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Hesiod's Creation Myth
Hesiod tells his version of Creation in the Theogeny. Hesiod says
that "In truth at first Chaos came to be." That statement seems to be a
little, um, lacking, since Chaos means the lack of order - or, in other
words - nothing was there yet. So, moving on. Next he says, came Gaia (or
Earth), and with Earth came all the mountains and valleys and stuff. Hesiod
never mentions exactly what causes this sudden appearance, only helpfully
reassures us that this was, indeed, the order of things. Next came Tartarus.
Again, there seems to be a little bit of trouble. I mean, technically,
Tartarus is a humungous pit inside Earth. But I guess you can't really sweat
details like hows and whats in a Creation story. The next thing "created" is
Eros. Eros is, quite simply, the personification of love. In Classical myth,
Eros is the son of Aphrodite - but then, this is Classical myth, too . . .
so. Right. Love is created. I suppose that makes sense, cuz otherwise the
rest of the people involved in Creation might not want to procreate. I mean,
it's yucky to kiss someone you don't really dig - imagine having to populate
a world like that! I bet you think things are gonna get all cheery now that
Eros is making things all giggly, but no, next comes Erebus. Erebus is the
(male) personification of the darkness of the Underworld. Then comes Nyx,
the (female) personification of night. Now comes the lovey-dovey
stuff. Nyx and Erebus find themselves (mostly) alone in the dark together .
. . and well . . . then there started a whole new era of Creation. Their
first children were Aether (personification of the Upper Air, think
atmosphere) and Hemera (the personification of day). Then Gaia managed to
give birth to Pontus (the Sea) and Uranus (not the planet - it means,
essentially, Heaven) to cover her completely (I told you Eros was
important). Then Gaia and Uranus got it on, and the first real Gods were
born. They were called the Titans and there were 12 or 14 of them, and they
all married to each other and had lots of kids, and Cronos (the youngest
boy) and Rhea (the youngest girl) had what YOU know as the Olympian Gods.
Think Zeus, Hera and Hades. So after a lot of trouble, there they all were!
  
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