In the very beginning, Chaos arose spontaneously. The parthenogenic children of Chaos were Gaia (the Earth), Eros (Desire or sexual love), Tartarus (the Underworld), Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).
Erebos and Nyx reproduced to make Aither (Brightness) and Hemera (Day), and from Gaia came Ouranos (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea). Ouranos mated with Gaia to create three sets of offspring: the twelve Titans (Oceanos, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Kronos), a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age; the three Kyklopes or Cyclops (Brontes, Steropes and Arges), a race of one-eyed giants; and the three Hecatonchires (Kottos, Briareos and Gyges), hundred-handed giants of even greater power and ferocity than the Titans.
Ouranos was so disgusted with the Hecatonchires that he pushed them back into Gaia's womb, so Gaia begged the Titans to punish their father. Only Kronos, the youngest and most ambitious Titan, was willing to do so, and he castrated his father with Gaia’s sickle. Ouranos’ blood splattered onto the earth, producing the Erinyes, the Gigants and the Meliai (a race of tree nymphs). Kronos threw Ouranos’ severed testicles into the sea, and Aphrodite (the goddess of Love) formed out of the sea-foam which resulted.
Nyx produced many children, including Moros (Doom), Oneiroi (Dreams), Ker and the Keres (Destinies), Eris (Discord), Momos (Blame), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), Thanatos (Death), the Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Retribution), the Hesperides (Daughters of Night), Hypnos (Sleep), Oizys (Hardship) and Apate (Deceit). Eris, in her turn, produced Ponos (Pain), Hysmine (Battles), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Phonoi (Murders), Lethe (Oblivion), Makhai (Fight), Pseudologos (Lies), Amphilogia (Disputes), Limos (Famine), Androktasia (Manslaughters), Ate (Ruin), Dysnomia (Lawlessness), the Algea (Illnesses), Horkos (Oaths) and Logoi (Stories).
After Ouranos's castration, Gaia married Pontus and they went on to produce a line of sea deities, nymphs and monsters, including Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea, also known as Proteus and Phorcys in his other aspects, from whom were descended the Nereids, the fifty nymphs of the sea, the best-known being Thetis), Thaumas (who later married the Oceanid Electra, and bore Iris, or Rainbow, and the two winged spirits, Aello and Ocypetes, known as the Harpies), Eurybia and Cetus (a hideous sea monster).
The Titans married between themselves and had Titan offspring of their own: Oceanus and Tethys bore the three-thousand Oceanid nymphs (including Electra, Calypso and Styx) as well as all the rivers, fountains and lakes of the world; Theia and Hyperion had Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn); Crius and Eurybia bore Astraios (father, with Eos, of the wind gods, Zephyros, Boreas, Notos and Eurus, as well as all the stars), Pallas (father, with the Oceanid Styx, of Zelos or Zeal, Nike or Victory, Cratos or Strength and Bia or Force), and Perses; Coeus and Phoebe married to produce Leto and Asteria (mother, with her cousin Perses of Hecate, the goddess of wilderness, childbirth, witchcraft and magic); Iapetos married the Oceanid nymph Clymene and had Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus.
http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_hesiod_theogony.html
- Start your vocabulary list of this Lesson! It means that you have to write in your notebook all the words you don't know the meaning and look them up in a dicctionary. Then you have to translate them into Catalan.
- Make a list of:
- Gea and Ourano's children
- Is there any relation between the primeval gods or "protogenoi" and the basic components of the univers?
- Why Ouranos was castrated? Who was born from this action?
- How many Titans were there? Write their names.
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