Greece was still using bronze) and they practiced cremation in their burial rites (burning of the dead). The information we do have of the Greeks in this time is that during this time they acquired that same practicies and technology in the Dark Ages (Also known as the Iron Age). The language spoken when Greece came out of the Dark Ages also coincides with the Doric dialect.

2) There is textual evidence in Egyptian records of a group simply called the “Sea People” who terrorized the Mediterranean. They had attempted to take over coastal countries such as Egypt but were rebuffed. It was thought that the Sea People had gone up and down Greece’s multiple coastal communities and plundered until they were forced to flee inland. The Sea People are believed to be a branch of Greek so they could have brought the customs that popped up when they came out of the Dark Ages.

3) It’s thought that a plague struck the cities and that made it no longer safe to dwell in large communities. Those who could would have moved away and set up shop in less populated areas. Because this weakened the country’s strength, it made them ripe for invasion from the Dorians or the Sea People.

Writing was apparently forgotten during this time. Artwork and sculpting took a major step back from the standards established by the Mycenaeans and the Minoans. The surviving items we do have don’t give any evidence for what could have happened. This would have been the best way to figure it out because ancient art will never, ever depict a horrific event such as a plague or invasion if it were made up. But the stones are silent on that story so we’ll move on.

The Dark Ages ended around 800 BCE and writing was suddenly rediscovered. Enter in our famous writers such as Homer and Sappho. Surprisingly, still no one wrote about what happened in the Dark Ages. All of their stories pertained to the Bronze Age and what is known as the generation before Heracles (Roman Hercules). This is where my source comes in.

About the 7^th century BCE, perhaps the same time as Homer, we have writings from the man Hesiod. Some of you may be familiar with the name for his work is the earliest in western culture to be put together in a copulation. It’s widely believed that Hesiod was a farmer or a shepherd, so how he learned to write is yet another mystery to us but he has produced some of the finest works we know today. “The Theogony” is the text I will be focusing on. Theogony simply means “Birth of the Gods.”

In the beginning, Chaos came into being. It wasn’t birthed by anything or from anything. It just was. By itself, it spawned three entities. The first was Gaia (the earth), the second was Tartarus (the lower level of the Underworld) and the last was Eros (the concept of attraction, inspiration and love). Collectively these are known as the Four Primal Entities. Afterwards Chaos birthed (by itself again) Nyx (night) and Darkness, and they produced the Light and Day.

From that time Gaia birthed (on her own) Uranus (the sky) the Mountains and Pontus (the ocean as we know it (Atlantic, Pacific, etc.)). Uranus then impregnates Gaia with the Hecatoncheires “hundred handed ones”, the Cyclopes, and the Titans.

From somewhere (It never says where exactly) Uranus was given the prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his children. Because of this, he was afraid to let the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes out of Gaia’s womb. The 12 original titans spring out however and do their things.

Gaia in the meantime is groaning and tortured with these unborn children still inside her. Something must be done to stop Uranus so she turns to her free children for help. Each one of them is afraid to take on their father except for Cronus, the youngest Titan. Gaia then creates a golden sickle (a farming implement) and he goes into hiding. When Uranus draws near Gaia to mate with her again Cronus reaches up and whacks off his genitals—castrating him permanently.

Uranus, weakened and probably humiliated, backs off and Cronus throws the bloody penis into the ocean. The ocean foams where the blood hits and three things are born from this act of violence:

1) The Giants

2) The Erinyes/Furies

3) The goddess Aphrodite

Now that Uranus can’t create anymore progeny, Cronus is given power. Usher in the Age of Cronus for mankind. During this time humans were free from any physical wants or needs. Food and water were provided for them it was practically a paradise. On the other hand, they had no free choice. In order to receive these gifts they had to submit totally to Cronus’ rule. Cronus also kept his brothers, the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes, buried beneath the earth.

Eventually Cronus takes Rhea as his wife and they start having kids. The mystery prophet comes around and delivers the same message that he had given to Uranus: One of your children will over throw you. At this, the same madness that had infected his father overtook Cronus. He was suddenly very mindful of how he had taken down Uranus and came up with an idea to keep the same thing from happening to him. So whenever Rhea gave birth he would swallow the baby whole. In this fashion he gulped down Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon.

Rhea at this point was distraught so she turned to her mother for help. Gaia was infuriated at her son for keeping the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes locked up so she happily agreed. Under Gaia’s instruction, once her next child was born (Zeus) she gave him over to the care of Nymphs who whisked him away. Then she wrapped swaddling clothes around a rock and offered that up to Cronus when he came around. He swallowed that without a second glance.

