Episode 9: The Greek Cosmogony

The Greek Cosmogony (Transcript)

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In the beginning of the Greek cosmogony there was only Chaos- a primordial deity of the unending void. The origin of chaos is unknown, but from chaos sprung Gaia, Tartarus, Eros, Erebus and Nyx. Gaia, became the mother of all life; an eternal spring to bring the void to life. Tartarus, a deity of pain and suffering personified itself as a deep abyss meant to punish those living creatures that took a wicked path. Eros, a deity of love to bind the creatures of Gaia in harmony. Erubus, the deity of darkness to caste shade over the creations of Gaia. Nyx, the beautiful deity of the night. Together they mixed and mated bringing forth all the primordial universe needed to have a balanced existence. But balance doesn’t often come without sacrifice…

Howdy and welcome to episode 9 of the Plutarch Project Podcast. I’m your Dionysian host Josh Nieubuurt. Today we will be starting a series on ancient Greek mythology. Before we jump into it there’s a few things that need to be made clear about the ancient texts we will be using. First, they are old. Like really-really old. Being old texts there are bound to be many similar texts that may change details, contradict each other, or simply only share resemblances due to the same host of characters. Sometimes this is due to translation and other times it’s due to new authors from different locations and times reciting-perhaps with a bit of artistic license-their own version of the tale.

Theogony of Hesiod

For this episode on the creation of the Greek primordial deities we’ve chosen to use, “The Theogony of Hesiod” as our primary text. It dates back to around 700 B.C.E. aking it the oldest and the most complete text about the Greek (cause-mah-go-knee)Cosmogony in existence. If you check out the transcripts we have a link to an open source copy for you! If you find any discrepancies between our Hesiodic version and other versions you may have come across let us know in the comments or on facebook! We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed putting it together. So grab your best loafers, put on your smoking jacket, light up that sherlock holmes pipe, and enjoy!

Chaos was the Beginning

In Hesiod’s text the start of existence begins with a big of a bang,

[quote] “Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all (4) the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.

From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether (5) and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills.

She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys.

After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.”[unquote] ((ll. 116-138). Now that’s a lot of mingling. So who are all these deities? Let’s take a closer look.

Many versions of the Greek origin story have Chaos as the first deity born into existence. Although Chaos is considered to be the primeval emptiness existing before things came into being, it is also considered to be a place. Some sources consider it to be the gap between the heavens and the earth. Others thought it to be the gap between earth and the underworld. Although it appears to be a whole lot of nothing, it might be counterintuitive to think of it this way. Think of earth, the heavens, and the underworld as islands. Chaos is like an ocean that surrounds them-taking on a form much like water or space. Much like an ocean other deities-or to return to the metaphor islands- are born out of it. The arguably most important being Gaia.

Gaia is quite often personified as earth. She is the source of all life and is pretty much what we would equate to be mother nature in contemporary times. Some theories state that chaos-in its great nothingness-needed something to balance itself out and thus Gaia-in her infinite fertility-brought herself forth from the void. She was so fertile that without any hanky panky she was able to give birth to a wide range of creatures-though not as many as she did with some celestial copulation. We’ll come back to her fertility and her children in a moment. Next up is Tartarus.

No this isn’t a primordial god relating to teeth decay. Tartarus is commonly considered to be a place deep deep underground-a kind of a super SUPER max prison for the very powerful deities, monsters, and titans. In Homer’s the Iliad, written at about the same time as the “Theogony of Hesiod,” Zeus-who you have more than likely heard of-notes that the location of Tartarus [quote] “is as far beneath Hades as heaven is above earth”[unquote]. We will be coming back to this place quite a bit during out time with Greek mythology- Apparently stories of imprisonment were just as popular in ancient times as they are today-maybe in a future episode we can discuss Foucault’s ideas on this. Coming back to Tartarus…If you need to visualize it-imagine it as some ginormous monster laying at the very bottom of the ocean-mouth wide open-waiting for poor souls to fall into it from the marianas trench.

