\b0 Among the many traditions that have preserved the principal elements of Greek myth, a special place ha
s to be assigned to the \i Theogony\i0 , the epic in which the poet Hesiod, who lived between the eighth and ninth century BC, recounted the origins of the universe and the race of the gods.\par
In the beginning was Chaos, a formless, dark, and primordi
al state that required no independent and preexisting creator. Out of Chaos emerged \b \cf15 \ATXht10700 Gaea\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 (the earth), followed by specific attributes of the cosmos: \b \cf15 \ATXht10513 Eros\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , original impulse and ge
nerative force; the grim figures of Erebus and Night, manifestations of the unbounded emptiness and darkness; and Pontus (the sea), with whom Gaea, the universal mother, generated monsters and semi-divine figures linked to the cycles of life, and who wou
ld be the ancestors of the human race. The appearance of \b \cf15 \ATXht12102 Uranus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , the starry sky, introduced a male element as a counterweight to Gaea, earth and mother.\par
From the union of Gaea and Uranus were born the different
forces of the universe. These represented atmospheric and volcanic phenomena, rivers and seas, celestial bodies, or even abstract concepts like justice.\par
As soon as Gaea gave birth to her children, Uranus hid them in the depth of the earth, inside th
eir own mother, until Gaea, exhausted, incited her progeny to rebel. \b \cf15 \ATXht10332 Cronus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 placed himself at their head, seizing power and castrating his father: the blood from CronusÆs mutilated genitals fertilized the earth and g
ave birth to the \b \cf15 \ATXht10703 Giants\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 and the \b \cf15 \ATXht10511 Erinyes\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , or Furies, while his seed, spilled into the sea, produced the foam from which \b \cf15 \ATXht2 Aphrodite\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 was born.\par
But Cronus, who married his sister \b \cf15 \ATXht11800 Rhea\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , took the same attitude toward his children as his father had done: as soon as they were born he devoured them. Like Uranus, he was to be overthrown by one of them.\par
\b \cf15 \ATXht8 Zeus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , who had escaped his fatherÆs ferocity, forced him to vomit up his brothers and sisters and they recognized him as the supreme deity. Finally, after a series of struggles with the ôoldö gods, Zeus, his brothers and sisters,
and their progeny imposed the rule of Olympus on the universe.\par
