ORIGIN OF THE WORLD

                                                Uranus and Gæa

The ancient Greeks had several different theories with regard to the origin of the world.

It is believed that in the beginning, came the two first great deities of the Greeks, Uranus and Gæa.  

Uranus represented the light and air of heaven,  possessing the qualities of light ,heat, purity, and omnipresence, while Gæa, the firm,life-sustaining earth, was worshipped as the great all-nourishing mother.

The first-born child of Uranus and Gæa was Oceanus, the ocean stream. The  ocean is formed from the rains which descend from heaven and the streams which flow from earth. 

However, Uranus, the heaven, the embodiment of light and heat produced offspring who were not as powerful as his son Oceanus. These other children of his were supposed to occupy the space which divided him from Gæa. Nearest to Uranus, and just beneath him, came Aether (Ether), representing the atmosphere which immortals alone could breathe. Then followed Aër (Air), which was near to Gæa,and represented,as its name implies,the atmosphere surrounding the earth which mortals could freely breathe, and without which they would die. Aether and Aër were separated from each other by divinities called Nephelae. These were their  wandering sisters, who existed in the form of clouds, floating between Aether  and Aër.  Gæa also produced the mountains, and Pontus (the sea). 

In addition to those children of heaven and earth, Uranus and Gæa produced two different races of beings called Giants and Titans. The Giants personified brute strength alone, but the Titans united to their great physical power and intellectual thinking. There were three Giants, Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges, who each possessed a hundred hands and fifty heads, and were known collectively by the name of the Hecatoncheires, which signified hundred-handed. These mighty Giants could shake the universe and produce earthquakes. While the Titans were twelve in number; their names were: Oceanus,Ceos, Crios, Hyperion, Iapetus, Kronus, Theia, Rhea, Themis,  Mnemosyne, Phœbe, and Tethys. 

Now Uranus feared that the Giants' great power might eventually prove hurtful to himself. He therefore threw them into Tartarus, that portion of the lower world which served as the dungeon of the gods. In order to avenge the oppression of her children, the Giants, Gæa instigated a conspiracy on the part of the Titans against Uranus, which was carried to a successful issue by her son Kronus. Kronus succeeded in dethroning his father,who,enraged at his defeat,cursed his rebellious son,and foretold to him a similar fate.