Zeus eventually grows up and comes back to fight his father. His first wife, the titan Metis (name meaning “cunning, clever,” the concept of wisdom and daughter of Oceanus and Tethys) came up with an idea to get more reinforcements. She concocts a potion and has Cronus eats it. This disrupts his stomach and gives him indigestion. He finally vomits and out comes the rock along with Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter and Hestia, all fully grown (and most likely P.O.’d). The rock falls to earth and lands in what we know as Delphi.

With his siblings behind him, Zeus and his Titan aunts and uncles clashed in what is known as Titanomachy (Battle of the Titans). The battle wages back and forth with nobody gaining the upper hand for the next 10 years. It was then that Gaia (Metis in some versions) told Zeus that the only way he would win was to release the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes. He does this and they craft him his lightning bolts and together, they throw all of the battling titans into Tartarus (some titans did not partake in the battle, such as Rhea). With them trapped there, Zeus posted the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes on guard duty to make sure the titans didn’t escape (which conveniently kept them under the earth…again).

Zeus and his siblings then became the first 6 of what is known as the “Olympians” (Because they supposedly lived on Mt. Olympus at the base of the city of Olympia…go figure). So concludes the beginning portion of “Theogony.”

Ok! Now that the story is through…Let’s look at meanings shall we?

Automatically when we think of the word “Chaos” these days, we automatically assume something that’s in disarray (i.e. my room), something that’s horrible and most importantly, something that’s beyond our control. In the ancient world, however, the meaning and idea of Chaos was much different.

** Unformatted matter

** Unfilled opening

** Void

** Space

** Chasm

These are some of the ideas they had. “Chaos” was basically an empty space. Here’s an easier picture: You move into a brand new apartment. You’ve decorated every spot of the house except for one—the living room. Now you got the TV there and the coffee table up but the rest is blank. You need something to sit in…but what? You could put a couch or a love seat or lazy boy chair… The empty space then becomes full of potential. This is the idea of “Chaos” where something can spring from nothing.

But the actual, literal meaning of Chaos is “gaping jaws” or “gaping yawn.” Yawn now. Try it. Do it again with your hand by your face. You feel the warm air? The Greeks believed that breath was a sign of the soul and the source of life (and they weren’t wrong). So when we yawned we expel live-giving qualities. The Chaos that “yawned” produced the first life in the Greek culture.

I referred to Chaos as an “it” because it has neuter gender. In mythology in general, the gender is important no matter what deity you’re talking about. Strangely, neuter is considered to be a force that is devoid of the ability to create life. Things that are considered “male” are the givers of life (the semen) while the “female” are the bringers and nurturers of life (the womb). Enter in the next 3 Primal Entities…Gaia, Tartarus and Eros.

The earth is considered female in the majority of all mythological and religious practices (the only exception that comes to mind is ancient Egyptian culture, where the earth was male and the sky was female). Gaia is the matrix (stop it with the Keanu Reeves impressions!). I say this because matrix comes from the word “mater” which means “mother” or “womb.” Since 100% of our food comes from the earth, this does indeed seem like a womb.

Tartarus on the other hand is a misnomer. There are an equal number of references to it being both a she and a he. This gives him/her more power as a creator god(dess), having aspects of both. Tartarus was located just above the vacuum of Chaos and just under Hades in the area of the Underworld.

Eros, the last primal deity, is definitely male. Most people assume he’s the cute little son of Aphrodite but his power is one of the most ancient. Eros worked behind the scenes and is more or less an unexplainable character. He was the concept of emotional love (when you love someone for who they are and not what they looked like- that was Aphrodite’s love). He sparked inspiration which was comparable to the sparking of life within the womb (giving life to ideas).

So Gaia produced the sky (Uranus), the mountains and the ocean (Pontus) by herself. This gives the framework of the physical world we know today. Uranus impregnated Gaia which makes us today recoil in disgust from the incest but, as I’ve mentioned before, is a metaphor. What is in the sky? Clouds. What comes from cloud? Rain. What happens when the rain hits the fertile earth? Plants grow. Excreta, excreta.

The Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes, what’s up with those guys? Were they monsters? Well this is easy to explain without going into metaphor…Have you seen an elephant skull? Or better yet, a wooly mammoth? It’s massive! And what’s in the center of the skull? One giant hole. We now know today that that’s just the hole that the trunk is attached to but to a people who didn’t know at the time—that hole would have been the perfect place for a single, enormous eye. The explanation for the Hecatoncheires is a bit more incredulous…It’s believed now that scattered dinosaur bones were what lead people to dream them up. The large footprints left in rocks lend credence to these beliefs. The ancients didn’t know what these massive things were so…why not monsters?

