goddess of myth

Hesiod's Primordial Deities

The following are some of the earliest beings that came into existence, out of the creation, before the existence of the Titans and the Olympians. Like some of the Titans, some were no more than just personification and were known only by who their offspring were.

Note that the list of primeval deities below was more commonly found in Hesiod's creation myths. There are few deities listed in Other Primeval Beings that come from Orphic or other Greek creation myths.

Also, some authors just referred to these primordial beings not by names, but by what they represented, such as Earth instead of Gaea, Heaven instead of Uranus, Night instead of Nyx, etc.

Χάος Chaos
Long after the "beginning of time", the void known as Chaos came into existence in the universe. Out of Chaos, or together with it, came Gaea ("Earth"), Tartarus and Eros ("Love"). Without a mate, Chaos bore Nyx ("Night") and Erebus ("Darkness"). Hesiod doesn't give us much detail about Chaos, only saying that he was the very first to come into being. It is from the 1st century BC Roman poet, Ovid, that we are given more description of Chaos. Before the earth, sea and heaven (as well as the heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon and stars), before even there was the deathless gods, Chaos existed as formless mass. It was lifeless matter, where all elements of creation were heaped together, so that nothing could be distinguished from one another. See Creation, Theogony of Hesiod. According to the Orphic myths, Chaos was born from Chronus (Time) and Adrasteia (Necessity), at the same time as Erebus and Aether. It was Chronus and Aether who became the parents of the first god, Phanes or Protogonus, who was usually identified with Eros (Love).

Νύξ Nyx (Night)
Goddess of the night. Nyx was identified by the Roman as Nox, and was often just as Night. Nyx was born together with Erebus, Gaea, Tartarus, and Eros ("Love"), out of Chaos. By her brother Erebus, Nyx bore Aether ("Upper Air") and Hemera ("Day"). Nyx was also the mother of Moros ("Doom"), Thanatos ("Death"), Hypnos ("Sleep"), Charon, Nemesis ("Retribution"), and the Fates (Moerae). Nyx was possibly the mother of Eris ("Strife") and the Hesperides. Her other children were mostly abstract personification: Apate ("Deceit"), Geras ("Old Age"), the Keres ("Dooms"), Momos ("Blame"), Oizus ("Misery") and Philotes ("Tenderness"). Most of these children dwelled in the Underworld. Nyx was sometimes seen as a winged goddess. Her wings were black or shadowy, and she was called "swift Night". She was said to dwell in the Underworld during the day, and only come out at dusk. In the Iliad, Homer mentioned that the only goddess that Zeus only truly feared was the "all-subduing Night". Zeus would displeasure her by destroying Hypnos (Sleep), one of her many offspring. According to the Orphic Creation Myth, Nyx (Night) was the daughter of Protogonus (Phanes), the first god, without a mother. Protogonus had male and female sex, so he was able to produce Nyx without a partner. From Phanes, she was the mother of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth). The moment she was born, Nyx had ruled with her father, until he made her the supreme ruler of heaven and earth. Later, she gave the supreme rulership to her son Uranus. Though, Nyx had freely given away power to Uranus, she gave advice to three successive rulers: Uranus, Cronus and Zeus. The Orphic Nyx seemed to have taken over the role of Hesiodic Gaea, because it is Nyx who have prophetic power, not Gaea.

Ἔρεβος Erebus (Darkness)
Erebus was born together with Nyx, Gaea, Tartarus, and Eros ("Love"), out of Chaos. With his sister Nyx, Erebus was father of Aether ("Upper Air") and Hemera ("Day"). See Creation, Theogony of Hesiod. Apart from the part he played in the Creation, as being the father of Aether and Hemera, Erebus was usually just the personification of one region of the Underworld. The Underworld was usually divided into two main areas: Erebus and Tartarus. Erebus and Hades were used interchangeably to denote the Underworld. Tartarus was the deepest of the Underworld, which holds the Titans in prison. While Erebus also divided into several areas, apart from Hades' House. Erebus was divided by five of its underground rivers. Most shades will their last resting place in the Plain of Asphodel, and only a few were given place in the Elysian Fields, though, Elysium was sometimes located not underground, but on the surfaces, usually an island. According to the Orphic myth, Erebus was born with Chaos and Aether. See also House of Hades for a more detailed description of the Underworld.

Τάρταρος Tartarus
Tartarus was born together with Nyx, Erebus, Gaea, and Eros ("Love"), out of Chaos. Tartarus was personification of the darkest and deepest region of the Underworld. This is the region where Uranus had thrown the Hundred-Handed and the Cyclopes. Later this was where Cronus and other Titans, who had opposed Zeus, were imprisoned and guarded by the Hundred-Handed. See Creation, Theogony of Hesiod. By his sister Gaea ("Earth"), they were parents of the monsters – Typhon and possibly Echidna.

