Giving Personality to Nature
This account is one of the more popular creation myths, but another version exists in which the elements were born into existence as living beings. The ancients believed that anything that could move and change must be alive. So the elements of the universe were thought to be living — and because they lived, they must also have names and personalities.
Back to the Beginning
Again, everything began with Chaos. But from there, this creation myth, taken from Hesiod's Theogony, tells a different story. This myth does not posit a Creator; instead, the first elements simply sprang into being on their own.
From Chaos came the five elements: Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld), Nyx (Night), Erebus (Darkness), and Eros (Love). All on her own (that is, without mating), Gaia gave birth to three children: Uranus (Sky), Pontus (Sea), and the Mountains. After these three children were born, creation continued.
Eros, the god of love, had an important role in creation. Although Gaia is credited with giving life to the universe (by giving birth to the elements), Eros urged creation forward by prompting the elements to mate.
The Unions
Uranus, said to have been born to Gaia in her sleep, mated with his mother to create the rest of Earth's elements, such as the waters, forests, and beasts. (Incest is a recurrent theme throughout classical mythology.) Uranus and Gaia also produced other children, including the Titans and Titanesses, the three Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires (hundred-armed giants).
The Moirai, or Fates, were three sisters responsible for the lives of mortals. One sister spun the thread of life, the second measured its length, and the third cut the thread, ending that life. Some myths say that even Zeus, the ruler of the gods, was subject to the Moirai.
Nyx mated with Erebus to produce Hemera (Day) and Aether (Air). Nyx also bore several other children, although the myths don't say who fathered them. These children were Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), Moros (Doom), Nemesis (Retribution), Oizys (Pain), Momus (Sarcasm), Eris (Strife), the Keres (the female spirits of death), Geras (Old Age), Oneiroi (Dreams), and the Moirai (Fates, although some myths say that Themis [Necessity] gave birth to the Fates on her own or with Zeus as their father).
In this myth, creation proceeds through a series of generations; those beings created in one generation give birth to the next — and on it goes. With each birth, a little more order and detail is added to the universe.
