Greek creation myth

One of the most repeated concepts in all mythologies and beliefs is the origin of the world or creation mythSince, since its origin, human beings have always looked for a reason for the emergence of everything we know. To know the history of one of the most important beliefs in the history of humanity, in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about the greek creation myth.

Index

1. What was Greek mythology?
2. The Greek myth of creation: the destruction of chaos
3. Gaia and Uranus: the Greek creation myth

Before talking about the Greek creation myth, let's get to know what Greek mythology was. Is the set of Myths and legends that make up the culture of the Ancient Greece, this being one of the most interesting and important civilizations in the history of mankind, being the basis of many of the characteristic elements of current Western culture, and therefore being key to the history of Europe.

The set of gods, myths, legends and heroes that make up Greek mythology makes it one of the most interesting in the history of mankind, being also very important for the great later beliefs that were based on its characteristics, the best example being the Roman.

Most Outstanding Greek Mythology Features

To better understand Greek creation and therefore the myths, we must briefly talk about its most characteristic elements. The most important characteristics of the Greek beliefs were the following:

• They were polytheists, that is, they had a huge number of different deities.
• Mythology consists of numerous myths where the gods and other heroes have numerous adventures.
• Try to explain the world through myths.
• The natural events they are caused by the gods, which is why sacrifices to the gods were common.
• The gods have hierarchy, not having the same relevance or power all of them.
• They talk about parallel worlds ours like the Underworld or Olympus.

Once we have talked about the main characteristics of the Greek world, we must talk about the Greek creation myth, thanks to which we will know what the Greeks considered to be the origin of the world. To understand all this in this lesson on the creation myth we will talk about the most widespread story and therefore the one that is considered as the official one.

The official creation story is the one that tells Hesiod, being a Greek poet known as the first poet of Ancient Greece. According to the poet, at the origin of everything there was only Chaos, being the primal force of the universe but not possessing a physical form as if they would have later mythological forces.

Behind the void, other primal powers appeared that began to make sense of the world, thinking that all of them They could be children of Chaos, these were Gaea who was the earth, Tartarus who was the underworld and Eros who was love or wish. It is the combination of these three primordial gods what gives rise to everything, being the beginning of the world and the disappearance of a Chaos that is said to have occupied a place under the earth from that moment on.

It was underground that Chaos had two children, Erebus who represented the darkness and that later would be the cause of the Underworld, and Nyx who was the night, the two sons forming what we know as the darkness that the Greeks feared so much. Erebus and Nyx were so similar that they fell in love and had offspring, from them Ether, which was the representation of the purest material and Hemera that represented the day.

The two sons formed the light of heaven and earth, causing them to be the opposite of her parents.

With the arrival of the day, Gaea could begin to form with the earth, but she was alone and for that reason somehow gave life to Uranus, being at the same time her son and his husband, representing the starry sky that was able to totally cover the earth that Gaea of her represented.

Of the relationship between Gaea and Uranus all the elements that populated the world, the mountains, the forests that were occupied by the Nymphs, the fauna and the vegetation. After that they filled the world with rivers and seas, the Titans being born from the excess water, being their most powerful children and from whom men and gods will descend. But the Titans were not the only children born to the couple, as later and to show that they were the most powerful made the Cyclops to be born, being powerful creatures that made fear of gods and mortals.

It was around this time that Chaos ceased to be underground and it occupied a place between the earth and the sky, being a kind of separation between Gaia and Uranus and ceasing to appear in Greek myths forever.

At one point, the power of Uranus was so great that he was afraid of his children, locking them in Tartarus. Gaea, angry with her husband for her treatment of her infants, gave her children a powerful sickle, causing them to Chronos, the most powerful son, will cut off Uranus's testicles, throwing them into the sea and taking his place as world leader.

The fear that his children would do the same to him caused Cronos to eat all of his descendants, but her wife Rea, like Gaia, sought revenge on her husband and saved her son Zeus. Years later, Zeus defeated his father, saving all his brothers, and began to rule over all Greece, all this being the origin of Greece.

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Adrados, F. R. (1986). Hesiod's sources and the composition of his poems. Emerita, 54, 1.

O'bryhim, S. (1996). A New Interpretation of Hesiod, 'Theogony'35. Hermes, 124 (H. 2), 131-139.

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