The Mythology Book

22

means “hundred-handed” in

Greek. Each was also said to

have 50 heads, making them

formidable—they, too, were

incarcerated by Ouranos deep

inside the earth.

The upstart son

As for Gaia, the Earth Mother felt

both physically burdened by the

number of infant bodies literally

forced back inside her and also

deeply upset by the attempted

suppression of her children. Finally,

she rebelled and appealed to her

sons for help. She secretly made a

sickle out of adamant—by legend

an unbreakable mineral—and gave

it to Kronos. The next time Ouranos

spread himself over her, attempting

to force her into intercourse, Kronos

leapt out from his hiding place to

aid his mother. Wielding his sickle,

and with one fell swoop, he sliced

off his father’s genitals.

It was the ultimate patriarchal

nightmare—the father not just

supplanted by his son but castrated

by him, with the connivance of

his wife. Even now, however,

Ouranos’s potency was not quite

spent. The splashes of blood and

semen that flew from his wound

sowed spirit life wherever they

landed, bringing into being

a vast assortment of new-born

nymphs and giants, good and bad.

The Erinyes, three baleful sisters

better known to us now as the

Furies, were angry and avenging

spirits. Aphrodite was a deity of

a very different kind. Where

Ouranos’s wound-spatter landed in

the ocean, this most beautiful of

goddesses was born. She stepped

from the waves, bringing with her

all the delights of erotic love.

Titans of all trades

When Kronos had finally freed his

brothers and sisters from captivity in

the earth, the Titans were to serve a

twofold mythic function. First, they

were living, breathing, loving, and

fighting personalities. Each of them

symbolized a different aspect of

existence, so that collectively they

represented a way of ordering and

enriching the world. The eldest

daughter, Mnemosyne, for instance,

stood for the faculty of memory and

all it brought with it in terms of

history, culture, and heritage. Later,

having lain with her nephew Zeus,

she would give birth to the nine

Muses—divine patronesses of

scientific study, historical study,

poetry, and the performing arts.

Tethys, who married her brother

Oceanus, went on to bear him

3,000 sons—all river gods—and as

Beautiful Aphrodite emerges from

the ocean, where the seed of her brutal

father had fallen. The Birth of Venus

(her name in Roman mythology) was

painted by Peter Paul Rubens (ca. 1637).

ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

A white foam arose where

the immortal skin touched

water: amidst the waves,

a beautiful maiden took form.

Theogony

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many daughters, the Oceanids,

who were nymphs of springs, rivers,

lakes, and seas. Her younger sister

Theia, too, took a brother, Hyperion,

for her husband; she bore him

Helios, the sun, and his sister Eos,

goddess of dawn. Helios and Eos

had a sister, Selene, who was a

goddess of the moon, though her

aunt Phoebe—sister to Tethys,

Mnemosyne, and Theia—also

had lunar associations.

Themis, the youngest female

Titan, was associated with reason,

justice, and the orderly conduct of

existence in the universe. Like her

sister Mnemosyne, she would for a

time become consort to her nephew

Zeus. Of their children, the Horae

(“Hours”) would oversee the

measurement and passage of the

seasons and of time. Another

daughter, Nemesis, took her

mother’s association with justice

to violent extremes; as her name

suggests, she became notorious as

the personification of punishment

and divine retribution.

The name of the youngest male

Titan, Iapetus, comes from iapto,

a Greek word meaning “wound” or

“pierce.” The implications of this

translation have long been debated.

Ancient poets seem to have been

unsure whether he was given

this name because he sustained

an injury or because he made

the weapon that inflicted it.

Meanwhile, in classical literature,

Iapetus appears both as a deity of

mortality and of skill in crafts.

Patricidal patriarch

Artists in ancient Greece almost

invariably represented Kronos

carrying a sickle—an emblem

of his attack upon his father. The

sickle also has more mundane and

practical associations. Kronos came

to be seen as the godly guarantor

of a successful harvest. The

connection between these two

functions—the idea that one

generation had effectively to be

destroyed for its successor to

survive and thrive, took an early

hold on the Greek consciousness.

Kronos, having killed his father,

now replaced him as the head of

the household. He then married his

sister Rhea and began to produce

children of his own. Much like his

father, Kronos would soon confront

the idea that human life can only

advance through intergenerational

struggle. This theme runs through

the Greek mythological tradition,

and is most notoriously associated

with the story of King Oedipus. ■

Gaia

Ouranos

Coeus

Demeter

Mnemosyne

Poseidon

Iapetus Tethys

Crius

Hera

Phoebe

Zeus

Kronos Themis

Oceanus

Hestia

Theia

Hades

Hyperion

Thousands of Greek deities,

unanimously descended from Gaia

and Ouranos, all embodied the

values, virtues, and vices of humans,

vividly dramatized in the colorful

mythology of ancient Greece.

Rhea

ANCIENT GREECE

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