THE PRIMORDIAL GODS
Before all the things that came to be, there was nothing. The nothingness of Khaos.
Before all the things that came to be, there was nothing. The nothingness of Khaos.
Khaos was a vast chasm, a gaping void, an abysmal gulf of emptiness. But from this original state there must inevitably emerge duality and order. And so within Khaos coiled the serpentine, spectral forms of those who embody now and forever. Aion, called Khronos by mortal men, the spirit of infinity and eternity, god of the endless expanse of time. And so too, there encircled his mate Ananke, the inflexible Adrasteia, the goddess of necessity and the inexorable, inevitable course of destiny. Reality was never without Khaos, Aion or Ananke, for these three spirits are alone without beginning and end - everlasting.
From timeless infinity, we come to the beginning of time, when at first a germless seed gestated in the dark womb of Khaos, a something born of nothingness. This was the Kosmos, the antithesis of Khaos, which contained within itself the creative spark of all potential. Aion and Ananke wrapped their coils tightly about the cosmic egg, and as they constricted, it cracked and sundered. From the womb of oblivion arose the first born god, Eros. Golden winged, insubstantial, radiant, the dual-gendered embodiment of creation and propagation. Its names were many; Phanes the revealer, Thesis the creator, Physis the originator, Protogonos the firstborn, Erikapaios the empowerer.
The remnants of the cosmic egg became deities in their own right and these Protogenoi, the firstborn gods, formed the fundamental elements that made up the world. The core of the Kosmos became Gaia, the solid foundation of the ground, fertile goddess of the earth and great mother to all its creatures. The yolk of the Kosmos became Pontos and Thalassa, male and female aspects of the waters of life, swirling about Gaia and covering her with seas, lakes and the encircling cradle of the ocean stream. The upper half of the Kosmos became Ouranos, the dome of the heavens, the celestial father of the sky. The lower half of the Kosmos became Tartaros, the foundation of the underworld, the infernal storm-pit.
From the interplay of Khaos and Kosmos, there emerged the principles of Brightness and Darkness, Night and Day. First came Nyx, the mother of night, and Erebos, the father of darkness. Through the power of Eros, Nyx and Erebos sired Hemera, the mother of day, and Aither, the father of brightness. And for ever anon, the first sister would mother the second, and then from the second sister would come the first again. Therefore, Nyx and Hemera were by turns mother, sister and daughter to one another. Erebos and Aither were likewise father, brother and son, and these four beings would forever interchange in the cycle of diurnal light and nocturnal shadow.
Erebos settled in the depths of Tartaros, filling all the caverns beneath the earth, welling up through the shadowed cracks. Aither would come to abide in the upper atmosphere of Ouranos, illuminating the sky with his airy brightness and purity. By day, Nyx housed herself in the gloom of Erebos, but each night she would draw up into the sky with a veil of her brother’s inky darkness, shrouding the light of Aither. During the night, Hemera would dwell in her sister’s house, but then she would rise up from the underworld and disperse the shroud of night, revealing her brother’s light once more. Thus the two divided their time between the heavens and the underworld, and never crossed paths except at the threshold of day and night, when one would renew the other.
Notes:
1. Hesiod’s Theogony does not mention Aion, Ananke or the creation of the Kosmos in his Theogony. Gaia, Eros and Tartaros simply emerge in sequence, without explanation, and the attributes of Ananke appear to be merged with those of Nyx. The additional figures appear primarily in the Orphic mysteries and in pre-Socratic theological texts. I wanted to be all-inclusive in my account of the Protogenoi, as their emergence makes more sense to me when combining Hesiod’s Theogony with the Orphic Theogony.
2. Also according to Hesiod, Gaia parthenogenically produced Ouranos and Pontos out of herself and then mated with both of them. Other accounts place Gaia, Ouranos, Tartaros and Pontos as the offspring of Hemera and Aither, or of Khaos alone. As before, I decided to blend the Hesiodic account with the Orphic one, by including the theme of the cosmic egg from which the base materials of the world are formed. Thus, in a sense Gaia emerges first as the cosmic egg, from whence Eros is hatched, and the fragments of the egg comprise Gaia, Tartaros, Ouranos and Pontos.
3. Hesiod’s Theogony also designates Hemera and Aither as children of Nyx and Erebos, then later regards Nyx and Hemera as sisters. This puzzled me, so I did a bit of extra research, and found a popular Greek riddle that proved valuable in my speculation: “There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first." The answer is "day and night". This illustrates that the Ancient Greek understanding of the relationship between Night and Day is somewhat more complex than might be assumed from a cursory reading of the Theogony.
