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80-619: Greeks of the classical age knew of several poems about the war between the gods and many of the Titans. The dominant one, and the only one that has survived, is the Theogony attributed to Hesiod . The Titans also played a prominent role in the poems attributed to Orpheus . Although only scraps of the Orphic narratives survive, they show differences from the Hesiodic tradition. The stage for

160-422: A sickle made of adamant and urged her children to punish their father. Only her son Cronus, the youngest Titan, was willing to do so. So Gaia hid Cronus in "ambush" and gave him the adamantine sickle, and when Uranus came to lie with Gaia, Cronus reached out and castrated his father. This enabled the Titans to be born and Cronus to assume supreme command of the cosmos. Cronus, having now taken over control of

240-653: A descendent line consisting primarily of sea deities, sea nymphs, and hybrid monsters. Their first child Nereus (Old Man of the Sea) married Doris , one of the Oceanid daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and they produced the Nereids , fifty sea nymphs, which included Amphitrite , Thetis , and Psamathe . Their second child Thaumas married Electra, another Oceanid, and their offspring were Iris (Rainbow) and

320-465: A doublet of Coeus , the embodiment of the celestial axis around which the heavens revolve. A common misconception today is that Atlas was forced to hold the Earth on his shoulders, but Classical art shows Atlas holding the celestial spheres , not the terrestrial globe ; the solidity of the marble globe borne by the renowned Farnese Atlas may have aided the conflation, reinforced in the 16th century by

400-455: A great sickle , forged from adamantine, and hid it in a crevice on Mount Othrys . Gaia then proceeded to attempt to convince 12 of her other children from Uranus, who were known as the Titans, to castrate Uranus. Only Cronus was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the adamantine sickle and positioned him in the same crevice that previously held his sickle. When Uranus met to consort with Gaia on Mount Othrys, Cronus ambushed Uranus, and with

480-510: A helmet of darkness. Fighting on the other side allied with Cronus were the other Titans with the important exception of Themis and her son Prometheus who allied with Zeus ( NB. for Hesiod , Clymene is the mother of Prometheus). Atlas was second in command after Cronus. The war lasted ten years, but eventually Zeus and the other Olympians won. Zeus had the important Titans imprisoned in Tartarus much like Cronus did to his father, and

560-499: A living involvement with the divine order of things; and the absolute conviction that, beyond the totality of things, reality forms a beautiful and harmonious whole. In the Theogony , the origin ( arche ) is Chaos , a divine primordial condition, and there are the roots and the ends of the earth, sky, sea, and Tartarus . Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BC), believed that there were three pre-existent divine principles and called

640-629: A magnetite rock, given to her by her mother Gaia, wrapped in a blanket instead. Rhea brought Zeus to a cave in Crete , where he was raised by Amalthea and the Meliae. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus masqueraded as Cronus' cupbearer. Once he had been established as a servant of Cronus, the Oceanid Metis gave Zeus a mixture of mustard and wine which would cause Cronus to vomit out his swallowed children, now grown. After freeing his siblings as well as

720-486: A maiden..." Cronus took his father's title of ruler of land, sky, and sea. He then secured his power by forcing his siblings to bow down to his will. Cronus, paranoid of Uranus's curse and fearing the end of his rule, now turned into the tyrant his father Uranus had once been, swallowing each of his children whole as they were born from his sister-wife Rhea . Rhea, who began to resent Cronus, managed to hide her youngest newborn child Zeus , by tricking Cronus into swallowing

800-528: A mountain range, he flies over Aethiopia , the blood of Medusa's head giving rise to Libyan snakes. By the time of the Roman Empire , the habit of associating Atlas's home to a chain of mountains, the Atlas Mountains , which were near Mauretania and Numidia , was firmly entrenched. The identifying name Aril is inscribed on two 5th-century BC Etruscan bronze items: a mirror from Vulci and

