In the beginning there was an empty darkness
called Chaos.
Then out of the void appeared Erebus, the
personification of the deep darkness and shadows
and the place where death dwells ,and Nyx
the personification of night.
All else was empty, silent, endless, dark.
Then, Eros was born bringing along the beginning
of order . Then Gaea ,the Earth soon followed
Erebus and Nyx, gave birth to Ether, the heavenly
light and to Hemera, the earthly light.
Then, Nyx alone created Moros or Doom, Ker
the spirit of a violent death,Thanatos the
spirit of a peaceful death, Nemesis , and
all things that dwell in the darkness haunting
mankind.
Meanwhile, Gaea gave birth to Uranus, the
sky.
Uranus became Gaea's husband, surrounding
her on all sides.
Together, they gave birth to the three Cyclopes,
the three Hecatoncheires, which name means
hundread-handed and they well had hundred
hands and also a hundred heads too; and twelve
Titans.
The youngest of the Titans being Cronus.
However, Uranus wasn’t a father of the year
type of guy.
He hated the Hecatoncheires and imprisoned
them by pushing them into the hidden places
of the earth.Gaea’s womb that is.
This angered Gaea and she plotted against
Uranus.
She tried to get her children to attack Uranus,but
All were too afraid, except the youngest Titan,
Cronus.
Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush for Uranus
and managed to defeat him,well that meaning
Cronus cut off his genitals.
From the blood that was spilled on the earth
due to this, emerged the Giants which means
earth-born, the Nymphs, and the Erinnyes or
the Furies.
From the sea foam that was produced emerged
Aphrodite,the godess of beauty.Angered by
this and by the economical crisis that seems
like will never end Uranus moved to Italy
.
Cronus became the next ruler.
He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires
in Tartarus and married his sister Rhea.He
ruled for many ages; however, Gaea and Uranus
both had prophesied that Cronus would be eventually
overthrown by a son.
To avoid this, Cronus swallowed all of his
children as they were born.
Rhea was angry at the treatment of the children
and plotted against Cronus.
When it was time to give birth to her sixth
child, Rhea hid herself, 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.
This child was Zeus.
He grew into a handsome youth at the island
of Crete.
He consulted Metis ,who would become his first
wife on how to defeat Cronus.
She prepared a drink for Cronus designed to
make him vomit the other children.
Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son and
Zeus was allowed to return to Mount Othrys
(the base of the Titans) as Cronus's cupbearer,
giving him the opportunity to serve Metis'
potion to Cronus.
The plan worked perfectly and the other five
children emerged out of him.
As gods, they were unharmed and thankful to
their youngest brother, they made him their
leader.
Cronus was yet to be defeated..
He and the Titans, except Prometheus, Epimetheus,
and Oceanus, fought to retain their power.
A 10 year war started called the Titanomachy.
Atlas became their leader in battle.
Zeus went down to Tartarus and freed the Cyclopes
and the Hecatoncheires and Prometheus joined
Zeus as well.
The Cyclopes provided Zeus with his iconic
lighting bolts for weapons.
With their help the new gods managed to win.
Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against
him into Tartarus, with the exception of Atlas,
who being the leader of the opposing force,
was condemned to eternally stand on the western
side of (the earth) holding (the sky) on his
shoulders.
So the depiction of Atlas holding the Earth
on his shoulders is actually a misconception..
With Zeus as their leader, they began to furnish
Gaia with life and Uranus with stars.
Soon the Earth lacked only two things: man
and animals.
Zeus summoned Prometheus (fore-thought) and
Epimetheus (after-thought).
He told them to go to Earth and create men
and animals and give them each a gift.
Prometheus set to work forming men in the
image of the gods and Epimetheus worked on
the animals.
As Epimetheus worked he gave each animal he
created one of the gifts.
After Epimetheus had completed his work Prometheus
finally finished making men.
However when he went to see what gift to give
man Epimetheus informed him that he had foolishly
used all the gifts.
Distressed, Prometheus decided he had to give
man fire, even though gods were the only ones
meant to have access to it.
As the sun god rode out into the world the
next morning Prometheus took some of the fire
and brought it back to man.
He taught his creation how to take care of
it and then left them.
That’s pretty much it ! Bye!