So there we are, those are the original three primordial deities brought into the world according to the ancient Greeks. But hold your horses, there’s a few more worth mentioning. Eros, as Hesiod described him, [quote] “fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them”[unquote] (ll. 116-138). Eros is the god of love and desire. many of you will know Eros to be the son of Aphrodite and Hephaestus. He is portrayed as a child like angel creature with wings, bow and arrow, and a penchant for shooting people, causing them to fall in love. Now this is true in quite a few of the stories. Some folks including Parmenides (c. 400 BC), a pre-socratic philosopher and poet, mentioned Eros a few hundred years after Hesiod- with the distinguishment that they were the first primordial god to come forth from Chaos. Choose whichever option suits you best I guess!

So far we have Chaos-the all encompassing void, Gaia- the mother of all life, Tartarus- the abyss, and Eros- the deity of love. Let’s add a few more before moving on to the really juicy bits of today’s podcast.

Erebus– the god of darkness and shadow and Nyx– the goddess of night. Now these two, although being brother and sister helped to create the foundations for existence as we know it to be. They-in the midst of Chaos- cohabitated multiple times and created Aether- the personification of the air that the gods breathed, Hemera- the goddess of the day, Hypnos- the god of sleep who lived in the underworld in cave surrounded by sleep inducing plants, including the poppy, the Moirai- probably better known as the fates- who determined the length and quality of a humans life, and Thanatos the god of death- who coincidentally lives right next door to Hypnos and his poppy field.

Hesiod writes of Thanatos and Hypnos saying, [quote] “And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the earth and the sea’s broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods.” [unquote] (ll. 758-766). Sounds like a lovely branch of the family tree.

Now all of these aren’t particularly important in today’s podcast but I wanted to use them as an example of how this mythology world was being quickly populated by a whole host of gods and goddesses. Let’s get back to Gaia. Her first child would become her lover and-for a time- the most powerful primordial deity. [quote] “And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods.”[unquote]

Uranus- referenced as heaven in the translation we’re working with today- should not to be confused with the mispronunciation yer-anus- this isn’t that kind of podcast. Uranus came into existence as the god of the heavens. Some sources say that Gaia gave birth to Uranus in her sleep- if there are any mothers out there I’m sure you’re a bit jealous of that one.

Uranus ascended into the mountain tops and showered Gaia with rain- making her go into super fertility mode. Uranus was making it rain in ways contemporary rappers can’t even imagine. From this showering Gaia bore a whole host of other children. Get ready this is quite the list:

[quote]

“And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.

(ll. 139-146) And again, she bare the Cyclopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges (6), who gave Zeus the thunder and made the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the gods, but one eye only was set in the midst of their fore-heads. And they were surnamed Cyclopes (Orb-eyed) because one orbed eye was set in their foreheads. Strength and might and craft were in their works.

(ll. 147-163) And again, three other sons were born of Earth and Heaven, great and doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareos and Gyes, presumptuous children. From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great forms. For of all the children that were born of Earth and Heaven, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first.” [unquote] (116-163)

To put it more succinctly she gave birth to all the world’s plants, beasts, fish, birds, Cyclopes- the one eyed monsters, Hecatoncheires- monsters with one hundred hands also referenced as Briareus, and of course the Titans. We are the titans, the mighty mighty, titans.

Now you would think that Uranus would be one proud papa. Well if you thought that, you are about to be sorely disappointed. Uranus liked doing the dirty- in fact he would come every evening, completely engulfing Gaia, but he had no interest in raising his children. The animals he left alone, but the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires he imprisoned in Tartarus. This imprisonment caused both emotional and physical pain for Gaia, [quote] “And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Earth so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Earth groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons.” [unquote]

The titans saw Uranus’ great power and cowered in fear despite their mother’s pleas for vengeance. Only one decided to stand up to Uranus. Enter Cronos- the god of time. Gaia created a plan to overthrow Uranaus. Keep in mind Uranus is referenced as “Heaven” in the following excerpt:

[quote] “(ll. 164-166) `My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first thought of doing shameful things.’

