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By Cosmogony, we understand the legends relating to the creation of the world; by Theogony, those relating to the origin of the gods. On both points we have to deal with the Greeks alone, since the Romans never indulged in any researches of this kind. All that their poets have to say on the subject is, without exception, borrowed from the Greeks.

According to the common account the world was formed out of Chaos. By this, however, we must not understand a huge and shapeless mass, but merely dark, unbounded space. The accounts of the poets vary very materially as to how the world proceeded from Chaos. The most popular view is that according to which Gæa or Ge (the earth) first issued from Chaos; whereupon Tartarus (the abyss beneath the earth) immediately severed itself, and Eros (the love that forms and binds all things) sprang into existence. Gæa then begot of herself Uranus (heaven), the mountains, and Pontus (the sea).

The first gods who peopled this new world were begotten of the earth partly by Uranus and partly by Pontus. From her union with Uranus sprang the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Centimanes; from her union with Pontus various sea-deities.

1. The race of Uranus. According to Hesiod there were twelve Titans: six males—Oceanus, Cœus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus; and six females—Thia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phœbe, and Tethys. The interpretation of these divinities is somewhat difficult, but they doubtless represented the elementary forces of nature. The Cyclopes were three in number—Brontes (thunder), Steropes (lightning), and Arges (sheet-lightning): these, we can clearly see, refer to the phenomena of the storm. The Centimanes (hundred-handed), again, are three in number—Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes. These, too, represent destructive forces of nature—perhaps the earthquake, the tempestuous sea, and the storm-wind.

2. The race of Pontus. By Pontus Gæa became the mother of the fabulous sea-deities—Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia. These, again, had numerous descendants. Nereus represents the sea in its quiet state: we shall have to speak of him and his daughters later on. Thaumas represents to us the majesty of the sea. He is the father of Iris (the rainbow), and of the Harpies (storm-winds). Lastly, Phorcys and Ceto, from whose union the frightful Gorgons and Grææ proceeded, typify all the dangers and terrors of the sea.

Many marriages also took place among the Titans themselves. The numerous sea-nymphs are descended from Oceanus and Tethys; from Hyperion and Thia come the deities of the light—Helios (sun), Selene (moon), and Eos (dawn); from Cœus and Phœbe the deities of the night—Leto (dark night) and Asteria (starry night).

The most important of all the Titans, however, are Cronus and Rhea, who pave the way for the universal dominion of their son Zeus.

Uranus, fearing lest his last-born sons, the powerful Cyclopes and Centimanes, might one day seize his power, buried them directly after birth in the deep abyss beneath the earth. This displeased Gæa, their mother, who thereupon prompted the Titans to conspire against their father, and induced Cronus, the youngest and bravest of them, to lay violent hands on Uranus. Uranus was mutilated, cast into chains, and compelled by his sons to abdicate his sovereignty, which now passed to Cronus. But Cronus was not long destined to enjoy the fruits of his crime. The curse of Uranus, who prophesied that he would suffer a like fate at the hands of his own son, was fulfilled. So anxious was he to avert such a catastrophe, that he swallowed his children immediately after their birth. Five had already suffered this fate—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. But their mother Rhea, grieved at their lot, determined to rescue her next son, Zeus, by a stratagem. In the place of her child, she gave to her suspicious and cruel husband a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed without further examination. Zeus, who was thus rescued, was reared by the nymphs in a grotto on Mount Dicte, in Crete. The she-goat Amalthea served as his nurse, whilst the bees brought him honey to eat. In order that the cries of the child might not betray his presence to his suspicious father, the Curetes, or attendant priests of Rhea, drowned his voice in the clashing of their weapons. Zeus remained thus hidden until he had become a mighty though youthful god. He then attacked and overthrew his father Cronus, whom he also compelled, by means of a device of Gæa, to bring forth the children that he had devoured. One part of the Titans—Oceanus, Themis, Mnemosyne, and Hyperion—submitted without hesitation to the dominion of the new ruler of the world. The others, however, refused allegiance; but Zeus, after a contest of ten years, overthrew them, with the help of the Cyclopes and Centimanes. As a punishment, they were cast into Tartarus, which was then closed by Poseidon with brazen gates. Thessaly, the land which bears the clearest traces of natural convulsions, was supposed to have been the scene of this mighty war. Zeus and his adherents fought from Olympus; the Titans from the opposite mountain of Othrys.

Comparison of the legends of other nations does not show us any such elaborate genealogy. Zeus has his counterparts almost everywhere, and Uranus himself appears in India; but Cronus, in the sense of the father of Zeus, is probably traceable to the common epithet of Zeus, Cronion, which was assumed in later times to be a patronymic. It was natural to deduce from the idea that one power of nature sprang from another, the expression that the god of the first power was the child of the god of the second; it would perhaps be more correct to say that it was the same thing to the early races of men. As to the wars, which were so great a stumbling-block to the Greek philosophers, we may notice that the supreme god must, of course, have been the son of a supreme god; and yet, if his predecessor were supreme, must have dispossessed him.

Fig. 1.—Bust of Cronus. Vatican Museum.

The Titans, not being actually objects of worship, were not frequently represented in ancient art. Cronus is the only exception, which may be explained by the fact that the Romans identified him with their own Saturn, or harvest-god. He is generally depicted with a severe and gloomy expression of countenance, the back of his head being veiled, as a symbol of his reserved character. In the Vatican Museum at Rome there is a bust of this kind in good preservation, an engraving of which we give (Fig. 1).

After his victory over the Titans, Zeus shared the empire of the world with his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades. The former he made ruler of the ocean and waters; the latter he set over the infernal regions; everything else he retained for himself. This new order of things, however, was by no means securely established. The resentment of Gæa led her to produce with Tartarus, her youngest and most powerful son, the giant Typhoeus, a monster with a hundred fire-breathing dragons’ heads, whom she sent to overthrow the dominion of Zeus. A great battle took place, which shook heaven and earth. Zeus, by means of his never-ceasing thunderbolts, at length overcame Typhoeus, and cast him into Tartarus, or, according to later writers (Pindar and Virgil), buried him beneath Mount Ætna in Sicily, whence at times he still breathes out fire and flames toward heaven.

Some poets tell of another rebellion, that of the Giants, against the dominion of Zeus. These are said to have sprung from the drops of blood which fell on the earth from the mutilated body of Uranus. From the plains of Phlegra, in Thessaly, they sought to storm Olympus by piling Pelion on Ossa. But after a bloody battle, in which all the gods took part, the two were conquered, and sent to share the fate of the vanquished Titans. The dominion of Zeus was now securely established, and no hostile attack ever after disturbed the peaceful ease of the inhabitants of Olympus.

Fig. 2.—Cameo of Athenion.

The early history of Zeus, as well as his contests for the empire of the universe, commonly called the Giganto-machia, was a favourite subject with Greek art. In the more ancient of these works the Giants do not differ, either in form or appearance, from the Gods and Heroes. In later works they are represented with the bodies of dragons, only the upper portion of the body being human. They appear thus on the celebrated cameo of the Naples Museum, where Zeus, in his chariot drawn by four fiery horses, is in the act of charging them (Fig. 2).