The "Theogony" (Gr: "Theogonia") of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod is a didactic or instructional poem describing the origins of the cosmos and the complicated and interconnected genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, as well as some of the stories around them.
It was composed around 700 BCE, making it (along with "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" of Homer) one of the earliest extant works on Greek mythology.
In the very beginning, Chaos, the nothingness out of which the first objects of existence appeared, arose spontaneously. The parthenogenic children of Chaos were Gaia (the Earth), Eros (Desire or sexual love), Tartarus (the Underworld), Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).
Erebos and Nyx reproduced to make Aither (Brightness) and Hemera (Day), and from Gaia came Ouranos (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea). Ouranos mated with Gaia to create three sets of offspring: the twelve Titans (Oceanos, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Kronos), a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age; the three Kyklopes or Cyclops (Brontes, Steropes and Arges), a race of one-eyed giants; and the three Hecatonchires (Kottos, Briareos and Gyges), hundred-handed giants of even greater power and ferocity than the Titans.
Ouranos was so disgusted with the Hecatonchires that he pushed them back into Gaia's womb, so Gaia begged the Titans to punish their father. Only Kronos, the youngest and most ambitious Titan, was willing to do so, and he castrated his father with Gaia's sickle. Ouranos' blood splattered onto the earth, producing the Erinyes (the vengeful Furies), the Gigantes (Giants) and the Meliai (a race of tree nymphs). Kronos threw Ouranos' severed testicles into the sea, and Aphrodite (the goddess of Love) formed out of the sea-foam which resulted.
Nyx produced many children, including Moros (Doom), Oneiroi (Dreams), Ker and the Keres (Destinies), Eris (Discord), Momos (Blame), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), Thanatos (Death), the Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Retribution), the Hesperides (Daughters of Night), Hypnos (Sleep), Oizys (Hardship) and Apate (Deceit). Eris, in her turn, produced Ponos (Pain), Hysmine (Battles), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Phonoi (Murders), Lethe (Oblivion), Makhai (Fight), Pseudologos (Lies), Amphilogia (Disputes), Limos (Famine), Androktasia (Manslaughters), Ate (Ruin), Dysnomia (Lawlessness), the Algea (Illnesses), Horkos (Oaths) and Logoi (Stories).
After Ouranos's castration, Gaia married Pontus and they went on to produce a line of sea deities, nymphs and monsters, including Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea, also known as Proteus and Phorcys in his other aspects, from whom were descended the Nereids, the fifty nymphs of the sea, the best-known being Thetis), Thaumas (who later married the Oceanid Electra, and bore Iris, or Rainbow, and the two winged spirits, Aello and Ocypetes, known as the Harpies), Eurybia and Cetus (a hideous sea monster).
Cetus and her sibling Phorcys had many children of their own, including the Graiae (the three grey witches with one eye and one tooth shared among them), the three Gorgons (the best known being the snake-haired Medusa, who would later give birth to the winged-horse Pegasus), Echidna (a serpent-bodied monster who in turn produce many other well-known monsters such as the Nemean Lion, the Chimera, the Hydra, the Sphinx and Cerberus) and Ophion.
The Titans married between themselves and had Titan offspring of ther own: Oceanus and Tethys bore the three-thousand Oceanid nymphs (including Electra, Calypso and Styx) as well as all the rivers, fountains and lakes of the world; Theia and Hyperion had Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn); Crius and Eurybia bore Astraios (father, with Eos, of the wind gods, Zephyros, Boreas, Notos and Eurus, as well as all the stars), Pallas (father, with the Oceanid Styx, of Zelos or Zeal, Nike or Victory, Cratos or Strength and Bia or Force), and Perses; Coeus and Phoebe married to produce Leto and Asteria (mother, with her cousin Perses of Hecate, the goddess of wilderness, childbirth, witchcraft and magic); Iapetos married the Oceanid nymph Clymene and had Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus.
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Greek mythology
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