Greek primordial deities
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Primordial deities |
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Anatolian deities |
In Greek mythology, the primordial deities are the first generation of gods and goddesses. These deities represented the fundamental forces and physical foundations of the world and were generally not actively worshipped, as they, for the most part, were not given human characteristics; they were instead personifications of places or abstract concepts.
Hesiod's primordial genealogy
From Chaos came
Chaos
In
Gaia
Gaia was the second being to be formed, right after Chaos, in Hesiod's theogony, and parthenogenetically gave birth to Heaven, who would later become her husband and her equal, the Sea, and to the high Mountains.[7]
Gaia is a
Later in the myth, after his succession, Cronus learns from Gaia and Uranus that his own son (Zeus) will overthrow him, just as Cronus did Uranus. To prevent this, Cronus swallows all of his children as soon as they are born. Rhea seeks out Gaia for help in hiding her youngest son, Zeus, and gives Cronus a rock to swallow instead. Zeus later goes on to defeat his father and become the leader of the Olympians.
After Zeus's succession to the throne, Gaia bears another son with Tartarus, Typhon, a monster who would be the last to challenge Zeus's authority.[9]
Sky and Earth have three sets of children: the
Tartarus
Eros
Eros is the god of love in Greek mythology, and in some versions is one of the primordial beings that first came to be parentlessly. In Hesiod's version, Eros was the "fairest among the immortal gods ... who conquers the mind and sensible thoughts of all gods and men."[6]
Nyx
In some variations of Hesiod's Theogony, Nyx (Night) is told as having black wings; and in one tale she laid an egg in Erebus from which Love sprang out.[12] One version of Hesiod's tale tells that Night shares her house with Day in Tartarus, but that the two are never home at the same time.[11] However, in some versions Nyx's home is where Chaos and Tartarus meet, suggesting to the idea that Chaos resides beneath Tartarus.[8]
Many of Nyx's children were also personifications of abstract concepts. A list of them, which varies by source:
Greek Name | Roman Equivalent | Description | Hesiod[13] | Cicero[14] | Hyginus[15] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aether | Aether | Light | ✓ | ✓ | |
Apate | Fraus | Deceit | ✓ | ✓ | |
Deimos | Metus | Fear | ✓ | ||
Dolos? | Dolus | Guile | ✓ | ||
Eleos | Misericordia | Compassion | ✓ | ||
Epiphron | Epiphron | Prudence | ✓ | ||
Eris | Discordia | Discord | ✓ | ✓ | |
Eros | Cupid | Love | ✓ | ✓ | |
Euphrosyne | Euphrosyne | Good Cheer | ✓ | ||
Geras | Senectus | Old Age | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Hemera | Dies | Day | ✓ | ✓ | |
The Hesperides | Hesperides | Nymphs of the evening | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Hybris | Petulantia | Wantonness | ✓ | ||
Hypnos | Somnus | Sleep | ✓ | ✓ | |
Ker
|
Letum | Destiny | ✓ | ✓ | |
The Keres | Tenebrae | Violent Death | ✓ | ✓ | |
The Moirai | Parcae | Fates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Momus | Querella | Blame | ✓ | ✓ | |
Moros | Fatum | Doom | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Nemesis | Invidentia | Retribution | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Oizys | Miseria | Pain | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Oneiroi | Somnia | Dreams | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Philotes | Amicitia/Gratia | Love | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Ponos | Labor | Hardship | ✓ | ||
Sophrosyne | Continentia | Moderation | ✓ | ||
Styx | Styx | Hatred | ✓ | ||
Thanatos | Mors | Death | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Hyginus also includes Epaphus and Porphyrion among Nyx's children. Some accounts also include Hecate (Crossroads and Magic) among Nyx's children.[16][17]
Aether, Hemera, and Eros are Nyx's only children who are among the primordial gods. Hesiod says Nyx and Erebus together had Aether and Hemera, but Nyx had the other children on her own. Cicero and Hyginus say Nyx had all her children with Erebus.
In Virgil's Aeneid, Nox is said to be the mother of the Furies by Hades.[18]
Some authors made Nyx the mother of
Eris
Nyx's daughter Eris went on to have many children of her own who were also personifications of abstract concepts:[21]
Greek Name | Roman Equivalent | Description |
---|---|---|
Algos
|
Dolor | Pains |
Amphillogiai | Altercatio | Disputes |
Androktasiai | Androktasiai | Manslaughters |
Atë
|
Atë | Ruin |
Dysnomia | Dysnomia | Anarchy |
Horkos | Jusjurandum | Oath |
Hysminai | Pugnae | Battles |
Lethe | Oblivio | Forgetfulness |
Limos | Fames | Starvation |
Logoi | Logoi | Stories |
Machai | Machai | Wars |
Neikea | Altercatio | Quarrels |
Phonoi | Phonoi | Murders |
Ponos | Labor | Hardship |
Pseudea | Pseudea | Lies |
Non-Hesiodic theogonies
The ancient Greeks entertained different versions of the origin of primordial deities. Some of these stories were possibly inherited from the pre-Greek Aegean cultures.[22]
Homeric primordial theogony
The
Other Greek theogonies
- Alcman (fl. 7th century BCE) called Thetis the first goddess, producing poros (path), tekmor (marker), and skotos (darkness) on the pathless, featureless void.[24][25]
- Ananke "Compulsion" and Chronos"Time" among the primordial deities.
- Aristophanes (c. 446–386 BCE) wrote in his play The Birds that Nyx was the first deity also, and that she produced Eros from an egg.
- Some other sources[Pothos, and Thalassa(Sea) among the Protogenoi.
Philosophical theogonies
Philosophers of Classical Greece also constructed their own metaphysical cosmogonies, with their own primordial deities:
- Pherecydes of Syros, (c. 600–550 BC) in his Heptamychia, wrote that there were three divine principles, who came before all things, and who have always existed: Zas (Ζάς, Zeus), Cthonie (Χθονίη, Earth), and Chronos (Χρόνος, Time).[27][28][29][30]
- who wove the universe out of these elements.
- Plato (c. 428–347 BC) introduced (in Timaeus) the concept of the demiurge, who had modeled the universe on the Ideas.
Interpretation of primordial deities
Scholars dispute the meaning of the primordial deities in the poems of Homer and Hesiod.[33] Since the primordials give birth to the Titans, and the Titans give birth to the Olympians, one way of interpreting the primordial gods is as the deepest and most fundamental nature of the cosmos.
For example, Jenny Strauss Clay argues that Homer's poetic vision centers on the reign of Zeus, but that Hesiod's vision of the primordials put Zeus and the Olympians in context.[22] Likewise, Vernant argues that the Olympic pantheon is a "system of classification, a particular way of ordering and conceptualizing the universe by distinguishing within it various types of powers and forces."[34] But even before the Olympic pantheon were the Titans and primordial gods. Homer alludes to a more tumultuous past before Zeus was the undisputed King and Father.[35]
See also
Notes
- ^ Hard, p. 21.
- ^ Theogony 116–122 (Most, pp. 12, 13). West 1966, p. 192 line 116 Χάος, "best translated Chasm"; Most, p. 13, translates Χάος as "Chasm", and notes: (n. 7): "Usually translated as 'Chaos'; but that suggests to us, misleadingly, a jumble of disordered matter, whereas Hesiod's term indicates instead a gap or opening". Other translations given in this section follow those given by Caldwell, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Theogony 123–125 (Most, pp. 12, 13).
- ^ Theogony 126–132 (Most, pp. 12, 13).
- ^ S2CID 161498892.
- ^ a b c Van Kooten, George (2005). Creation of Heaven and Earth. Brill. pp. 77–89.
- ^ Gotshalk, Richard (2000). Homer and Hesiod, Myth and Philosophy. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. p. 196.
- ^ JSTOR 20162994.
- ^ a b Leftkowitz, Mary R. (September 1989). "The Powers of the Primeval Goddess". American Scholar – via EBSCOhost.
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony, 119
- ^ JSTOR 1088120.
- JSTOR 24591525.
- ^ Hesiod Theogony 221
- ^ Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.17
- ^ Hyginus Preface
- ^ Bacchylides Frag 1B
- ^ Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.467 with the Orphic hymns as the authority.
- ^ Virgil, Aeneid 6.250 (mother of the "Eumenides" another name for the Furies), 7.323–330 (Allecto a daughter of Pluto and Night), 12.845–846 (Night mother of the Furies).
- ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, 2.625–26; cf. Aeschylus, Agamemnon 265
- ^ Philostratus of Lemnos, Imagines 1.7.2
- ^ Hesiod Theogony 226
- ^ ISBN 9781853996924.
- ^ Homer. Iliad. Book 14.
- ^ Alcman, Fragment 5 (from Scholia) = Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2390.
- ISBN 0-674-99158-3.
- ^ "Phanes". Theoi. Protogenos.
- ISBN 978-0-521-27455-5.
- Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, vol. 1:1, translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.), Loeb Classical Library, § 119
- ^ Smith, William (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. Robarts - University of Toronto. Boston, Little. p. 258.
- ^ Damascius. Difficulties and Solutions Regarding First Principles. 214.
- ^ Wallace, William (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 09 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 344–345, see third para, lines four to six.
...There are, according to Empedocles, four ultimate elements, four primal divinities, of which are made all structures in the world—fire, air, water, earth.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-0418-8.
- ISBN 978-0801480485.
- ISBN 9780855279837.
- ^ "The Internet Classics Archive | The Iliad by Homer". classics.mit.edu. pp. Book I (396–406), Book VIII (477–83). Archived from the original on 2011-07-14. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
- . Retrieved 2016-01-21.
References
- Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
- Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
External links
- Media related to Greek primordial deities at Wikimedia Commons
- Greek Primeval Deities