880-658: A ring from an unknown site. Both objects depict the encounter with Atlas of Hercle —the Etruscan Heracles —identified by the inscription; they represent rare instances where a figure from Greek mythology was imported into Etruscan mythology , but the name was not. The Etruscan name Aril is etymologically independent. Sources describe Atlas as the father, by different goddesses, of numerous children, mostly daughters. Some of these are assigned conflicting or overlapping identities or parentage in different sources. Hyginus , in his Fabulae , adds an older Atlas who

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960-508: A whole; this universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first later projects of speculative theorizing. Further, in the "Kings and Singers" passage (80–103) Hesiod appropriates to himself the authority usually reserved to sacred kingship. The poet declares that it is he, where we might have expected some king instead, upon whom the Muses have bestowed the two gifts of a scepter and an authoritative voice (Hesiod, Theogony 30–3), which are

1040-606: Is durus , "hard, enduring", which suggested to George Doig that Virgil was aware of the Greek τλῆναι "to endure"; Doig offers the further possibility that Virgil was aware of Strabo 's remark that the native North African name for this mountain was Douris . Since the Atlas Mountains rise in the region inhabited by Berbers , it has been suggested that the name might be taken from one of the Berber languages , specifically from

1120-534: Is a Titan condemned to hold up the heavens or sky for eternity after the Titanomachy . Atlas also plays a role in the myths of two of the greatest Greek heroes : Heracles ( Hercules in Roman mythology ) and Perseus . According to the ancient Greek poet Hesiod , Atlas stood at the ends of the earth in the extreme west . Later, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa and

1200-455: Is a son of Zeus. Atlas, fearful of a prophecy that warned of a son of Zeus stealing his golden apples from his orchard, refuses Perseus hospitality. In this account, Atlas is turned not just into stone by Perseus, but an entire mountain range: Atlas's head the peak, his shoulders ridges and his hair woods. The prophecy did not relate to Perseus stealing the golden apples but to Heracles , another son of Zeus, and Perseus's great-grandson. One of

1280-502: Is called the "succession myth", which tells how Cronus overthrew Uranus , and how in turn Zeus overthrew Cronus and his fellow Titans , and how Zeus was eventually established as the final and permanent ruler of the cosmos. Uranus (Sky) initially produced eighteen children with his mother Gaia (Earth): the twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes , and the three Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handers), but hating them, he hid them away somewhere inside Gaia. Angry and in distress, Gaia fashioned

1360-405: Is the element or first principle of all things, a permanent nature or substance which is conserved in the generation of the rest of it. From this, all things come to be, and into it they are resolved in a final state. It is the divine horizon of substance that encompasses and rules all things. Thales (7th – 6th century BC), the first Greek philosopher, claimed that the first principle of all things

1440-547: Is the son of Aether and Gaia . Atlas' best-known cultural association is in cartography . The first publisher to associate the Titan Atlas with a group of maps was the print-seller Antonio Lafreri , who included a depiction of the Titan on the engraved titlepage he applied to his ad hoc assemblages of maps, Tavole Moderne di Geografia de la Maggior parte del Mondo di Diversi Autori (1572). However, Lafreri did not use

1520-406: Is water. Anaximander (6th century BC) was the first philosopher who used the term arche for that which writers from Aristotle on call the "substratum". Anaximander claimed that the beginning or first principle is an endless mass ( Apeiron ) subject to neither age nor decay, from which all things are being born and then they are destroyed there. A fragment from Xenophanes (6th century BC) shows

1600-765: The Hydra . Next comes the Chimera (whose mother is unclear, either Echidna or the Hydra). Finally Orthus (his mate is unclear, either the Chimera or Echidna) produced two offspring: the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion . The Titans, Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, and Cronus married their sisters Tethys, Theia, Phoebe and Rhea, and Crius married his half-sister Eurybia, the daughter of Gaia and her son, Pontus. From Oceanus and Tethys came

