Uranus and Gaia

Author: Hesiod

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE

Country or Culture: Greek

Genre: Myth

Overview

The Theogony, a thousand-line poem composed in the epic dialect of Homeric Greek, is considered the earliest surviving account of the origins of the gods of the Greek world. The poem begins with the myth of Uranus and Gaia, which provides a foundation for the subsequent myths. Composed around 700 BCE, the Theogony is believed to be the Greek oral poet Hesiod’s earliest surviving work. A poet of the Greek oral tradition, Hesiod is considered by some scholars to have been a contemporary of Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

And now on came great Ouranos [Uranus], bringing Night with him. / And, longing for love, he settled himself all over Earth. / From his dark hiding-place, the son reached out / With his left hand, while with his right he swung / The fiendishly long and jagged sickle, pruning the genitals / Of his own father with one swoop and tossing them / Behind him, where they fell to no small effect.

Theogony

The word “theogony” (from the Greek theogonía) literally means “birth of the gods,” and as such, the work concerns itself with the origins of the gods and the universe. Since the mythological gods are synonymous with the universe, the work is as much a cosmogony (story of the creation of the world) as it is a theogony. Gaia is not only a divine entity but also the earth, the “ever-firm foundation of all” (Hesiod line 118). Likewise, Uranus is not only the father god but also the sky and heavens, “a firm foundation for the blessed gods” (128). Uranus and Gaia form the first union in the world, producing the twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes, and the three Hecatoncheires, but Uranus’s hatred of his children causes strife. After presenting the myth of Uranus and Gaia, the Theogony goes on to describe the history of their children and grandchildren, the latter of whom make up the Greek pantheon.

As a synthesis of the birth of the universe and the birth of the gods, the Theogony is reflective of the ancient Greeks’ universalizing impulse and seeks to answer fundamental questions about the origins of the world and the gods. By striving to answer these questions, the Theogony establishes ordering principles for the way the world works and provides a model for understanding ancient Greek social structure. Although the Theogony provides such models of understanding, the universe as mythologized by Hesiod is by no means an orderly one. Unlike the single all-powerful and benevolent god depicted in the Judeo-Christian creation story, these gods are the universe and commit such treacherous acts as murder and rape.

The names of the deities mentioned in the Theogony vary depending on the translation. In the original ancient Greek, Uranus is recorded as Ouranos. Translators who decide that names should not be translated maintain the original name; variant spellings include Uranos and Uranas. Other translators argue that because Ouranos means “sky” or “heavens” (the complete etymology is obscure and still debated) in ancient Greek, the name should be translated in order to convey this meaning. Thus, in texts translated in this fashion, the god typically appears by the name Heaven, Sky, or Sky-Father. The same is true for all of the gods of the Theogony, whose names refer to the spaces they occupy in the universe. Thus, Gaia is referred to as Earth or Earth Mother in some texts.

Summary

“In the beginning,” Hesiod writes in the Theogony, “there [is] only Chaos, the Abyss” (116). Then comes Gaia (the earth), Tartarus (the underworld), and Eros (love). From Chaos also comes Erebus (the darkness between the earth and Tartarus) and Nyx (night), who in turn conceive Aether (light, or the upper air) and Hemera (day). Gaia gives birth to Uranus (the sky or heavens), who wraps all around her and becomes a place in which the gods could dwell. Gaia also bears Ourea, mountains that become the homeland of the nymphs, before bearing Pontus (the sea).

Gaia and Uranus produce the twelve Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, and Cronus. Gaia then bears the mighty and crafty Cyclopes Brontes, Steropes, and Arges, who are like gods but have only one eye in the center of their foreheads. Three more sons, Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes, are also born to Gaia and Uranus. These children, known as the Hecatoncheires, or “hundred-handers,” are presumptuous and dangerous, each born with one hundred arms branching out of his shoulders as well as fifty heads. They are the most terrible of Gaia and Uranus’s children, and their father immediately hates them.

Disgusted with his children, Uranus hides them all in a secret place in Gaia. Eventually, Gaia can no longer withstand this pain and the insult to her and her children. Angered, she devises a plan to prevent Uranus from doing this again. She creates a sickle from flint and asks her sons to assist her in punishing their father. All of them but Cronus respond with fear and hesitation. The youngest and cleverest of the Titans, Cronus agrees that his father should be punished and volunteers to execute his mother’s plan.

Equipped with the sickle, Cronus hides and waits for his father. When Uranus next approaches, Cronus springs out of his hiding spot and cuts off his father’s genitals, letting them fall into the ocean. The blood from the castrated testicles that falls to earth produces terrifying female spirits called the Furies (or Erinyes), armored giants, and nymphs called Meliae. The testicles land in the sea near the island of Cyprus, creating a white foam out of which is born Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love.

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