3.6.4: Birth of the Gods

After the hymn to the Muses, Hesiod describes the birth of the first generation of gods. He invokes the Muses to gift him the ability to sweetly tell

. . . how at the first gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods who were born of them, givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth, and how they shared their honours amongst them, and also how at the first they took many-folded Olympus (II. 109-13).

They narrate the transition of the void of Chaos into night and day, allowing for the birth of Earth (Gaia/Gaea) [JEE-ah] who springs to life spontaneously. The original “Mother” of all, Earth is the personification of the terrestrial planet and the creative energy that brings about life. Simultaneously, Eros [AIR-ohs] (Love/Desire),Tartarus [TAHR-tahr-uhs] (Underworld) are brought into existence. Without a partner, Earth births Heaven (Ouranos/Uranus) [OOR-a-noos], who is the personification of the “starry” sky, and whom she creates “equal to herself, to cover her on every side.”

Erebus (Darkness) [AIR-uh-bus], and Nyx (Night) are born from the abyss of Chaos. From Nyx would come Doom, Dreams, Discord, Blame, and Sleep.

Hesiod speaks of how Nyx also gave birth to the Destinies and the merciless Fates,

Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty (II. 119-22).

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): The Fates were said to be the daughters of either Nyx(the Night) or of Zeus and Themis (Law and Justice). There were three Fates: Clotho (the Spinner), Lachesis (the Measurer/Apportioner), and Atropos (the Unbending/Inflexible one) (Miate). (Image by Johann Gottfried Schadow, Public Domain, Wikimedia)

However, from the "marriage" of Earth and Sky comes the "crooked-scheming Kronos," the enemy of his father. In what may have been a reflection of the socio-political struggles of the time, each of the sons of Earth and Heaven–who would become known as the Titans–are hated by their jealous father from the moment of their birth. After each child is born, Ouranos hides the babe deep inside Earth, the cave of her womb, away from the light. However, their grief-stricken mother conceives of a plan to repay his wicked crime. Enticing him to a night of love, Earth distracts Ouranos, allowing a hiding Kronos to castrate his father with a long-bladed sickle, given to him by his mother. In doing so he permanently separates Heaven from Earth.

As in the Egyptian creation story, the violent separation is necessary to spark new life. Just as certain plants only reproduce under the pressure of a forest fire, so too does the pressured separation of primordial elements make space for new gods. In Egyptian mythology, the first humans needed a place to live, so the primary gods, Shu and Tefnut gave birth to Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). The brother and sister fell in love and became inseparable. But their grandfather, Atum-Ra found their conduct unacceptable and pushed Nut (sky) away from Geb, allowing the two lovers to see each other, yet unable to ever touch. Nut’s body was pushed up and over Geb, in an arc with her feet and arms reaching protectively over her brother-spouse. Though tragic, the separation creates an environment for their children, Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus, the five primary Egyptian gods, who would go on to birth a new generation of gods. Similarly, Maori mythology (New Zealand) tells of the separation of Rangi, the Sky Father, from Papa, the Earth Mother, by their god children who “longed for freedom, for wind blowing over sharp hill tops and deep valleys, and light to warm their pale bodies.” Their child, Tane-mahuta, stands atop his mother and hefts the bulk of his Sky Father up into the heavens until the pair are forced to part, inviting day and night to exist. Like Hesiod’s version, the Sky Father is thrust deep into the recesses of space, trailed by angry screaming winds that echo his impotence. Papa’s tears, an expression of the melancholic longing for Sky Father, became the rivers and waters of the earth. Yet the myth specifies that while Tane’s act of separation was forceble, it did not reflect aggression. He loved both his parents, and set about clothing his mother in the beauty of trees, wrapping her “in a cloak of green” (Reed 10).

Similarly, in the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish, the sons of Apsu (the manifestation of fresh water) and Tiamat (the manifestation of salt water or the sea) connive to not only separate the combined power of their parents, but to steal their father’s crown and mantle of radiance, before slaying him. Their mother suffers a form of sacrifice, or sparagmos [spah-RAG-mohs] the ritualistic rending of a sacrificial victim, like Orpheus. Rather than being destroyed, like Apsu, Tiamat is torn in two, and her body becomes heaven and the earth.

As in each of these creation myths, the Theogony makes the argument that the permanent separation of the earth and heaven is essential for the birth of new gods and the establishment of terrestrial life.