1680-616: The Mycenaean tradition than the result of oriental contacts in Hesiod's own time. The decipherment of Hittite mythical texts, notably the Kingship in Heaven text first presented in 1946, with its castration mytheme , offers in the figure of Kumarbi an Anatolian parallel to Hesiod's Uranus–Cronus conflict. One of the principal components of the Theogony is the presentation of what

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1760-548: The Nereid Amphitrite was born Triton , and from Ares and Aphrodite came Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror), and Harmonia (Harmony). Zeus, with Atlas 's daughter Maia , produced Hermes , and with the mortal Alcmene , produced the hero Heracles , who married Hebe . Zeus and the mortal Semele , daughter of Harmonia and Cadmus , the founder and first king of Thebes , produced Dionysus , who married Ariadne , daughter of Minos , king of Crete . Helios and

1840-606: The Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea). Uranus mated with Gaia, and she gave birth to the twelve Titans : Oceanus , Coeus , Crius , Hyperion , Iapetus , Theia , Rhea , Themis , Mnemosyne , Phoebe , Tethys and Cronus ; the Cyclopes : Brontes, Steropes and Arges ; and the Hecatoncheires ("Hundred-Handers"): Cottus, Briareos, and Gyges. When Cronus castrated Uranus, from Uranus' blood which splattered onto

1920-670: The Twelve Labours of the hero Heracles was to fetch some of the golden apples that grow in Hera 's garden, tended by Atlas's reputed daughters, the Hesperides (which were also called the Atlantides), and guarded by the dragon Ladon . Heracles went to Atlas and offered to hold up the heavens while Atlas got the apples from his daughters. Upon his return with the apples, however, Atlas attempted to trick Heracles into carrying

2000-521: The Vedic and Hindu cosmologies. In the Vedic cosmology the universe is created from nothing by the great heat. Kāma (Desire) the primal seed of spirit, is the link which connected the existent with the non-existent In the Hindu cosmology, in the beginning there was nothing in the universe but only darkness and the divine essence who removed the darkness and created the primordial waters. His seed produced

2080-534: The gods " ) is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods , composed c.  730–700 BC . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines. It is one of the most important sources for the understanding of early Greek cosmology . Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning

2160-495: The universal germ ( Hiranyagarbha ), from which everything else appeared. In the Babylonian creation story Enûma Eliš the universe was in a formless state and is described as a watery chaos . From it emerged two primary gods, the male Apsu and female Tiamat , and a third deity who is the maker Mummu and his power for the progression of cosmogonic births to begin. Norse mythology also describes Ginnungagap as

2240-442: The "true" cosmological history. In the Theogony the initial state of the universe, or the origin ( arche ) is Chaos , a gaping void ( abyss ) considered as a divine primordial condition, from which appeared everything that exists. Then came Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (the cave-like space under the earth; the later-born Erebus is the darkness in this space), and Eros (representing sexual desire—the urge to reproduce—instead of

2320-621: The Hecatonchires and Cyclopes, Zeus led them in rebellion against the Titans. Zeus then waged a war against his father with his disgorged brothers and sisters as allies: Hestia , Demeter , Hera , Hades , and Poseidon . Zeus released the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes from the earth (where they had been imprisoned by Cronus) and they allied with him as well. The Hecatonchires hurled stones. The Cyclopes forged for Zeus his iconic thunder and lightning, for Poseidon his trident and for Hades

2400-472: The Hecatonchires were made their guards. Atlas was given the special punishment of holding up the sky. In some accounts, when Zeus became secure in his power he relented and gave the Titans their freedom. Hyginus relates the Titanomachy differently: "After Hera saw that Epaphus , born of a concubine, ruled such a great kingdom (Egypt), she saw to it that he should be killed while hunting, and encouraged

2480-467: The Hundred-Handers, who joined the war against the Titans, helping Zeus to gain the upper hand. Zeus then cast the fury of his thunderbolt at the Titans, defeating them and throwing them into Tartarus , thus ending the Titanomachy. A final threat to Zeus' power was to come in the form of the monster Typhon , son of Gaia and Tartarus. Zeus with his thunderbolt was quickly victorious, and Typhon

