FACTOID # 135: People trust Swedes! Swedish companies are the world’s least-likely to be perceived as paying bribes.
 
 Home   Encyclopedia   Statistics   Countries A-Z   Flags   Maps   Education   Forum   FAQ   About 
 
WHAT'S NEW
RECENT ARTICLES
More Recent Articles »
 

SEARCH ALL

FACTS & STATISTICS    Advanced view

Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

 

 

(* = Graphable)

 

 


Encyclopedia > Chaos (mythology)

Greek deities
series
Titans and Olympians
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Personified concepts
Other deities
Primordial deities
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Chaos. (Discuss)

In Greek mythology, Chaos or Khaos is the primeval state of existence from which the first gods appeared. In Greek it is Χάος, which is usually pronounced similarly to "house", but correctly in ancient Greek as "kh-a-oss"; it means "gaping void", from the verb χαίνω "gape, be wide open", Indo-European *"ghen-", *"ghn-"; compare English "chasm" and "yawn", Anglo-Saxon geanian = "to gape". Perseus with the head of Medusa. ... In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek Τιτάν, plural Τιτάνες) were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. ... The twelve gods of Olympus. ... The ancient Greeks had a large number of sea gods. ... In mythology chthonic (from Greek χθονιος-pertaining to the earth; earthy) designates, or pertains to, gods or spirits of the underworld, especially in Greek mythology. ... MuSE is an acronym that stands for Multiple Streaming Engine. ... Asclepius (Greek also rendered Aesculapius in Latin and transliterated Asklepios) was the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology, according to which he was born a mortal but was given immortality as the constellation Ophiuchus after his death. ... The ancient Greeks proposed many different ideas about the primordial gods in their mythology. ... Aether (upper air), in Greek mythology, was the personification of the upper sky, space and heaven. ... Gaia (pronounced //, sometimes also // or //) (land or earth, from the Greek ; variant spelling Gaea—see also Ge from ) is a Greek goddess personifying the Earth. ... Uranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos, Greek name of the sky. ... In Greek mythology, Eros was the god responsible for lust, love, and sex; he was also worshipped as a fertility deity. ... In Greek mythology, Erebus, or Érebos was a primordial god, the personification of darkness, offspring of Chaos alone. ... This article is about the comic book series. ... In Greek mythology, Ophion (serpent), also called Ophioneus ruled the world with Eurynome before the two of them were cast down by Cronus and Rhea, according to some sources. ... In Greek mythology, Tartarus, or Tartaros, is both a deity and a place in the underworld — even lower than Hades. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Chaos derives from the Greek Χάος and typically refers to unpredictability. ... Perseus with the head of Medusa. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ... The Anglo-Saxons refers collectively to the groups of Germanic tribes who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5th century, forming the basis for the modern English nation. ...

Contents


Theogonia

According to Hesiod's Theogonia (The origin of the Gods), Chaos was the nothingness out of which the first objects of existence appeared. These first beings, described as children of Chaos alone, were Gaia (the Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld), Nyx (the darkness of the night), and Erebus (the darkness of the Underworld). Thus, at the very start of his story, Hesiod establishes the deities related to each element known to man, beginning with the primordial elements: the Earth, the starry Sky, the Sea. Hesiod (Hesiodos, ), the early Greek poet and rhapsode, presumably lived around 700 BC. Historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and some authors have even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest. ... Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins of the gods of ancient Greek religion. ... Gaia (pronounced //, sometimes also // or //) (land or earth, from the Greek ; variant spelling Gaea—see also Ge from ) is a Greek goddess personifying the Earth. ... In Greek mythology, Tartarus, or Tartaros, is both a deity and a place in the underworld — even lower than Hades. ... This article is about the comic book series. ... In Greek mythology, Erebus, or Érebos was a primordial god, the personification of darkness, offspring of Chaos alone. ...


Theogonia presents two ways to come to life: division (Gaia, Nyx) and mating. After Gaia, almost all deities brought to life by division are negative concepts (Death, Distress, Sarcasm, Deception, and so on) and for the most part are produced by the goddess Nyx. From this point on is set the model for reproduction, from the action of two entities, male and female, as it appears in the divine world in response to human society. So the first answer by the myth to the question "What is the cause of this?" becomes "This is the father and this is the mother".


Furthermore, all deities created by division almost never become allies with those created by mating.


Characteristics

The original meaning of Χάος /'xaos/ or /'χaos/ was "Space, the great outer void".


Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, described Chaos as "rather a crude and indigested mass, a lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed, of jarring seeds and justly Chaos named". From that, its meaning evolved into the modern familiar "complete disorder", and the word "Chaos" is used by astronomers in Mars placenames to mean "area of disorderly faulted terrain". Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of Characters in Metamorphoses The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ... Lunar astronomy: the large crater is Daedalus, photographed by the crew of Apollo 11 as they circled the Moon in 1969. ... For the Roman god, see Mars (mythology). ...


Chaos features three main characteristics:

  • it is a bottomless gulf where anything falls endlessly. This radically contrasts with the Earth that emerges from it to offer a stable ground.
  • it is a place without any possible orientation, where anything falls in every direction;
  • it is a space that separates, that divides: after the Earth and the Sky parted, Chaos remains between both.

Primal Chaos

In Ancient Greek Cosmology, Chaos was the first thing to exist and the womb from which everything emerged. For Hesiod and the Olympian Mythos, Chaos was the 'vast and dark' void from which the first deity, Gaea, emerged. In the Palasgian creation myth, Eurynome ('goddess of everything') emerged from this Chaos and created the Cosmos from it. For Orphics, it was called the 'Womb of Darkness' from which the Cosmic Egg that contained the Universe emerged. It is sometimes conflated with 'Black Winged Night'. Cosmology, from the Greek: κοσμολογία (cosmologia, κόσμος (cosmos) world + λογια (logia) discourse) is the study of the universe in its totality and by extension mans place in it. ... Hesiod (Hesiodos, ), the early Greek poet and rhapsode, presumably lived around 700 BC. Historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and some authors have even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest. ... Look up mythos in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Gaia, also spelled as Gaea, