In the beginning there was only Chaos, an empty void. But somehow this enormous vacancy gave birth to Gaea, the earth, to Tartarus, the great region beneath the earth, and to Eros, the shining god of love and attraction. Chaos also bore Erebus, the darkness of the netherworld, and Night, the darkness over the earth. Then Erebus slept with Night, who gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light, and to Day, the earthly light. Later Night alone produced such beings as Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis, and a long list of other atrocities that steal upon men in darkness.
Meanwhile Gaea, without help, gave birth to Uranus, the starry sky, to the Mountains, and to Pontus, the sterile sea. Uranus then became Gaea's mate and equal, for he covered her on all sides. This primordial couple, sky and earth, produced the twelve Titans, the three towering wheel-eyed Cyclopes, and the three terrible Hecatoncheires with fifty heads and a hundred arms apiece.
However, Uranus proved to be a harsh husband and father. Each of the Hecatoncheires hated him, and he hated them in return. In his anger Uranus pushed them back into Gaea's womb and kept them there. Gaea writhed in pain at this and plotted revenge upon her mate. She fashioned a flint sickle and called upon her other children to avenge her. The Titans and Cyclopes recoiled in fear of their father, and only the last-born Titan, Cronus, was daring enough.
That night when Uranus came to lie without Gaea the crafty Cronus was hiding in ambush. He grabbed his father's genitals and severed them with his mother's sickle. As the blood fell to earth the Furies, who punish crimes, the Ash-Tree Nymphs, and the race of Giants were created. Cronus heaved the members into the sea, and from the foam arose Aphrodite, the beautiful goddess of love, who floated along and stepped ashore at Cyprus. The mutilated Uranus either withdrew forever from the earth or else he perished. But before he did so he promised that Cronus and the other Titans would be punished.
