Characters
- Aether — bright upper atmosphere; child of Night and Erebus
- Chaos — first being; yawning gap from which Erebus and Night arise
- Erebus — dark offspring of Chaos; mates with Night
- Eros — fairest of the deathless gods; overcomes mind and counsel of gods and men
- Gaia — wide-bosomed Earth; foundation of the gods; mother of Uranus, the Hills, and Pontus without a mate
- Hemera — child of Night and Erebus
- Nymphs of the hills — goddess-nymphs dwelling in mountain glens (named as a class)
- Nyx — black Night, child of Chaos; with Erebus bears Aether and Day
- Olympian gods — those who hold Olympus’ peaks, for whom Earth is foundation
- Ourea — long Hills born of Earth; haunts of nymphs
- Pontus — fruitless deep with raging swell; born of Earth without love-union
- Tartarus — dim underworld depth within wide-pathed Earth; among the first to come to be
- Uranus — starry Heaven, equal to Earth, born of Earth alone to cover her
Places
- Mountain glens — haunts of the goddess-nymphs among the long Hills
- Olympus — snowy peaks held by the deathless ones; Earth’s role as their foundation
- Tartarus — dim depth within the Earth among the first realities
- The deep — the sea as cosmic region born from Earth
- Wide-pathed Earth — the earth-disk itself; location of Tartarus in its depths
Themes
Narrative
Hesiod’s *Theogony*, after invoking the Muses, turns to the very first things that came into being. At the beginning, Chaos came to be. “Chaos” here is not disorder in the modern sense but a yawning gap or chasm—the first opening of existence.
Next after Chaos came wide-bosomed Gaia (Earth), the sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus. With her, or next among the first, came dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth—the deep underworld region beneath the earth—and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods. Eros unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men.
From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night (Nyx). Night, joining in love with Erebus, bore Aether (the bright upper air) and Day (Hemera).
Earth herself first brought forth, without sweet union of love, starry Heaven (Uranus), equal to herself, to cover her on every side and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. She also brought forth the long Hills (Ourea), graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell among the glens, and the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus (Sea), likewise without union of love.
Thus the first layer of the cosmos is set: a primordial gap; Earth as foundation; the deep below; Desire as a cosmic force; the dark pair Erebus and Night, who produce bright Air and Day; and Earth’s parthenogenetic children Heaven, Mountains, and Sea—before she later lies with Heaven to bear the Titans and other terrible offspring (treated in the following entry).