(ll. 167-169) So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them uttered a word. But great Cronos the wily took courage and answered his dear mother:

(ll. 170-172) `Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I reverence not our father of evil name, for he first thought of doing shameful things.’

(ll. 173-175) So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot.

(ll. 176-206) And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her (7).

Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father’s members and cast them away to fall behind him.

And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bare the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae (8) all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden.

First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes (9) because sprang from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods. This honour she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods, — the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness.”[unquote]

Alright for those that want the shortened version here we go: Uranus comes for his nightly visit to Gaia.[bow-chicka-wow-wow] Cronus grabs the sickle, cuts off Uranus’s baby maker and crown jewels. [Sching!] The blood from this wound falls to earth. From the blood sprung the giants-fully clothed in armor…you can figure out that one for yourself, the furies-evil goddesses of vengeance particularly vengeance upon relatives who kill or injure other family members- these are also found in the Iliad, and the Meliae- or ash tree nymphs. Also, and perhaps most importantly Aphrodite makes her way onto the scene. The blood that fell into the ocean seethed into sea foam which arrived at the shore as a beautiful goddess. So now we have Eros-the god of love and Aphrodite the goddess of love in the primordial pantheon.

It’s unclear what happened to Uranus from this point on. Hesiod continues to reference him as still being there but various sources dissent from Hesiod’s approach. Some sources say nothing, others say he fled to some distant part of chaos, and some infer that he died. hat is clear is that he prophesied vengeance upon Cronos. The text reads,[quote] “But these sons whom be begot himself great Heaven used to call Titans in reproach, for he said that they strained and did presumptuously a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come afterwards.”[unquote]

It was Uranus-now without with procreating member- who called his children “Titanes Theoi” or “straining gods” and said that they too would be overthrown by their children one day. Cronos took this warning seriously.

A bit of a side note here-quite a few of these primordial deities ended up having various cults surrounding them up to and even into the Hellenistic age-including chronos who was considered a patron of the harvest-farming is all about timing, right? Uranus though… was not so lucky. He was deemed a God before “real” time began… making him more of a demo version of a God than a real god. Poor guy.

Cronos,married his sister Rhea-who served a similar function to their mother Gaia. Now Chronos knew about his supposed fate and tried to sidestep. Not by locking up his children in Tartarus but rather by eating them. Oh and he also re-imprisoned the hundred handed monsters and the cyclopes back into Tartarus. So much for the evil of Uranus.

He, much like his father-and his future son, were incredibly lusty beings. Hesiod goes on for ages discussing all the children these beings had. Perhaps these are the cats Ghengis Khan modeled his activity around. If you didn’t know genetic scientists believe .5% percent or about 35 million people worldwide can trace their being in existence to Ghengis Khan’s reign of terror in Asia. Back to Cronos. Hesiod mentions a few of the children his lover Rhea bore him stating, [quote]

“But Rhea was subject in love to Cronos and bare splendid children, Hestia (18), Demeter, and gold-shod Hera and strong Hades, pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, and wise Zeus, father of gods and men, by whose thunder the wide earth is shaken.”[unquote] ll. 453-491)

Cronos was worried that his rule would be overthrown. So when his lover would become pregnant and give birth he would ask for the babies and swallow them whole. Now there is a bit of ambiguity here in regards to the sex of the children he ate. Hesiod claims Cronos ate them all. Other sources say he only the boys and left the girls be. Regardless, is anyone else wondering how big is this dudes mouth is? Hesiod writes, [quote]

“These great Cronos swallowed as each came forth from the womb to his mother’s knees with this intent, that no other of the proud sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst the deathless gods. For he learned from Earth and starry Heaven that he was destined to be overcome by his own son, strong though he was, through the contriving of great Zeus (19). Therefore he kept no blind outlook, but watched and swallowed down his children: and unceasing grief seized Rhea.”