Aether
The upper air or sky. Aether was personification of the upper sky. With his sister Hemera (Day), they were offspring of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). Aether was probably the father of Uranus by Gaea. See Creation, Theogony of Hesiod. According to the Orphic Creation Myth, Aether was born at the same time as Chaos and Erebus, from Chronus (Time) and Adrasteia (Necessity). In the Orphic myth, Aether was seen as a female being. Aether together with her father Chronus formed and produced the Cosmic Egg (World Egg). Within the World Egg were Phanes or Protogonus, the first god and supreme ruler, as well as the Creator god.

Hemera
Day, the goddess of day. With her brother Aether ("Upper Air"), they were offspring of Erebus ("Darkness") and Nyx ("Night"). Apart from the story of the creation, no other myths were associated with Hemera.

Ἐρως Eros (Cupid)
God of love. Early Greek myths see Eros as a primordial being. According to Hesiod, from Chaos, Eros was born together with Nyx, Erebus, Gaea, and Tartarus. Eros, Gaea and Tartarus seemed to be self-created. Hesiod doesn't write much about Eros except that he was "the fairest among the deathless gods". Eros was a sexual force that would permit the work of creation to continue. Eros enabled personified abstractions, such as Nyx and Erebus, to produced offspring as well Gaea producing offspring of her own (without a father): Uranus, Ourea and Pontus. (See Creation.) Eros doesn't appear at all in Homer's works. See Creation, Theogony of Hesiod. According to a pre-Homeric myth, Eros was the son of Aether (Upper Air) and Hemera (Day). In the Orphic Theogony, Eros was identical to the golden-winged god Phanes/Protogonus, who was born from the World Egg. According to the Orphic myth, as Phanes (Protogonus), he was the first Creator, where he was not identified with Eros, but also to Dionysus. Both Dionysus and Eros have even the same epithet, Bromios, which means "Thunderer". That Phanes or Eros was born from the Cosmic Egg; this bears a striking resemblance to the comedy, titled the Birds, by Aristophanes, an Athenian comedy playwright of the late 5th century BC. Aristophanes wrote that Night (Nyx) mated with the Storm(?) so that she bore a large silvery egg, when the World Egg hatched, Love was born, bringing with it, light. Here, Eros also appeared as with a golden wing. Eros only appeared, more popularly, as the youngest god, and was youthful and roguish son of Aphrodite and Ares in works of later writers, during the Hellenistic and Roman period. This makes him the brother of Phobus (panic), Deimus (fear) and Harmonia, the wife of Cadmus of Thebes. One poet (Olen) says that Eros was the son of Eileithyia, a goddess of childbirth. The later tradition, Eros appeared as a youth, almost like a cherubic angel except that he carried a bow and arrows. His gold-tipped arrows can make a deity or human fall in love, while his lead-tipped arrows will make them immune to love. Eros was identified by the Romans as Cupid. Cupid was also called Amor. According to the Golden Ass, written by Lucius Apuleius, Cupid (Eros) married Psyche. He became the father of a daughter named Volupta ("Pleasure"). (See Cupid and Psyche in the Roman Deities page.)

