Читать книгу The Mythology of Greece and Rome, With Special Reference to Its Use in Art онлайн

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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.