CLAS 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Hekatonkheires, Hemera, From Chaos
18 Oct 2017
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Chaos ( the egg of the world"): infinite and dark, a yawning chasm contained all things that ever were to be, though none yet existed in organized for. Even before time, certain forces began to take shape which became the first organized entities. The big four: (proto-god) (eros, gaia, tartarus and nyx/erebus) Eros (love): eros embodied not only love but also the entire reproductive principle. The universe of myth was created through love. Gaia: the first upon whom eros worked his magic was gaia, the earth, since only the earth is able to bring things from itself by itself (maiden birth). Gaia brought forth from herself ouranos, who was the sky, and pontus as the warters. Where gaia was fertile, and alive, tartarus was sterile and dead. In the later ages, tartarus would be the prison for giants and monsters too powerful or dangerous to walk the earth. Even eros could do nothing with tartarus, since.