Γαἳα Gaea (Earth)
The personification of earth, and the goddess of the earth. Gaea, also known as Gaia or Ge, but to the Romans, she was known as Terra Mater and Tellus. According to Diodorus Siculus, her name was also Titaea. Gaea was born together with Nyx ("Night"), Erebus, Tartarus, and Eros ("Love"), out of Chaos. Without a mate (or probably mated with Aether), she bore Uranus ("Heaven"), Ourea ("Mountains") and Pontus ("Sea"). By her own son Pontus, she bore Nereus and Phorcys; both of them were ancient sea-gods. She married her other son Uranus, who at this time, became the supreme ruler of the universe. She was the mother of the Hundred-handed (Hecatoncheires), the Cyclopes, and the Titans (See Creation). When her husband/son imprisoned her children the Hundred-handed and the Cyclopes under earth, because of their size and hideous looks, Gaea conspired with her son Cronus to remove Uranus from power. Gaea gave a sickle to Cronus where he cut off his own father's genital and threw it into the sea. From this genital, sea foamed formed so that Aphrodite the goddess of love was born. The blood that fell on earth (Gaea), new children were born, known as the Gigantes (Giants), Erinyes, and Meliae. Castrated, Uranus was overthrow by his son, who assumed his mantle as supreme ruler of universe. Cronus and his brothers and sisters (Titans) have high places of authority on heaven and earth (see Titans). Cronus was the one who created the Golden Age of Man. Cronus married his own sister, Rhea (Ops). However his rule could not last. Cronus refused to release his mother's other children from prison, so she foretold that Cronus would fall from power from his own son, as Cronus had deposed his own father. Cronus tried to prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy by swallowing each child Rhea had bore him. Only Zeus, the youngest son, escaped the fates of his siblings. Rhea hid the infant (Zeus) in Crete, while she gave her husband a stone wrapped in swaddling-cloth to devour. With the help of Gaea and the Oceanid Metis, Zeus caused Cronus to disgorge Zeus' siblings, when Cronus was given emetic to drink. War broke out between the Titans and the younger Olympians. A few Titans sided with the Olympians, including Prometheus. Prometheus was reputably the wisest of gods. Prometheus advised Zeus to release the Hundred-Handed and the Cyclopes. With these new allies, Zeus had Cronus and his brothers confined in Tartarus. Zeus assumed the mantle of supreme ruler, but shared the world with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades. Gaea was now unhappy with Zeus and the Olympians for imprisoning most of the male Titans in Tartarus (Underworld). Zeus faced new dangers from Gaea's other children, first the monster Typhon, and later the Gigantes (Giants). Typhon was the son of Tartarus and Gaea. Gaea had foretold that the gods could not defeat the Gigantes, unless it was aided by a mortal hero. Zeus had first defeated Typhon, and centuries later the Gigantes, with the help of the hero Heracles. See Gigantomachy about Gigantes, in the Heracles' page. Another giant son she bore to Poseidon was Antaeüs (Antaeus), who was killed by Heracles, for challenging the hero in a wrestling match. Antaeüs grew stronger whenever he was thrown to the earth, because his strength come his mother. She had the ability to foretell the future. She was the first own the oracle of Delphi, before she gave it to her daughter Themis, a Titaness. She prophesied her son's (Cronus) downfall. She also warned Zeus that his second child Metis would overthrow him. According to the Orphic myth, Gaea and Uranus were not mother and son. Rather they were sister and brother. They were the children of Protogonus (Phanes) and Nyx. Her role in the Orphic Creation was minor. The Orphic Nyx seemed to have taken over the role of Hesiodic Gaea, because it was Nyx who have prophetic power, and gave advice to three successive rulers of the world: Uranus, Cronus and Zeus.		Gaea Statuette, 7th century BC

Οὔρανος Uranus (Sky)
The sky and the god of the sky. Uranus was the son of Gaea and possibly of Aether. Uranus married his mother and became the first supreme ruler of the world. (According to the Orphic myth, Gaea and Uranus were not mother and son. Rather they were sister and brother. They were the children of Protogonus (Phanes) and Nyx.) Uranus was the father by his mother Gaea, of the Hundred-handed, the Cyclopes, and the Titans. When Gaea bore the Hundred-handed (Hecatoncheires) and Cyclopes, their ugliness caused him to imprison his children within the body of the earth (Gaea). Uranus ruled the universe, until Gaea roused her children to rebel against his rule. The youngest of the Titans, Cronus, castrated his father with a sickle and flung his genitals into the sea. From the foam that formed about the sea, Aphrodite was born. The Giants, Erinyes, and Meliae were born from his blood that fell on earth (Gaea). See Creation, Theogony of Hesiod. According to Diodorus Siculus, Uranus was a mortal king who was deified at his death. Uranus was married to Titaea (Gaea) and he was the father of 45 sons, of which 15 of them were known as the Titans. Uranus was the first ruler of the human. His eldest daughter, Basileia (Theia), ruled after him, with her husband Hyperion. See Creation, Cosmogony of Diodorus Siculus.

Πόντος Pontus (Sea)
A personification of the sea. Pontus was born, along with Uranus ("Sky") and Ourea ("Hill") from Gaea. Pontus literally means the "sea". Pontus lay with his mother Gaea and became the father of Nereus and Phorcys, and also Eurybia, Thaumas (father of Iris), and the sea monster Ceto. As a sea-god, his son Nereus was more important than he was. Pontus was also said to have a wife, named Thalassa (Dione), a sea goddess, possibly the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.

Nereus
An ancient sea-god. Nereus was the son of Pontus ("Sea") and Gaea ("Earth"). Nereus was the brother of Phorcys, Eurybia, Thaumas (father of Iris), and the sea monster Ceto. Nereus married the Oceanid, named Doris, who bore fifty sea-nymphs, known as the Nereïds (Nereids). The most important Nereïds were Thetis, Psamathe and Galatea. He has the gift of prophetic power and the ability to change his shape.

Phorcys
An ancient sea-god. Phorcys (Φόρκυς) was the son of Pontus and Gaea. Phorcys may have been an important sea-god before the arrival of Poseidon. By his sister, Ceto (sea-monster), he became the father of the Gorgons, Graeae, and possibly of Echidna and Ladon.

Eurybia

Daughter of Gaea and Pontus. Eurybia married the Titan Crius, and was the mother of Astraeüs (Astraeus), Perses and Pallas. For some reason, Hesiod says that she had heart of flint. Hesiod had also called her bright goddess.