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Greek Mythology: The Beginning
beginning in greek mythology In the beginning there was Chaos and Gaia (the Earth) sprang from it.  She then had Ouranos (the Sky), Pontus (the Sea) and Tartaros (the Underworld) by herself, without a mate.  Gaia had several sea divinities by Pontus and some by Tartaros, but she took Ouranos as her husband due to the fact that he could embrace her fully (the ancient Greeks imagined the earth as a flat disk and the sky as a dome that was decorated with stars and sat on top of the earth).  Subsequently, Ouranos ruled the universe and, of course he and Gaia had offspring: the Titans, the Cyclopes and the Ekatonheires.  
To continue his rule, Ouranos locked the Cyclopes and the Ekatonheires in the depths of the Earth, causing Gaia immense pain.  In order to avenge him, Gaia ordered her six Titan sons (there were also six Titan daughters) to overthrow their father as king of the world and free their other brothers. As a result, one night when Ouranos lay in bed ready to sleep, four of the six Titans held him down on the four corners of the world while a fifth Titan (Kronos) castrated him.  The blood from his castration spilled onto the earth, producing the Erinyes (which were spirits that haunted those who felt guilt) and the Gigantes.  Some myths say that the goddess Aphrodite also sprung from the foam of the sea (aphros) after drops of his blood were spilled into the sea near Cyprus. Kronos was now in control of the universe  and although he initially freed his other six brothers (the Cyclopes and Ekatonheires), he ended up imprisoning them again in the Tartara to eliminate competition.  

He then made one of his Titan sisters (Rea) his wife. As Gaia was also an oracle, she foretold that a son of Kronos would overthrow him, taking over the kosmos once more.  In fear of this, Kronos swallowed all of his children with Rea, as soon as they were born.  Rea, who like Gaia didn't like this situation, decided to save her sixth child when he was born.  Therefore, instead of the child, she handed Kronos a large rock wrapped in cloth to swallow.  The child that was saved, Dias (or Zeus), was given to the nymphs and raised in secret in a cave in Crete.  When he became of age, Metis (a daughter of Okeanos) helped Dias by creating a concoction of herbs that were given to Kronos in order to force him to throw up, first the rock that he had swallowed instead of Dias, and then the rest of his children, the siblings of Dias.

The five siblings are:  Poseidon, Hades, Hera (who became Dias' wife), Estia, Dimitra.  All of them later ruled the kosmos on Mount Olympus with Dias as the King of the gods, but his happened after the Titanomachy (War of the Titans).

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 May 2012 10:17
 

Comments 

 
#8 avett 2012-05-12 03:38
woah!!!
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#7 carlos 2012-03-27 18:57
we want more !!!!
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#6 Georgios 2011-11-30 16:22
Quoting greek pro:
zeus is the GOD of the sky, ouranos IS the sky, there is a HUGE difference


this is the beginning... the the gods of Olympus come after the titans
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#5 greek pro 2011-06-07 09:12
zeus is the GOD of the sky, ouranos IS the sky, there is a HUGE difference
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#4 jeriel 2011-02-16 00:33
thank you. I hope its accurate since I'm writing a research paper about it. If it is it helped me alot.
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#3 mikey 2011-02-03 04:01
thnx!! it really helped me out alot on my research paper!!!
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#2 rob 2011-01-12 22:28
his nasme is ZEUS!!!
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#1 SuchSilence 2010-12-20 20:45
Nice article Marian :)
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