Greek Accounts of Creation

• Homer(earliest) believed that all creation came from Oceanus Tethys
• Hesiod(only slightly later than Homer)
  • Theogany - provides genealogy of major gods and some heroes
  • Works and Days - didactic and religion work, fills in some gaps
• Ovid (contemporary of Augustus) similar to Hesiod, but influenced by Epicurean philosophy. His Metamorphoses provided a brief account of creation

• Chaos-first thing
  • Hesiod calls Chaos a vast “yawning” void
  • Ovid calls Chaos a confused mixture of all things
• In Hesiod, Chaos produced
  • Ge - the earth
  • Tartarus - a vast hollow place beneath the earth
  • Eros(love) Phanes-first light, Protagonus-first born
  • Erebus - the gloom of Tartarus
  • Night - The darkness of the evening
  • Erebus and Night mated, producing Aether(the upper air) and Day

• Ge produced Uranus(the sky), Pontus(the sea), and the mountains by herself
• Uranus and Ge married - Heiros Gamos - sacred marriage - unites earth and sky
• Children of Uranus and Ge
  • 12 Titans - Cronus, Rhea, Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion, Theia, Coeus, Phoebe, Mnemosyne, Crius, Themis, Iapetus
  • 3 Hecatoncheires with 100 hands and fifty heads - Cottus, Briareus, Gyes
  • 3 Cyclopes with one eye - Brontes, Steropes, Arges
• Uranus imprisoned Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes in Tartarus
  • Ge asked her children for help
  • Cronus took a sickle from his mother, and cut off his father’s genitals when he approached Ge
  • Cronus tossed the genitals over his shoulder, blood landed on earth and produced
  • Erinyes - the Furies, who aggressively punish crimes of mortals
  • Giants
  • Meliae - the nymphs of ash trees
  • Genitals floated on the sea to Cyprus(Cytherea), produced Aphrodite

• The Titans were Cronus and Rhea, Hyperion and Theia, Oceanus and Tethys, Coeus and Phoebe, Iapetus, Crius, Mnemosyne, and Themis
• Cronus and Rhea had Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus
• Hyperion and Theia had Selene, Eos, and Helius
• Oceanus and Tethys had 6,000 Oceanids (300 of each gender)
• Coeus and Phoebe had Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis
• Iapetus and Clymene(or Themis) had Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius

Phaethon
Phaethon was the son of Helius and Clymene. Hr visited his father to ask for proof of his parentage. Helius promised him any wish, swearing by the Styx to honor the promise(most sacred oath a god can take). Against his father’s warnings, Phaethon decided to drive the sun chariot. When he could not control the horses, Zeus shot Phaethon down with a thunderbolt. He crashed into the Eridanus(Po) River. The Heliades(Phaethon’s sisters), mourning, became Poplar trees, and their tears became amber. Cycnus, a cousin of Phaethon, became a swan in his mourning.

Eos and Tithonus
Eos loved the mortal, Tithonus, and successfully requested from Zeus that he might have eternal life. But she forgot to request eternal youth for him as well. Bent with old age, he shriveled into a grasshopper.

Endymion and Selene
Selene fell in love with the mortal, Endymion, but spent too much time with him, and not enough time performing her duties as the moon. Endymion was offered the choice of death or eternal sleep. He chose to sleep forever, and in a cave on Mt. Latmus, he rested forever. Selene still spent her days lying beside her love.

• Uranus and Ge told Cronus that he would be deposed by one of his children
• Cronus ate his kids as they were born to prevent this
• Rhea replaced Zeus with a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes
• Zeus was born on Crete
• He grew up there on Mt. Dicte, where he was fed by Amalthea, and raised by the nymphs Melissa, Ida, and Adrastea
• The Curetes made noise with their shields to drown his cries
• When Zeus had grown up, he uses a potion to cause Cronus to regurgitate his children
• Zeus formed an alliance with his brother and some Titans, and fought his father for control of heaven

• The Titans, except for Themis and Prometheus, fought from Mt. Orthrys
  • Atlas and Epimetheus joined them
• Zeus and his siblings fought from Mt. Olympus
  • Prometheus and Themis joined then because they knew Zeus would win
  • Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires were recruited and brought up from Tartarus
    • Cyclopes made Zeus’s thunderbolts
    • Hecatoncheires were great at throwing rocks
• The conflict lasted for ten years, but Zeus eventually won
• The Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus, with the Hecatoncheires guarding them
  • Later, they may have been allowed to go to the Islands of the Blessed
    • These lay beyond the Ocean, but still in sight of the sun
• Atlas was sentenced to hold up the sky

The Giganomachy
Giants, born of Ge and the blood of Uranus. Or produced by Ge out of anger when Zeus imprisoned Titans. Their Greek name, Gegeneis, designates their earth-born character. Ge also produced a magic herb that would make them invincible. When Zeus heard of this, he darkened the earth by stopping the sun and moon from performing their duties, and searched out this herb for himself. Also, the giants were supposedly invulnerable to immortal hands, so the mortal hero, Heracles was said by osme to have been recruited to deal the death blow to the giants

The Tale of Typhon
Typhon- son of Ge and Tartarus, had 100 dragon's heads. in one encounter, he defeated Zeus and took his sinews(or more figuratively, his strength). He gave them to the serpent, Delphyne, for safekeeping. She returned them and Zeus killed Typhon. It is said that the heat of their confrontation burned the soil in the north African deserts, and turned the skin of the Ethiopians black. Typhon was the father of all ill winds.

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