The Theogony According to Akherontis

[Akherontis]

THE PRIMORDIAL GODS
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.
 

[Akherontis]

THE SPIRITS OF NATURE
Eros, hatched from the union of love, embodied the union of love, and brought about the union of love.

Aion and Ananke were joined by the power of Eros and begat the thirteenth god, Moros, or dread Olethros. This was the spirit of doom and destruction, an inescapable force in opposition to Eros. Having birthed a son, Aion and Ananke also conceived daughters, Klotho, Lakhesis and Atropos. These three sisters were the Moirai, the relentless and all-knowing goddesses of fate, who would endlessly weave the tapestry of fate upon their loom. Klotho spun the threads of fate, bringing life to each newborn soul. Lakhesis measured the threads, determining the course of each individual destiny. Atropos sheared the threads, deciding the time and circumstance of a mortal’s demise. In such manner, they directed the choices of gods and men, maintaining the balance of the universe.

Nyx and Erebos also birthed a brood of winged Daimones, each of whom would come to embody the forces of nature and the human condition. Some of these were Eudaimones, who were beneficial to mortals, but most were Kakodaimones, spirits of evil and affliction. First born were twins, Thanatos and Hypnos, who resembled one another. Thanatos, the firstborn twin, would become the harbinger of Death, and the younger twin Hypnos would imitate him, bringing the rejuvenating comforts of Sleep. Their natures were both gentle, but Death would be hated and feared by gods and men, while Sleep was welcomed in the company of all.

Then emerged the three Keres, bloodthirsty spirits of demise and disease. Their names were Akhlys, Anaplekte and Iskhnasia, and they would attend their brother Death in his dismal ways. Akhlys brought the dark mist of demise over the eyes of the dying. Anaplekte was the spirit of swift demise, haunting the battlefields and tearing the souls from the doomed as they were slain. Iskhnasia, known also as Phthisis, personified slow, wasting demise. She was the spirit of illness and disease, tormentor of the weak, whose power would later reside in the silver arrows of Apollon and the golden arrows of Artemis.

Also there came the Oneiroi, the dream spirits, attendants of Sleep. Their names were Morpheus, Phantasos and dread Ikelos. Morpheus took the form of people in dreams, being the most skilled in the dream-shaping arts. Phantasos shaped the objects and environments of dreams, specializing in daydreams and abstract fantasies. Ikelos, also called Phobetor and Epiales by mortals, embodied animals, beasts and monsters in the black dreams of his making. Their home was in the underworld, where they fashioned and dispatched dreams through the gates of horn and ivory. Prophecies and truthful visions would fleet through the gate of polished horn. False dreams, greater in number, would enter the world through the gate of sawn ivory.

But the womb of Night was still not emptied, for Erebos had fathered a great brood of sons with her. Momos, the shrewd god of blame and mockery, who wears a mask to hide his venomous insults. Kharon of the fierce gaze, the miserly god of taxation, silent ferryman of the underworld. Dolos, the god of guile and treachery, who fosters betrayal between fellows. Sharp Epiphron and dull Koalemos, twins who represent shrewdness and foolishness. Eurynomos or foul Septos, the god of decay, who picks the dead dry until only bones remain. Nyx’s youngest son appeared the oldest, for he was shrivelled Geras, the god of old age, born with the frailties of elderliness, which he would inflict upon men to come.

There were also many daughters in the brood of Night. Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution, unleashed by the gods to satisfy their vengeance. Oizys, the goddess of pain and woe, ever weeping mistress of misery. Apate, the cunning goddess of trickery and deceit. Lyssa, also called Mania, the goddess of raging madness, though she herself was of a calm and reasonable character. Anaideia, the goddess of cruelty and ruthlessness, who compounds the suffering of man by causing man to spread suffering to one other. Hybris, the goddess of arrogance, who places insolent boasts into the mouths of mortals, incurring the displeasure of the gods. Not all of Night’s daughters were bringers of malevolence, for three siblings were pleasant. These were Philotes, affection; Eleos, mercy; and Sophrosyne, restraint. And the youngest daughter was of a nature both destructive and beneficial to man. She was Eris, the hard-hearted goddess of strife and discord, who causes the shiftless to toil in envy, and the industrious to toil in paranoia.

Notes:

1. The parentage of the Moirai is a difficult issue. There are three popular accounts; Hesiod claims that Nyx is the mother of the Fates via parthenogenesis. Homer calls the Fates daughters of Zeus and Themis (an emergence this late in mythology seems implausible to me, and is likely a patrilineal modification). Finally, Plato and other philosophers consider Khronos and Ananke to have brought the fates into being. I chose the latter because thematically it makes the most sense for the Fates to be born of Time and Necessity, and it suitably places their creation at the beginning of time.

2. Other children of Nyx seem to be misplaced in Hesiod’s account when one considers other myths. Moros, as god of Doom and Destruction, is more likely placed as a son of Aion and Ananke, since he is the counterpart of Eros and connected with the Fates. Hyginus also lists Eros as one of Nyx’s children, which leads me to believe that there was much conflation between the figures of Nyx and Ananke. The three Hesperides are held to be daughters of Atlas (as pillar of the western horizon, where the sun sets) and their namesake Hesperia (the goddess of twilight, conspicuously absent in Hesiod’s list of the Hyperionides).

3. Hesiod’s Theogony lists (excluding Moros, the Moirai and the Hesperides) Thanatos, Hypnos, the Keres, the Oneiroi, Momos, Oizys, Nemesis, Apate, Philotes, Geras, and Eris as children of Night. I added the rest to this list based on other sources. Kharon is generally believed to be a son of Night. The Pseudo-Hyginus preface adds Epiphron, Hybris, Eleos and Sophrosyne, as well as others that cannot be resolved to Nyx (such as Eros and Euphrosyne). The parentage of Dolos, Anaideia, Eurynomos and Koalemos is informed guesswork.