The idea of a monster in itself is an interesting one. The word “monster” comes from a combination of the words moneo (“to warn” “a warning”) and ther (“wild and untamed”). In childhood we were always afraid of let’s say…the boogieman monster coming to get us if we got out of bed at night. It was used as a warning so we wouldn’t be walking around the house at night. Within the Theogany, they could serve as warnings to Uranus about: what will happen if he keeps locking up his kids –OR- warning against having children (the horny bastid!)

So eventually the 12 Titans are born. Now 12 is among the most sacred numbers in all religions across the world being equated with the concept of completion. Basically, any number that is a multiple of 3 can be considered holy (3, 6, 9, 12) which is repeated over and over again. 7 is also a holy number since it’s the addition of 3 and 4 (for the 4 Primal Entities). So the Titans are, in birth order, Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronus.

Gaia recruits Cronus to dispose of Uranus, he does so with a sickle as his tool. As I said earlier, the sickle is a farming implement. It’s not a warrior’s sword or a battle axe, it’s a common and sometimes crude item used by common men. And remember the metaphor of Uranus being the rain and Gaia being the earth? Well what comes from that? Plants! But namely—Wheat! In harvest time, farmers used sickles to cut down the wheat to make their food.

But the act of castration is what is commonly misunderstood. When you castrate say…a bull or a stallion they usually become docile, less violent as it were. So it could be seen as the ultimate way to strip someone of their power. Also, it can be thought of in terms of kids who are trying to grow up. Your parents make all the decisions for you and push you to do things until you have to turn around and “castrate” or rebuke them to back off. The only way we can develop as people is to cut the invisible umbilical cord and become what you want. In this idea, Cronus was telling his father to GTFO! (Get the f**k out) and leave him and his siblings alone so they can finally grow up.

This is also part cautionary tale to the old folks. It was said that the truest wisdom lay with youth because they are open to new ideas. The older you got, the more set in your ways you became and thus the more stupid you were considered. This shows that the older generations should always be mindful of the younger—they will always be overthrown. The cycle continues.

Ok now the bloody penis part…Remember what popped out of the sea? The first was the Giants. Now when everybody thinks of Giants they just think of guys who are super tall and live on top of beanstalks and clouds. But there are also other kinds of giants. Einstein was considered a mental giant. Our great poets and writers are creative giants. There are endless possibilities for that one. The Erinyes were spirits of order and vengeance—especially riled up by the murder of a mother (They respectfully have their own blog so I won’t go into them much). The last born was Aphrodite. Some traditions say she’s the daughter of Zeus instead but in the oldest text we have available, this was when she appeared.

The PG version of Aphrodite is that she was the concept of love which immediately conjures to mind hearts and cuddles and all that good stuff. That was Eros though. Aphrodite is the concept of PHYSICAL love (i.e. when you see the hot girl/guy on the other side of the bar and you start getting tingly). This is intriguing today since she was born out of the MALE member, not of any copulation between male and female. She’s basically horniness and what attracts male and female to mate. And you know when you get blue balls when the girl at the bar says “I don’t think so”? That’s Aphrodite berating you for screwing up the date and not getting any.

So Cronus ascends to power. Yay. And he takes Rhea as his wife. The meaning of their names plays an interesting role in the break down later. Cronus means “accomplishment” and “perfection.” He was the pinnacle of excellence among the titans. Rhea means “flowing” and “changing.” Perfection is a static state, meaning it stays that way and doesn’t move. Put something that changes the standards then it is no longer perfect.

Cronus is now nervous that someone is going to run up and castrate him in some way so he starts disposing of his child-rivals. Zeus is the 6^th child (multiple of 3) and, just like his father, the runt of the family. When born, runts are considered the weakest—the most likely to die off. When they live they’re usually the most teased so when they grow up….they get even.

They do their little tricks, Cronus vomits up the rock. The original meaning of “vomit” simply means “to exit.” It fell to Delphi where it is known today as the Omphalos (“Belly button”). This was the ancient’s reason that Delphi was considered the center of the world and a place of the gods. Our belly buttons are connected to the umbilical cord. The stone came from the gods in the heavens so it became a link from the earth mortals to the gods above.

So I've taken you on this trip through time. We've seen the births of the gods before all the fun little stories about them. Where have they gone since then? Nobody knows. Zeus was given the same prophecy as his father and grandfather, that a child of his would once again usurp his power. Could the advent of Christianity and Jesus be that son? It would make sense, seeing as how the myths of the Titans were lost or thrown by the wayside as soon as the Olympians gained control. But that story is for another time... For now, at least realize that these stories were not just random ramblings of wildmen. These were intelligent and well thought out metaphors about life and the world we live in.