CREATION
Where does life come from?
The World
At the beginning of time there was only Chaos. Then Chaos
formed a solid platform and this became the earth, and from this, the Earth, a
primordial deity called Gaia formed consciousness. The darkness beneath the
earth divided itself. The area directly below the earth became the Underworld
and from this the god of darkness, Erebos a primordial deity gained consciousness.
Below the Underworld the pit of Tartarus, the birth place of all monsters formed
and with it the primordial deity Tartarus gained consciousness. All of these
primordial deities began to roam the earth, creating smaller primordial deities
such as Nyx the goddess of night and her daughter Hemera goddess of day. Above
them there was only darkness. Then Gaia gave birth to Ouranus the primordial deity
of the sky and Chaos made the sky appeared above them. Then Chaos created the
oceans to fill the gaps in the earth and the primordial deity Pontus formed
consciousness.
This is how the Ancient Greeks believed the world was created, from this they based the foundations of their religion. They believed these gods to be the ultimate controlling force of the different elements of the world. From this, their beliefs in different secondary gods became their religion, but they always believed that these first gods were the hidden power that had created their world. |
The Titans
When Gaia and Ouranus married it was a marriage that
resulted in the creation of a new generation of heavenly figures, the Titans.
There were twelve Titans at first named Oceanus, Rhea, Kronos, Tethys, Theia,
Themis, Hypherion, Iapetus, Mnesmosyne, Phoebe, Coeus and Crius. After
them came the second generation of Titans called Atlas, Eos, Epimetheus,
Helios, Leto and Prometheus. Ouranus was a cruel father who wasn’t loved by his
children. He tolerated them but did not love them either. However the way he
treated the titans was nothing to how he treated the second children of Gaia,
the Cyclops. Ouranus was so horrified by his children’s disfigured appearance-their
single eye in the centre of their heads, he wrapped them in chains of darkness
and threw them into Tartarus. The next children of Gaia, the Hecatoncheires,
the hundred handed ones, because they were horrific to look at also suffered the
same treatment as Ouranus.
Gaia was incredibly upset at the treatment her children had suffered at the hand of their father. So she created a plan to remove his consciousness from the earth. She did this by tricking him into visiting her and letting down his guard so that Kronos, the youngest titan, and four of his brothers Ipatus, Koios, Krios and Hypherion could hold him down and cut him to pieces. As Ouranus was killed his blood fell on the earth and from the soil came nymphs and satyrs and later the three furies, spits of torture and punishment appeared and fled into Tartarus. Ouranus was killed using the first weapon ever created, as Gaia used her power over the earth and therefore metals to shape a giant scythe. As Ouranus did he cursed Kronos, that he too would be killed by one of his own children.They then threw his remains into Tartarus. Gaia, trusting her children to rule over the world retreated back into the earth and slept for millennia. This continuation of the creation story explained to the ancient Greeks why Gaia and Ouranus no longer walked the earth. It also explained the creation of weapons and paved the way for the events that would lead to the main focus of their religion the twelve Olympian gods. |
Humans
As Gaia slept the titans ruled over the world, Kronos as
high King ruled from atop Mount Orthys, and the four brothers who held Ouranus
down became the custodians of the four corners of the world. Kronos released
the cyclops and Hecatoncheires and together they built him a glorious palace on
the top of Mount Orthyrs, from there he watched over the world as king and the
titan of time. Slowly more titans were born each with their own special powers,
and they lived alone upon the earth with only nature and the nymphs and satyrs.
That was until Prometheus was sitting at a river bank and formed humanoid
figures out of the wet clay. He then breathed life into the clay figures and
they became the first humans. The titans were not particularly concerned at the
appearance of humans and simply ignored them, it was not until Prometheus
returned many, many years later to give them the gift of fire that the
Greek civilization would be formed.
This part of the creation story is incredibly important to the Greeks as it explained how they came to exist. |
The Gods
When Kronos realised that his brothers and sisters had
started to create children he become afraid of Ouranus curse coming true and
vowed never to marry. But despite this he fell in love with Rhea and she agreed
to marry him, soon becoming pregnant. Rhea’s first child, Hestia, was born soon
after, and, as was the custom of the time Rhea presented her to her father so
he could hold her. To her horror when Kronos held the child he felt that the
child was a god, a new race of heavenly figures, and swallowed her whole. The
same circumstances occurred when Rhea presented Kronos with the next four
children, the god and goddesses Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon and Rhea
became terribly afraid and angry. She soon became pregnant again and in fear of
Kronos, fled to ask help from her relatives, but they all refused out of fear
or loyalty to Kronos.
But as Rhea lay in a meadow crying, the voice of Gaia spoke to her, and told her to go and have the baby on the island of Crete. She obeyed and soon the baby Zeus was born. Rhea and the nymphs on Crete nursed the baby but soon Zeus began to cry and Rhea realised that Kronos would know another child had been born. She prayed to Gaia for help and Gaia sent her a rock to disguise as the baby Zeus and feed to Kronos. She also created the Kouretes, who were very loud humanoids who would cover the sound of Zeus crying as he was raised by the nymphs on Crete. When Rhea returned to Kronos carrying the rock disguised as a baby, Kronos immediately ate it without looking at it, still fearing the curse of his father. This went according the Rhea’s plan and she pretended to be furious with Kronos as she had been when he had swallowed the other children. Kronos believed her to be angry and so Zeus grew up on Crete in peace. When he had aged into a young man Rhea returned for him and presented him to Kronos as a cup bearer. Soon Kronos began to trust Zeus and so it was easy for Zeus to put a potion in his drink that made him vomit up his siblings. Being gods they had all continued to age in Kronos’s stomach and once they were free they turned into birds and flew away with Zeus. |
The gods decided to get revenge on their father and so
returned to destroy the Titans and Kronos in a huge war between the gods of
titans. The gods released the Cyclops and Hecatoncheires from Tartarus as Kronos
had thrown them back in the pit after they had built his palace. The
gods, Cyclops and Hecatoncheires then staged an ambush from a smaller mountain, Mount Olympus
that stood near Mount Orthys. From the top of Mount Olympus the gods ambushed
the Titans completely destroying Kronos’ palace and cleaving the mountain in
half so that Mount Olympus became the taller mountain. Zeus then took Kronos’
own scythe and used it to cut him into pieces just as Kronos had done to
Oceanus, thus confirming his curse. Kronos was then thrown into Tartarus with
the other titans who had not joined with the gods.
Zeus became the ultimate king of the gods and threw a dice with his older brothers, Poseidon and Hades to decide who would get what section of the world. Poseidon got the sea, Hades the underworld and Zeus the sky. The gods created their own palace on Mount Olympus, now the tallest mountain in Greece, and ruled as a council from their thrones for the rest of time.
This part of the Creation story outlines the creation of the major deities of the Greek religion. From these gods they explained the world around them, where they went when they died, why disasters happened and why the world around them was so important. These gods and their creation were the basis of the entire Greek religion.
Zeus became the ultimate king of the gods and threw a dice with his older brothers, Poseidon and Hades to decide who would get what section of the world. Poseidon got the sea, Hades the underworld and Zeus the sky. The gods created their own palace on Mount Olympus, now the tallest mountain in Greece, and ruled as a council from their thrones for the rest of time.
This part of the Creation story outlines the creation of the major deities of the Greek religion. From these gods they explained the world around them, where they went when they died, why disasters happened and why the world around them was so important. These gods and their creation were the basis of the entire Greek religion.