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2560-601: The Oceanid Clymene and produced Atlas , Menoetius , Prometheus , and Epimetheus . Zeus married seven wives. His first wife was the Oceanid Metis , whom he impregnated with Athena , then, on the advice of Gaia and Uranus, swallowed Metis so that no son of his by Metis would overthrow him, as had been foretold. Zeus' second wife was his aunt the Titan Themis , who bore the three Horae (Seasons): Eunomia (Order), Dikē (Justice), Eirene (Peace); and

2640-603: The Oceanid Perseis produced Circe , Aeetes , who became king of Colchis and married the Oceanid Idyia , producing Medea . The goddess Demeter joined with the mortal Iasion to produce Plutus . In addition to Semele, the goddess Harmonia and the mortal Cadmus also produced Ino , Agave , Autonoe and Polydorus . Eos (Dawn) with the mortal Tithonus , produced the hero Memnon , and Emathion , and with Cephalus , produced Phaethon . Medea with

2720-671: The Titan Mnemosyne , from whom came the nine Muses : Clio , Euterpe , Thalia , Melpomene , Terpsichore , Erato , Polymnia , Urania , and Calliope . His sixth wife was the Titan Leto , who gave birth to Apollo and Artemis . Zeus' seventh and final wife was his sister Hera , the mother by Zeus of Hebe , Ares , and Eileithyia . Zeus finally "gave birth" himself to Athena , from his head, which angered Hera so much that she produced, by herself, her own son Hephaestus , god of fire and blacksmiths. From Poseidon and

2800-452: The Titanomachy was set after the youngest Titan Cronus overthrew his own father, Uranus (Ουρανός, the sky and ruler of the cosmos), with the help of his mother, Gaia (Γαία, the earth). Uranus drew the enmity of Gaia when he imprisoned six of her children — the three Hecatonchires (giants with 50 heads and 100 arms) and the three Cyclopes (also giants, each with a single eye in the middle of its forehead) — within her womb. Gaia created

2880-410: The Titans to drive Zeus from the kingdom and restore it to Cronus ( Saturn ). When they tried to mount heaven, Zeus with the help of Athena , Apollo , and Artemis , cast them headlong into Tartarus. On Atlas, who had been their leader, he put the vault of the sky; even now he is said to hold up the sky on his shoulders." The Iliad describes how following their victory, the three brothers divided

2960-628: The adamantine sickle, sliced off his genitals, casting them across the Mediterranean . After doing so, Cronus freed the imprisoned Hecatonchires and Cyclopes, by slicing open Gaia's womb and promptly imprisoned them in Tartarus . Cronus also quickly imprisoned Uranus deep below Tartarus. In doing this, he became the Ruler of the Titans. But Uranus cursed Cronus so that Cronus's own children would rebel against his rule, just as Cronus had rebelled against his own father. Uranus' blood that had spilled upon

3040-485: The bones and hid them with a thin glistening layer of fat. Prometheus asked Zeus' opinion on which offering pile he found more desirable, hoping to trick the god into selecting the less desirable portion. Though Zeus saw through the trick, he chose the fat covered bones, and so it was established that ever after men would burn the bones as sacrifice to the gods, keeping the choice meat and fat for themselves. But in punishment for this trick, an angry Zeus decided to deny mankind

3120-529: The brothers (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) were called to intervene. A somewhat different account of the Titanomachy appeared in a poem that is now lost. The poem was traditionally ascribed to Eumelus of Corinth , a semi-legendary bard of the Bacchiadae ruling family in archaic Corinth , who was treasured as the traditional composer of the Prosodion , the processional anthem of Messenian independence that

3200-528: The cosmos from Uranus, wanted to ensure that he maintained control. Uranus and Gaia had prophesied to Cronus that one of Cronus' own children would overthrow him, so when Cronus married Rhea , he made sure to swallow each of the children she birthed: Hestia , Demeter , Hera , Hades , Poseidon , and Zeus (in that order), to Rhea's great sorrow. However, when Rhea was pregnant with Zeus, Rhea begged her parents Gaia and Uranus to help her save Zeus. So they sent Rhea to Lyctus on Crete to bear Zeus, and Gaia took

