Creation Myth According to Hesiod - Theogony #GreekMythology

According to Hesiod, at the beginning of everything, there was chaos. It was an endless emptiness, chaos. And from chaos there came Gaia first, who was the earth and who created all the lands. Then the deepest place in the land of the dead, Tartarus. Then Eras, love. Then the darkness of the earth Nyx, night, was born with the darkness of the underworld Erebus. Erebus and Nyx united to form Hemera, the personification of day, and Itha, the personification of the upper sky. He embodies the pura prayer that the gods breathed, as opposed to the normal air breathed by mortals. Gaia breathed forth her equal Uranus, heaven, sky, to cover her on Eris side. Gaia also bore the Aurea, mountains, and Pontus, sea, without sweet union of love, I mean with no father. Afterwards Gaia mated with her sons Uranus and Pontus, and filled the created universe with divine beings. Gaia lay with heaven and bore deep-swirling Oceanus, Koyos, and Krius, and Hyperion, and Iapetus, Thea, and Rhea, Temus, and Nimasini, and gold-crowned Phoebe, and lovely Cthys. After them was born Cronus, the vilely youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire. Gaia conceived further offspring with Uranus, first a giant one-eyed Cyclops, Brontes, Thunder, Steropes, Lightning, and Arges, Brides, then the Hecaton chairs, Cotes, Briareus, and Gies, each with a hundred arms and fifty heads. As each of the Cyclops and Hecaton chairs were born, Uranus hid them in a secret place within Gaia, causing her great pain. So Gaia devised a plan. She created a grave flint or adamantine sickle, and Cronus used the sickle to castrate his father Uranus, as he approached Gaia to sleep with her. From Uranus's spilled blood, Gaia produced the Erneas, the Giants, and Meliae as tree-nymphs. From the testicles of Uranus in the sea came forth Aphrodite. Aphrodite is born off the coast of Sothira on her own. Nyx gives birth to Morus, doom, destiny, Decarius, distraction, Thanatos, death, Hypnos, sleep, the Oneroi, dreams, Nelmus, blame, Oiseus, pain, distress, the Hesperides, the Moirai, fates, Nemesis, indignation, retribution, Apete, deceit, Philotes, friendship, Gaius, old age, Ares, strife. By her son Pontus, Gaia bore the sea deities Nereus, Telmus, Phorses, Ceto, and Euribaea. Nereus Vittorius, daughter of Titan Oceanus, fathered Nereus and Nerites, with whom Nereus lived in the Aegean Sea. Telmus's wife was Electra, one of the Oceanids, the many daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Thetis, by whom he fathered Iris, the messenger of the gods, and the Harpies. The children of Phorses and Ceto as the Graae, naming only two Pamphrado and Enya, the Gaugans, Steno, Raeli, and Medusa. Since Medusa was the only one of the three Gaugans who was mortal, Perseus was able to slay her while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena. During that time, Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon. When Perseus beheaded her, Pegasus, a winged horse, and Kreisor, a giant wielding a golden sword, sprang from her body. Kreisor, married to Calero, daughter of Glorious Oceanus, was fathered to the triple-headed Geryon and Echidna, who is half a nymph and half a huge snake. The terrible and lawless Typhon was joined in love to Echidna, and she bore fierce offspring, Ultras, Cerberus, and Lunean Hydra. The Tiagni mentions as a second ambiguous she as the mother of the Chimera, a fire-breathing beast that was part lion, part goat, and had a snake at the tail, which may refer to Echidna, though possibly Dehydra or even Ceto was meant instead. Hesiod next names two more descendants of Echidna, the Sphinx, a monster with the head of a woman and the body of a winged lion, and the Nemean lion, killed by Heracles as his first labor. As for the children of the Titan's Cronus' siblings, Oceanus' consort is his sister Thetis, and from their union came the Ocean Nymphs, also referred to as the Three Thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world, fountains, and lakes. With his sister, the Titaness Thea, Hyperion fathered Helios, son, Selene, moon, and Deos, dawn. With Eurybia, daughter of Gaia, earth, and Pontus, sea, Crius fathered Astreus, Helys, and Perseus. The joining of Astreus with Deos, the dawn, brought forth Eosporus, the other stars and the winds, Boreas, Notus, Eurus, Cronus sired six children by Rhea, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus in that order. Because Cronus had learned from Gaia and Uranus, he was destined to be overthrown by one of his children. He swallowed each of the children born to him by his Titan sister Rhea. But when Rhea was pregnant with her youngest child, Zeus, she sought help from Gaia and Uranus. When Zeus was born, Rhea gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in its place, which Cronus swallowed, and Gaia took the child into her care. Phoebe is a Titaness whose consort was her brider Koyos, with whom she had two daughters, Leto, who bore Apollo and Artemis, and Dosteria, a star goddess who bore an only daughter, Hecate. After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge first the stone, which was set down at Piteo under the glance of Parnassus, to be assigned to mortal men, the Omnflaws, then his siblings in reverse order of swallowing. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclops from their dungeon in Tartarus, killing their guards' camp. As a token of their appreciation, the Cyclops gave him thunder and thunderbolt, or lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Together, Zeus, his brothers and sisters, Hecatonchires, and Cyclops overthrew Cronus and the other Titans, in the combat called the Titanomachy. The defeated Titans were then cast into a shadowy underworld region known as Tartarus. Atlas, one of the Titans who fought against Zeus, was punished by having to hold up the sky. After the battles with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers Poseidon and Hades by drawing lots. Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead, the underworld. The ancient-earth Gaia could not be claimed. She was left to all three, each calling to their capabilities, which explains why Poseidon was the Earthshaker, the god of earthquakes, and Hades claimed the humans who died. Gaia resented the way Zeus had treated the Titans, because they were her children. Soon after taking the throne as king of the gods, Zeus had to fight some of Gaia's other children, the monsters Typhon and Echidna. He vanquished Typhon and trapped him under Mount Etna, but left Echidna and her children alive. Zeus married seven wives. His first wife was the Oceanid Meteus, whom he impregnated Athena. Then, on the advice of Gaia and Uranus, followed Meteus so that no son of his biometheus would overthrow him, as had been foretold. Zeus's second wife was his aunt the Titan Themis, who bore the three Hoirai, ours, Eunomia, order, decay, justice, Irimae, peace, and the three Moirai, fades, Plato, spinner, Lachesis, Elota, and Atropos, unbending. Zeus then married his third wife, another Oceanid Uranome, who bore the three Charites, Graces, the Glia, splendor, whom Hephaestus married, Euphrasine, joy, and Thalia, good cheer. Zeus's fourth wife was his sister Demita, who bore Psiphone. The fifth wife of Zeus was another aunt, the Titan Emathene, from whom came the nine Muses, Cleo, Eutope, Thalia, Melpomene, Topscuri, Erito, Polymnia, Urania, and Cleiope. His sixth wife was a third aunt, the Titan Leto, who gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. Zeus's seventh and final wife was his sister Hera, the mother by Zeus's of Hebe, Ares, and Illithia. Zeus finally gave birth himself to the throne of heaven by piling mountain on mountain to the lofty stars, but Zeus overwhelmed the giants with his thunderbolts, overturning from Ossahuge in arms Pelion. There was a prophecy that the giants could not be killed by the gods' law, but they could be killed with the help of a mortal. Hearing this, Gaia sought for a certain plant that would protect the giants. Before Gaia or anyone else could find this plant, Zeus forbade Eos, Selene, and Helios to shine, harvested all of the plant himself, and then he had Athena summon Heracles. Too many gods and goddesses joined the war dragon Temeke, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Hecate, Hephaestus, Hermes, even Moirai. Athena crushed Enceladus under the islands of Sicily and flayed Pallas using his sakina as a shield. To put it simply, the titans and giants suffered the same fate.