The Greek Gods

17 pages

The first beings

Before the Titans and the Olympians there were the primordial powers: Chaos, Earth, Night and what they bore.

Nyx, Night Goddess, Gustave Moreau, 1880
Nyx, Night Goddess, Gustave Moreau, 1880. Source.

In Hesiod's Theogony, the first thing to exist is Chaos, a gap or opening. After it come Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (the deep pit) and Eros (desire). Chaos alone produces Erebus (darkness) and Nyx (night). Night and Darkness then have two children, Aether, the bright upper air, and Hemera, Day.

Gaia, without a partner, bears Uranus (the sky), the Ourea (the mountains) and Pontus (the sea). She then takes Uranus as her partner, and their children are the Titans. The family tree on this site starts from this account.

A second tradition, in the poems attributed to Orpheus, begins differently, with Phanes emerging from a world-egg, or with Chronos (Time) and Ananke (Necessity). Late writers add figures such as Aion (eternity) and Achlys (mist). They are listed separately, with their sources, because they are not in Hesiod.

In Hesiod: from Chaos and Earth

ChaosThe first thing to exist: the gap before the worldIn Hesiod's Theogony, Chaos is the first thing that comes to be, and every other god descends from what follows.GaiaEarth, and the mother of the first generationsGaia is the Earth, born after Chaos, and the mother of the sky, the mountains, the sea and the Titans.TartarusThe deepest pit under the earthTartarus is both a place and a god: the deepest region of the underworld, and an early primordial being.ErosDesire, the force that joins things togetherIn Hesiod, Eros is one of the first beings, the power of desire. Later poets make him Aphrodite's winged son.ErebusDarkness, and the dark region under the earthErebus is Darkness, the brother and partner of Nyx, and the father of Aether and Hemera.NyxNightNyx is Night. She is born from Chaos, and her children include sleep, death and the Fates.AetherThe bright upper airAether is the pure upper air that the gods breathe, born from Erebus and Nyx.HemeraDayHemera is Day, a child of Erebus and Nyx and the sister of Aether.UranusThe skyUranus, the sky, is Gaia's first child and her partner, and the father of the Titans.OureaThe mountains, as divine beingsThe Ourea are the mountains, born from Gaia without a father, and the first of her children after the sky.PontusThe deep seaPontus is the open sea, born from Gaia alone, and the father of a line of sea creatures and sea gods.

In other traditions

Orphic, Hellenistic and later figures, with thinner evidence.

PhanesLight and creation, in Orphic mythPhanes is the first-born god of the Orphic poems, who emerges from a cosmic egg and makes the world.AnankeNecessityAnanke is Necessity, the force that nothing, not even the gods, can overrule.ChronosTime, in Orphic mythChronos is Time personified. He is easily mistaken for Cronus, the Titan, but they are separate figures.AionEternity, unending timeAion is the god of unbounded time, from a late age when the Greeks wanted a name for eternity.AchlysMist, misery and the darkness of deathAchlys is the mist over the eyes of the dying, and in some accounts a primordial goddess older than Chaos.ThalassaThe sea, as a personified goddessThalassa is the sea as a goddess. She is a later and thinner figure than Pontus.