3280-450: The cosmos. The world began with the spontaneous generation of four beings: first arose Chaos (Chasm); then came Gaia (Earth), "the ever-sure foundation of all"; "dim" Tartarus , in the depths of the Earth; and Eros (Desire) "fairest among the deathless gods". From Chaos came Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). And Nyx "from union in love" with Erebus produced Aether (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). From Gaia came Uranus (Sky),

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3360-511: The developing usage of atlas to describe a corpus of terrestrial maps . The Greek poet Polyidus c.  398 BC tells a tale of Atlas, then a shepherd, encountering Perseus who turned him to stone . Ovid later gives a more detailed account of the incident, combining it with the myth of Heracles. In this account Atlas is not a shepherd, but a king. According to Ovid, Perseus arrives in Atlas's Kingdom and asks for shelter, declaring he

3440-531: The earth gave rise to the Gigantes , Erinyes , and Meliae . From the mixture of blood and semen from his mutilated genitalia, Aphrodite arose from the sea where they landed in Cyprus. ...so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew

3520-405: The earth, along with the Hundred-Handers, where Uranus had originally confined them) who then provide Zeus with his great weapon, the thunderbolt, which had been hidden by Gaia. A great war was begun, the Titanomachy , between the new gods, Zeus and his siblings, and the old gods, Cronus and the Titans, for control of the cosmos. In the tenth year of that war, following Gaia's counsel, Zeus released

3600-1129: The earth, came the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants , and the Meliai . Cronus threw the severed genitals into the sea, around which foam developed and transformed into the goddess Aphrodite . Meanwhile, Nyx (Night) alone produced children: Moros (Doom), Ker (Destiny), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain), Hesperides (Daughters of Night), Moirai (Fates), Keres (Destinies), Nemesis (Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), and Eris (Discord). And from Eris alone, came Ponos (Hardship), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Starvation), Algea (Pains), Hysminai (Battles), Makhai (Wars), Phonoi (Murders), Androktasiai (Manslaughters), Neikea (Quarrels), Pseudea (Lies), Logoi (Stories), Amphillogiai (Disputes), Dysnomia (Anarchy), Ate (Ruin), and Horkos (Oath). After Uranus's castration, Gaia mated with her son Pontus (Sea) producing

3680-484: The emotion of love as is the common misconception). Hesiod made an abstraction because his original chaos is something completely indefinite. By contrast, in the Orphic cosmogony the unaging Chronos produced Aether and Chaos and made a silvery egg in divine Aether. From it appeared the androgynous god Phanes , identified by the Orphics as Eros, who becomes the creator of the world. Some similar ideas appear in

3760-479: The end of the 13th century. An early example is found in Vaticanus gr. 1825 . This manuscript dates to about 1310 based on watermarks. There are about 64 known manuscripts that date from 1600 AD or earlier. The heritage of Greek mythology already embodied the desire to articulate reality as a whole, and this universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first projects of speculative theorizing. It appears that

3840-717: The extreme west of the world since Hesiod 's Theogony . Diodorus and Palaephatus mention that the Gorgons lived in the Gorgades, islands in the Aethiopian Sea . The main island was called Cerna, and modern-day arguments have been advanced that these islands may correspond to Cape Verde due to Phoenician exploration. The Northwest Africa region emerged as the canonical home of the King via separate sources. In particular, according to Ovid, after Perseus turns Atlas into

3920-424: The gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos . It is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony . The initial state of the universe is chaos , a dark indefinite void considered a divine primordial condition from which everything else appeared. Theogonies are a part of Greek mythology which embodies the desire to articulate reality as

