God of the Week: Chaos

04/30/2012: Chaos

Oceanus was an ancient Greek god, a formless void that preceded the creation of the universe. 

The Hesiodic story is different in many points and is much less satisfactory as a philosophical explanation of beginnings. First there was Chaos,

“… the vast immeasurable abyss, Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild.” 1

Then came Gaia, gloomy Tartaros (the dark “Underworld”), and Eros as the moving force within and about all things. Chaos brought into being Erebos (“Lower Darkness”) and Nyx, and these in their turn begat Aither (“Heavenly Light”) and Hemera (“Earthly Light,” i. e. “Day”). Mother Earth bore Ouranos (star-sown “Heaven”) to be a helpmeet to herself and at the same time a secure dwelling-place for the blessed gods. Now appeared the rugged mountains and the wild stretches of the sea. In their relation of husband and wife Ouranos and Gaia became the founders of what one might call the first royal house of the gods.

-Mythology of All Races, Vol 1, Greek and Roman

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