𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫 ➣ percy j.

i. prelude

“The Earth received the wild beasts, and the yielding air the birds. But an animated being, more holy than these, more fitted to receive higher faculties, and which could rule over the rest, was still wanting. Then Man was formed.”

metamorphoses

In the beginning, there were four, three of them are considered the primordial triad: Chaos, Gaia, and Eros.

Of chaos

Chaos represents the dimensionless expanses of cosmic depth in which cosmic manifestation begins. Thus it possesses a principial function: it is necessary for generation of the cosmos and gods.” Principial here means initial, primary. Chaos’ function is tied to the beginning of everything, but Chaos is not generative, “nor does it hold the seeds of potentialities of all things within itself.” It must be understood in relation to its counterparts Gaia and Eros, in the triad...

...Chaos is the only medium through which the substantive reality that is Gaia can come to be. Perhaps we can think of it this way: the expansive material reality, the flourishing abundance of our earth, is only as full as the space that Chaos allows to exist. The fullness of place that is the planet in which we dwell is enabled by Chaos...

“Creation came out of chaos, is surrounded by chaos, and will end in chaos.” - Homer

Of Gaia

And Gaia first bare starry Ouranos, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods . . . But afterwards she lay with Ouranos and bare the Titanes deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Krios and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rheia, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronus the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire. And again, she bare the Cyclopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges...

...And again, three other sons, the Hekatonkheires, were born of Gaia and Ouranos, great and doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareus and Gyes. From their shoulders sprang a hundred arms, not to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great forms. For of all the children that were born of Gaia and Ouranos, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first. And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Gaia so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Ouranos rejoiced in his evil doing...

...But vast Gaia groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons. And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear heart : ‘My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first thought of doing shameful things.’
So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them uttered a word. But great Cronus the wily took courage and answered his dear mother : ‘Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I reverence not our father of evil name, for he first thought of doing shameful things.' So he said...

...and vast Gaia rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot. And Ouranos came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Gaia spreading himself full upon her. Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him.
And not vainly did they fall from his hand...

...for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Gaia received, and as the seasons moved round she bare the strong Furies and the great Gigantes with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphai whom they call Meliai all over the boundless earth.

Of Eros

Eros was one of the fundamental causes in the formation of the world, inasmuch as he was the uniting power of love, which brought order and harmony among the conflicting elements of which Chaos consisted. In the same metaphysical sense he is conceived by Aristotle and similarly in the Orphic poetry...

...he is described as the first of the gods, who sprang from the world's egg. In Plato's Symposium he is likewise called the oldest of the gods. It is quite in accordance with the notion of the cosmogonic Eros, that he is described as a son of Cronos and Ge, of Eileithyia, or as a god who had no parentage, and came into existence by himself...

Sources: of chaos https://advaya.life/articles/the-world-began-with-chaos-eros-and-gaia
Of Gaia
https://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Gaia.html
Of Eros
https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Eros.html

Authors note: this snippets of text over chaos, Gaia, and Eros ARE NOT MINE. I am currently in a Greek mythology class, so I figured I'd share some Greek creation with you, similar to how I started the semester. I hope it's fine, having the links there as a 'works cited'.