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In the Begining
• In the beginning there was Chaos
• Then Gaea was born ‘Earth’
– Earth according to the poet Hesiod was a flat
disc surrounded by the river Oceanus
• Then Eros was born (primeval being ‘fairest
among the deathless gods’)
Gaea, mother of all
• Gaea bore Uranus ‘the starry heaven’ who
becomes her spouse.
– Then Erebus ‘black night’
• Children: Doom, Black Fate, Death, Sleep, Woe,
Destiny, Fate, Nemesis, Deceit, Age, Strife, and
Friendship
– Then Aether ‘the atmosphere’
– Then the 12 Titans, six male and six female
Other children
• The Cyclops, giants with one eye
• 3 monsters with fifty heads each and
numerous arms
• All sent to Tartarus (Hell)
• Oceanus had 50 daughters
– One named Thetis, mother of Achilles
The Titans
The 12 Titans gods, also known as the elder gods, ruled the
Earth before the Olympians. Uranus hates and fears them.
Gaea hid them until Cronus, son of Uranus and Gaia, castrated
Uranus with a sickle and became the ruler of the Titans.
Cronus and his wife Rhea (sister Titan) gave birth to a new
generation of gods, but in fear Cronus swallows them all one by
one.
Rhea asks Gaea and Uranus
for help. Rhea feels pity
for her sixth child, Zeus.