Another parallel theme is the defeat of fathers, as Kronos outmaneuvers Ouranos and in doing so, establishes his right to rule. On one level, we see the foreshadow of Zeus’ triumph over Kronos. On another level, the defeat, mutilation and replacement of Ouranos works to retire him from an active role in Greek mythology, sending him far off into the heavens as the representation of dark night sky, a fate parallel to the Maori Sky Father. We only hear of him when Rhea consults her parents for help in the cosmic war to come, but otherwise he remains a remote, emasculated and ineffectual being, perhaps emblematic of gods retired from use when ancient people found a more powerful god to worship (Harris and Platzner 80-81).

The castration of Ouranos, emblematic of sexual violence, Oedipal fulfillment, symbolic patricide and regicide, and necessary separation, results in the incongruous creation of offspring both dreadful and glorious. The dripping blood from the wound gives birth to both the Furies–manifestations of the violence enacted by Kronos and the wound he has suffered–and the Giants, agents who will ultimately serve Zeus in the later war. The severed genitals are thrown into the sea from which Aphrodite, the embodiment of sensual love, is born. Hesiod’s description of her unusual birth–out of the death of Ouranos’ phallus–focus on her province as “patron to masculine sexual pleasure;” however, her anthropological origins stem from two earlier goddesses: the Sumerian Inanna and the Babylonian Ishtar, both of whom also bear deathly aspects. As deities of both fertility and war, they represent sexual attraction and brutal violence, embodying potent forces (Harris and Platzner 76-77). To temper such female power, grafting a new goddess as the beautiful benefactor of male sexual desire further ensures the supremacy of Zeus’ rule.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): The Birth of Aphrodite. (Mark Cartwright, CC BY-NC-SA, via World History Encyclopedia)

Aside from the rise of Zeus and the battle with the Titans, much of the poem is spent on the delineation of the major and minor deities, their various duties and perviews, each with some link to Zeus to further bolster his central importance. Some of the gods will appear in subsequent myths, but others are relegated to background personages for reasons we can only speculate about. The most common theory is loss of records, but with a largely oral tradition, it’s more likely that the gods became less important as trade and conquest introduced new, more potent gods from other cultures.

Marriages and births, however, occupy a fair amount of the poem, as they forecast new generations of interesting divine and semi-divine personalities. Hesiod also tells of the marriage of Thaumas, the old sea god, and Electra, who gave birth to the Harpies, foul-smelling and eternally hungry, half-human and half-bird and symbols of female anger or vengeance. Hesiod then speaks of the Gorgons and Medusa, who was cursed by Athene for being raped by Poseidon in the goddess’s temple.

. . . who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One [Poseidon] (11. 280-83).

According to her fate, Medusa who is mortal–unlike her gorgon sisters–would die at the hands of Perseus (a mortal son of Zeus, and another reminder of the poem’s goal to praise Zeus). Yet, as cursed as her life is, her decapitation, akin to Kronos’ mutilation, gives life to two miraculous beings: the winged horse, Pegasus, and Chrysaor who is often referred to as the horse’s “brother,”

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Chrysaor is depicted as human on the pediment of the Temple of Artemis at Corfu. His missing arm may have held a golden sword. (By Dr. K., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia)

. . . there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs (pegae) of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade (aor) in his hands (II. 284-88).

Continuing the theme of monster children, the poem turns to the children born to Typhaon the Terrible and Echidna–daughter of Chrysaor, and granddaughter of Medusa–who are hounds of hell, well suited to guard the entry of Hades.

. . . first she bare Orthus the hound of Geryones, [and] . . . Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong (II. 310-15).

Still in the creative phase, the Titans Ocean and Tethys [teh-THEEZ] give birth to the rivers of the Earth, including “Styx who is the chiefest of them all.” Styx’ value is many-layered, for she joins with Pallas to “bare Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nikê (Victory) . . . Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children.” Beyond her prodigy, she parlays her worth by siding with the Zeus and the Olympians against the first-generation gods, and in doing so earns the honor of the “great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him always.” From that point, an oath on the river Styx was considered the most sacred, the most unbreakable (II. 370, 383-403).

Hesiod then speaks of the Hydra, Chimera, and the Nemean lion that would be defeated by the hero Hercules, the mightiest son of Zeus. Yet, with each monster’s birth, another positive entity is born to provide cosmic balance. Including Hekate (Hecate) [HEH-kha-tee] daughter of Phoebe and granddaughter of the Titans, who is,

. . . honoured above all. . . . [With] splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in starry heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods (II. 413-17).