Cosmogony Definition
\Cos*mog"o*ny\ (-n?), n.; pl. Cosmogonies (-n?z). [Gr. kosmogoni`a; ko`smos the world root of gi`gnesthai to be born: cf. F. cosmogonie.]
The creation of the world or universe; a theory or account of such creation; as, the poetical cosmogony of Hesiod; the cosmogonies of Thales, Anaxagoras, and Plato.
From Hypertext Webster Gateway
Creation Stories
The Nature of Greek Myths, by G.S. Kirk, divides myths into 6 categories, 3 of which are coming into being or creation stories. These categories are
cosmological
tales of the Olympians, and
those about the early history of men.
Here we're focusing mainly on the first, the cosmological -- ancient Greek stories of the creation of the world out of the primordial goo. In Rise of the Olympians, you may read about (2) the coming into being of the Olympians, and in Prometheus, you may read about (3) the creation of human beings. There isn't one standard story about the primordial goo or first substance. The main contenders for the primordial substance is not goo, but Sky (Uranus/Ouranos) and a kind of emptiness, referred to as either the Void or Chaos. What came next must have sprung from these first things.
Chaos
The nature of Chaos changed over time, creating either the specific bodies of the cosmos, or the cosmos itself and order.
"Chaos - in one ancient Greek myth of creation, the dark, silent abyss from which all things came into existence. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, Chaos generated the solid mass of Earth, from which arose the starry, cloud-filled Heaven. Mother Earth and Father Heaven, personified respectively as Gaea [Gaia] and her offspring Uranus [Uranos], were the parents of the Titans. In a later theory, Chaos is the formless matter from which the cosmos, or harmonious order, was created."
(http://www.ancientgreece.com/html/mythology_frame.htm) Ancient Greece Mythology
Uranus and Gaia
One account of the beginnings comes from Apollodorus' Library, translated by Sir J. G. Frazer. Who exactly Apollodorus was remains a mystery, although he may have lived around the second century B.C., which puts him much closer than us to the main writers to whom the ancient Greeks turned for religious information, Homer and Hesiod. Here's Apollodorus' version of the cosmogony:
Sky (Uranos) was the first who ruled over the whole world. And having wedded Earth (Gaia), he begat first the Hundred-handed.... After these, Earth bore him the Cyclopes.... But them Sky bound and cast into Tartarus.... And he begat children by Earth, to wit, the Titans ... and youngest of all, Cronus....But Earth, grieved at the destruction of her children, who had been cast into Tartarus....
Apollodorus
Sky / Uranos - Earth / Gaia
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100-Handed Cyclops Titans
Void first; then Eros and Earth
An earlier (7-8th century B.C.) version of the story (referred to above) comes from Hesiod, author of Theogony and Works and Days. In Theogony the Void or Chaos existed before anything else. Then came Earth (Gaia) and Eros (god of love or desire). Out of the Void or Chaos came Darkness (Erebus) and Night (Nyx); from Night, Light and Day.
Void / Chaos
Earth / Gaia
Eros
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Darkness | Night
Sky / Uranus
Earth produced the Sky (Uranus) to cover herself. Then, by coupling they produced an enormous brood, including Oceanus (Ocean), Themis (Law), Mnemosyne (Memory), Phoebe, Cronus, the Cyclopes/Cyclops (producers of Zeus' thunderbolt) and the 50-headed monsters, Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes (the Hecatoncheires).
Sky / Uranus - Earth / Gaia
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Oceanus (Ocean)
Themis (Law)
Mnemosyne (Memory)
Phoebe
Cronus (Saturn)
Cyclopes
50-headed monsters
& more
Not a very natural parent, Uranus took pleasure in preventing any of his children from seeing the light of day. He insisted that Gaia (Mother Earth) keep them locked up. Growing within the bowels of Mother Earth, the children of Uranus and Gaia caused great physical and emotional pain for Gaia. Eventually she could take it no longer and so she created a new metal. From the metal, Gaia fashioned a sickle, which she gave to her boldest offspring, the Titan Cronus (Saturn).
The next time Uranus came to make love to Gaia, which he did by stretching out all over the Earth, Cronus sprang up from his hiding place, brandished his sickle, and attacked and castrated father Uranus. Additional offspring sprang from the spilled blood and organ of Uranus : Giants, Erinyes (Furies), Meliae -- and most spectacularly, Aphrodite, who was born from the foam.
In his translation of the following section of the Theogony, Norman O. Brown explains the etymology of the name Titans for these 12 children of Earth and Sky (Cronus, Rhea, Iapetus, Oceanus, Hyperion, Themis, Thea, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Coeus, Tethys, and Crius):
Great Father Sky called his children the Titans because of his feud with them; he said that they blindly had tightened the noose and had done a savage thing for which they would have to pay in time to come. (lines 209-210)
...And they did have to pay. Just as Uranus (Sky) suffered at his son's hands, so would Cronus at the hands of his offspring, Zeus. But that's another story.
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