4000-427: The heavens upon his shoulders again, Heracles took the apples and ran away. In some versions, Heracles instead built the two great Pillars of Hercules to hold the sky away from the earth, liberating Atlas much as he liberated Prometheus . Besides the Titan, there are other mythological characters who were also called Atlas: According to Plato , the first king of Atlantis was also named Atlas , but that Atlas

4080-521: The land of the Mauri in antiquity roughly corresponding with modern Morocco and Algeria . In the 16th century, Gerardus Mercator put together the first collection of maps to be called an " Atlas " and devoted his book to the "King of Mauretania". Atlas became associated with Northwest Africa over time. He had been connected with the Hesperides , or "Nymphs", which guarded the golden apples , and Gorgons both of which were said to live beyond Ocean in

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4160-679: The mortal Jason , produced Medius , the Nereid Psamathe with the mortal Aeacus , produced the hero Phocus , the Nereid Thetis , with Peleus produced the great warrior Achilles , and the goddess Aphrodite with the mortal Anchises produced the Trojan hero Aeneas . With the hero Odysseus , Circe would give birth to Agrius , Latinus , and Telegonus , and Atlas' daughter Calypso would also bear Odysseus two sons, Nausithoos and Nausinous . The Theogony , after listing

4240-458: The much shorter Homeric Hymn to the Muses make it clear that the Theogony developed out of a tradition of hymnic preludes with which an ancient Greek rhapsode would begin his performance at poetic competitions. It is necessary to see the Theogony not as the definitive source of Greek mythology, but rather as a snapshot of a dynamic tradition that happened to crystallize when Hesiod formulated

4320-497: The mythological Titan. The " Atlantic Ocean " is derived from "Sea of Atlas". The name of Atlantis mentioned in Plato's Timaeus ' dialogue derives from "Atlantis nesos" ( Ancient Greek : Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος ), literally meaning "Atlas's Island". The etymology of the name Atlas is uncertain. Virgil took pleasure in translating etymologies of Greek names by combining them with adjectives that explained them: for Atlas his adjective

4400-598: The myths he knew—and to remember that the traditions have continued evolving since that time. The written form of the Theogony was established in the 6th century BC. Even some conservative editors have concluded that the Typhon episode (820–68) is an interpolation. Hesiod was probably influenced by some Near-Eastern traditions, such as the Babylonian Dynasty of Dunnum , which were mixed with local traditions, but they are more likely to be lingering traces from

4480-405: The newborn Zeus to raise, hiding him deep in a cave beneath Mount Aigaion. Meanwhile, Rhea gave Cronus a huge stone wrapped in baby's clothes which he swallowed thinking that it was another of Rhea's children. Zeus, now grown, forced Cronus (using some unspecified trickery of Gaia) to disgorge his other five children. Zeus then released his uncles the Cyclopes (apparently still imprisoned beneath

4560-491: The offspring of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene , as Atlas , Menoitios , Prometheus , and Epimetheus , and telling briefly what happened to each, tells the story of Prometheus. When the gods and men met at Mekone to decide how sacrifices should be distributed, Prometheus sought to trick Zeus. Slaughtering an ox, he took the valuable fat and meat, and covered it with the ox's stomach. Prometheus then took

4640-400: The order of being was first imaginatively visualized before it was abstractly thought. Hesiod, impressed by necessity governing the ordering of things, discloses a definite pattern in the genesis and appearance of the gods. These ideas made something like cosmological speculation possible. The earliest rhetoric of reflection all centers about two interrelated things: the experience of wonder as

4720-413: The primordial abyss from which sprang the first living creatures, including the giant Ymir whose body eventually became the world, whose blood became the seas, and so on; another version describes the origin of the world as a result of the fiery and cold parts of Hel colliding. Atlas (mythology) In Greek mythology , Atlas ( / ˈ æ t l ə s / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἄτλας , Átlās )

