Welcome to this series of articles about mythology! Mythology, as you may have guessed, is the study of myths from a certain culture. From ten-headed demons to magic sheepskin rugs, mythology is a diverse and intriguing subject. This first article will introduce you to the stories of the Ancient Greeks. There are many versions of these tales, so you may have heard them differently, but here are some of the more widely accepted accounts.
The Greeks believed in multiple gods and Titans – supreme, immortal deities that ruled the cosmos. According to them, the Titans and gods walked the Earth much before humans, and eventually created the human race. They worshipped these gods and built them great temples, burning them offerings, which the gods liked (no surprise there). In Greek myths, heroes were often aided by gods and goddesses, these deities often fell in love with mortals and had children with them; they were half-god, half-humans called demigods, who were usually mortal but could be stronger or smarter than the average human. Delve into the Greek story of creation, explaining how the Titans, gods, and humans came into being.
At first, there was nothing. Eventually, Chaos emerged from this nothing, the first primordial god. More primordial deities were born from the void of Chaos, and they were Gaia and Tartarus. Gaia was the Earth, but she could also appear in a human form, as a woman. Alternately, Tartarus was a dome beneath the Earth, an infernal abyss of darkness. Basically, it was not one of your top ten holiday spots. On her own, Gaia gave birth to Ouranos (also spelt Uranus), who was the dome above the Earth, also known as the sky, and, in human form, became her husband. They gave birth to twelve children, six boys and six girls, known as the Titans, including Crius, Coeus, Kronos (also spelt Cronus), Hyperion, Iapetus and Rhea. I wonder how they remembered all of them, like “Hey, umm… Crius! Pass me that cup!”
“Actually, Mom, I’m Coeus.”
“Oops!”
These Titans looked like humans, but they were much larger and stronger. There were lots more primordial gods and goddesses, but if I tried to mention them all, this would be more like a book series.
Later, Gaia and Ouranos had three more children, who were the cyclopes. The cyclopes each had one eye in the middle of their foreheads, but Gaia loved them all the same. Ouranos, however, imprisoned his children in Tartarus, the only place where he would not have to look at them. No, you didn’t read that wrong. Ouranos actually threw his kids into the pit of eternal darkness. He wasn’t winning any awards for Father of the Year. Naturally, Gaia freaked and as she raised her Titan children, they began to resent their father. After Gaia had calmed a little, she and the sky god had three final children. The kids were the hundred-handed ones, each one with one hundred hands and fifty faces. Ka-blam! Same story – down into Tartarus they went, sending Gaia into a rage. She used her fury to create the first weapon in the world, which was a scythe. The Earth Mother gathered her twelve Titan children and told them what their father had done, and how she wanted revenge. Immediately, the youngest Titan, Kronos, stepped forward, taking the scythe. Kronos was greedy and power-hungry. Why shouldn’t he become king? He’d do a much better job than his father. So, Kronos overthrew his father by killing his mortal form, and took the sky god’s place as Lord of the Cosmos. But his father left him with a curse: one day his children would overthrow him and he had Ouranos. From the golden ichor, the blood of the immortals, of the sky, rose the three Furies. They were goddesses of vengeance and pain. Some of the ichor fell into the sea, and from this rose Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
As the years (or possibly centuries) passed, the Titans began to get married and have Titan children. Prometheus, one of these children, created humans by breathing life into clay figures. After a while, Kronos decided he wanted a wife, and he picked Rhea. Kronos and Rhea had a child, but, as he looked at her, he realised that she was not a Titan… she was, in fact, a goddess, the first of a new, more powerful branch of immortal beings. The words of the curse came back to him, and, to prevent himself from being killed, as he was sure the child would grow up to be more powerful than him, he swallowed her. Cue the screaming. Cue the angry storming. Rhea had five more children (why she forgave Kronos, I don’t know), each of them gods or goddesses, and Kronos swallowed them all. Wow, Kronos must have inherited his fathering skills from his dad. Finally, as Rhea was to give birth to her sixth and final child, she came up with a plan to save her children. Instead of her child, a god whom she named Zeus, she wrapped a rock firmly in blankets and presented it to Kronos. As she had expected, he swallowed it whole. Apparently, his taste buds were really off, because he didn’t realise that it was not a kid. Seems pretty obvious, but I guess he was tired of swallowing babies and didn’t check. Or maybe he really needed glasses.
Zeus was raised well in a cave and told of the horrible deeds his father had committed. When the god was old enough, he was sent back to Mount Othrys, where he freed his siblings (long story). They journeyed to Tartarus, which is not easy to do, where they were forged weapons by the cyclopes and hundred-handed ones in gratitude for liberating them from the abyss. A long war between the Titans who sided with Kronos and gods, as well as some of the Titans who did not support Kronos, followed. The gods won, throwing most of the Titans into Tartarus. Atlas, one of Kronos’ generals, however, had the punishment of holding the whole world on his back.
These six gods and goddesses now ruled the Earth. Hestia, the oldest, became the goddess of the hearth. She never got married, which makes sense, because she must have been pretty traumatized from being swallowed. Demeter became the goddess of the harvest, and Hera, the youngest sister, became the goddess of marriage. Hades was the oldest brother and he became the god of the Underworld, while Poseidon became the god of the sea. The youngest child of Rhea and Kronos, Zeus, became the god of the sky, in addition to the king of all the gods (he must have had a pretty impressive resume). Like the Titans before them, they began to have more children. The main gods and goddesses were the twelve Olympians, who had their throne room on Mount Olympus: Zeus; Hera, who became the wife of Zeus and queen of the gods; Demeter; Poseidon; Apollo, god of archery, music, healing and prophecy, as well as the son of the Titan Leto and Zeus; Artemis, goddess of the hunt and the twin sister of Apollo; Ares, son of Zeus and Hera and god of war; Athena, who was born from the thoughts of Zeus and was the goddess of warfare and wisdom; Hermes, god of (deep breath here) trade, thieves, travels, border crossings, sports, athletes, and luck; Aphrodite; Hephaestus, the god of fire and metalworking; and Dionysus, god of wine. So, that’s the Greek story of creation. I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe now you’ll appreciate your family a little more!
Bibliography
- https://www.desy.de/gna/interpedia/greek_myth/creation.html#:~:text=Creation%20of%20the%20World,to%20man%20out%20of%20darkness.
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- https://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_16.html
- Greek mythology
- Greek mythology origin story (article)
- Summary and Analysis: Greek Mythology The Beginnings — Creation
- What Is the Greek Creation Myth? –
- Creation Myth: Greek and Roman Mythology
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Olympians#:~:text=In%20ancient%20Greek%20religion%20and,and%20either%20Hestia%20or%20Dionysus.
- The 12 Olympian Gods (Collection)
- Twelve Olympians | The 12 Olympian Gods of Mount Olympus