Much like Gaia before Rhea is perturbed at how her offspring are being treated. And contrives a plan to save them. Hmmm, it’s kind of like Hesiod is inferring that history repeats itself… Rhea decides it’s time to save a child. She visits mom, Gaia and Dad, good old munich Cronos, and they hatch a plan to save a baby and fulfill the prophecy. Hesiod writes, [quote]

“But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father of gods and men, then she besought her own dear parents, Earth and starry Heaven, to devise some plan with her that the birth of her dear child might be concealed, and that retribution might overtake great, crafty Cronos for his own father and also for the children whom he had swallowed down. And they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter, and told her all that was destined to happen touching Cronos the king and his stout-hearted son. So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land of Crete, when she was ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her children.

Him did vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete to nourish and to bring up. Thither came Earth carrying him swiftly through the black night to Lyctus first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a remote cave beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded Mount Aegeum; but to the mightily ruling son of Heaven, the earlier king of the gods, she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then he took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly: wretch! he knew not in his heart that in place of the stone his son was left behind, unconquered and untroubled, and that he was soon to overcome him by force and might and drive him from his honours, himself to reign over the deathless gods.” [unquote].

Noone has ever claimed that the kings of the gods were particularly keen. Brave, you betcha. Strong, without a doubt. But each generation of deity kings seems to skip the intelligence gene that is passed on to some of their children-particularly the ladies. So let’s recap here. Rhea has been having all kinds of babies for Cronos. But he is scared that one of them will overthrow him and take his place as king. So he eats them. Rhea grows tired of this and decides it’s time to save one of her children. She asks mom and dad for help. Mother Gaia helps to speed away little baby Zues and Rhea flings a rock into the stomach of her lover Cronos. And Cronos has no idea what just went down. This little baby god would grow to be the most powerful of the Olympian Gods. He was stashed away on Crete- an island that would later host a cult for his mother Rhea in the real world. Eventually Zues becomes strong enough to take on his father- Chronos. The text reads, [quote]

“After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great Cronos the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth, and brought up again his offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he vomited up first the stone which he had swallowed last. And Zeus set it fast in the wide-pathed earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of Parnassus, to be a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men (20).”[Unquote]

Some of the stories tell of Chronos being poisoned, or given some type of drink to have him vomit up his-now fully grown-children. Other’s say that Zues returned and made Chronos aware of his existence and asked to be his cupbearer-and then poisoning him with some concoction from a Titanese. What is clear from the Hesiodic text is that the Olympian gods were set free and a battle raged for ten years. Eventually Rhea or Gaia hinted that the cyclopes and the Briareus would be exceptionally powerful allies. [quote]

“And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father, sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightning: for before that, huge Earth had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals.” [unquote] In return they gave Zues the iconic thunderbolts we know now him for. Zues, along with the rest of the pirmary Olympian gods, were able to put down Chronos and his host of fightin’ titans. They were cast into Tartarus. Although Atlas, the Titan who had led the titans against Zues was punished in a rather unique way. [quote]

“And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him.”[unquote] Quite often we see Atlas as the titan holding up the earth.This is incorrect and may be the result of people misunderstanding the artwork portraying Atlas holding the celestial sphere-confounding it with a globe of the earth. In the Hesiodic tale he stands at the outermost edge of Gaia and has to hold up the heavens- Which might be the better deal- I mean how heavy is air and space? Many titans and other creatures were clever enough not to find their way into the conflict between Zeus and the Titans. we will be talking about some of them on the next podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode and keep listening until the end to get the details on our giveaway this month! Until next time… Onward!

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additional sources:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.htm

https://www.greekmythology.com

https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com