4800-418: The sky permanently by offering to deliver the apples himself, as anyone who purposely took the burden must carry it forever, or until someone else took it away. Heracles, suspecting Atlas did not intend to return, pretended to agree to Atlas's offer, asking only that Atlas take the sky again for a few minutes so Heracles could rearrange his cloak as padding on his shoulders. When Atlas set down the apples and took

4880-605: The son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia or Clymene . He was a brother of Epimetheus and Prometheus . He had many children, mostly daughters, the Hesperides , the Hyades , the Pleiades , and the nymph Calypso who lived on the island Ogygia . The term " atlas " has been used to describe a collection of maps since the 16th century when Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his work in honor of

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4960-406: The three Moirai (Fates): Clotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Allotter), and Atropos (Unbending). Zeus then married his third wife, another Oceanid, Eurynome , who bore the three Charites (Graces): Aglaea (Splendor), whom Hephaestus married, Euphrosyne (Joy), and Thalia (Good Cheer). Zeus' fourth wife was his sister, Demeter , who bore Persephone . The fifth wife of Zeus was another aunt,

5040-402: The three thousand river gods (including Nilus [Nile], Alpheus , and Scamander ) and three thousand Oceanid nymphs (including Doris , Electra, Callirhoe , Styx , Clymene , Metis , Eurynome , Perseis , and Idyia ). From Hyperion and Theia came Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon), and Eos (Dawn), and from Crius and Eurybia came Astraios , Pallas , and Perses . From Eos and Astraios came

5120-478: The three-headed Geryon . Next comes the half-nymph half-snake Echidna (her mother is unclear, probably Ceto, or possibly Callirhoe). The last offspring of Ceto and Phorcys was a serpent (unnamed in the Theogony , later called Ladon , by Apollonius of Rhodes ) who guards the golden apples. Gaia also mated with Tartarus to produce Typhon , whom Echidna married, producing several monstrous descendants. Their first three offspring were Orthus , Cerberus , and

5200-577: The transition from Chaos to Apeiron : "The upper limit of earth borders on air. The lower limit of earth reaches down to the unlimited (i.e the Apeiron)." John Milton , a Calvinist , viewed the Theogony as inspired by Satan . Milton's view, as articulated in Paradise Lost , was that once Satan was cast out from heaven, he became the muse that inspired Hesiod. What Hesiod wrote, therefore,

5280-471: The two Harpies : Aello and Ocypete . Gaia and Pontus' third and fourth children, Phorcys and Ceto , married each other and produced the two Graiae : Pemphredo and Enyo , and the three Gorgons : Stheno , Euryale , and Medusa . Poseidon mated with Medusa and two offspring, the winged horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor , were born when the hero Perseus cut off Medusa's head. Chrysaor married Callirhoe , another Oceanid, and they produced

5360-401: The use of fire. But Prometheus stole fire inside a fennel stalk, and gave it to humanity. Zeus then ordered the creation of the first woman Pandora as a new punishment for mankind. And Prometheus was chained to a cliff, where an eagle fed on his ever-regenerating liver every day, until eventually Zeus' son Heracles came to free him. The earliest existing manuscripts of the Theogony date from

5440-479: The visible signs of kingship. It is not that this gesture is meant to make Hesiod a king. Rather, the point is that the authority of kingship now belongs to the poetic voice, the voice that is declaiming the Theogony . Although it is often used as a sourcebook for Greek mythology , the Theogony is both more and less than that. In formal terms it is a hymn invoking Zeus and the Muses: parallel passages between it and

5520-428: The water also Chaos. In the language of the archaic period (8th – 6th century BC), arche (or archai ) designates the source, origin, or root of things that exist. If a thing is to be well established or founded, its arche or static point must be secure, and the most secure foundations are those provided by the gods: the indestructible, immutable, and eternal ordering of things. In ancient Greek philosophy , arche

5600-621: The winds: Zephyrus , Boreas and Notos , Eosphoros (Dawn-bringer, i.e. Venus , the Morning Star), and the Stars. From Pallas and the Oceanid Styx came Zelus (Envy), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Power), and Bia (Force). From Coeus and Phoebe came Leto and Asteria , who married Perses, producing Hekate , and from Cronus and his older sister, Rhea, came Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. The Titan Iapetos married

5680-578: The word ádrār "mountain". Traditionally historical linguists etymologize the Ancient Greek word Ἄτλας ( genitive : Ἄτλαντος) as comprised from copulative α- and the Proto-Indo-European root *telh₂- 'to uphold, support' (whence also τλῆναι), and which was later reshaped to an nt-stem. However, Robert S. P. Beekes argues that it cannot be expected that this ancient Titan carries an Indo-European name, and he suggests instead that

5760-424: The word "Atlas" in the title of his work; this was an innovation of Gerardus Mercator , who named his work Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati (1585–1595), using the word Atlas as a dedication specifically to honor the Titan Atlas, in his capacity as King of Mauretania , a learned philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. In psychology, Atlas is used metaphorically to describe

5840-503: The word is of Pre-Greek origin, as such words often end in -ant . Atlas and his brother Menoetius sided with the Titans in their war against the Olympians , the Titanomachy . When the Titans were defeated, many of them (including Menoetius) were confined to Tartarus , but Zeus condemned Atlas to stand at the western edge of the earth and hold up the sky on his shoulders. Thus, he was Atlas Telamon , "enduring Atlas", and became

5920-557: The world amongst themselves: Zeus was given domain over the sky and the air and was recognized as ruler (also known as the Sky Father). Poseidon was given the sea and all the waters, whereas Hades was given the Underworld, the realm of the dead. Each of the other gods were allotted duties according to the nature and proclivities of each. The earth was left common to all to do as they pleased, even to run counter to one another, unless

6000-556: Was a corruption of the "actual" events that happened in the cosmological struggle of Satan against God. In particular, Milton asserted that the triumph of Zeus (i.e., the supreme deity) through guile, negotiation and alliances, was a corruption of God's omnipotence which did not require any ally. Milton's view echoes the views of early Christian patristic writers. Justin Martyr and Athenagoras of Athens , for example, asserted that heathen mythologies in general are demonic distortions of

6080-453: Was a son of Poseidon and the mortal woman Cleito. The works of Eusebius and Diodorus also give an Atlantean account of Atlas. In these accounts, Atlas' father was Uranus and his mother was Gaia . His grandfather was Elium "King of Phoenicia " who lived in Byblos with his wife Beruth . Atlas was raised by his sister, Basilia . Atlas was also a legendary king of Mauretania ,

6160-505: Was also imprisoned in Tartarus. Zeus, by Gaia's advice, was elected king of the gods, and he distributed various honors among the gods. Zeus then married his first wife Metis , but when he learned that Metis was fated to produce a son which might overthrow his rule, by the advice of Gaia and Uranus, Zeus swallowed Metis (while still pregnant with Athena ). And so Zeus managed to end the cycle of succession and secure his eternal rule over

6240-672: Was divided into two books. The battle of Olympians and Titans was preceded by some sort of theogony, or genealogy of the Primeval Gods, in which, the Byzantine writer John the Lydian remarked, the author of Titanomachy placed the birth of Zeus, not in Crete , but in Lydia , which should signify on Mount Sipylus . Theogony The Theogony ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Θεογονία , Theogonía , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of

6320-479: Was performed on Delos . Even in Antiquity, many authors cited Titanomachia without an author's name. The name of Eumelos was attached to the poem as the only name available. From the very patchy evidence, it seems that "Eumelos"' account of the Titanomachy differed from the surviving account of Hesiod's Theogony at salient points. It was written in the late seventh-century BC at the earliest. The Titanomachy

6400-401: Was said to be the first King of Mauretania (modern-day Morocco and west Algeria , not to be confused with the modern-day country of Mauritania ). Atlas was said to have been skilled in philosophy , mathematics , and astronomy . In antiquity, he was credited with inventing the first celestial sphere . In some texts, he is even credited with the invention of astronomy itself. Atlas was

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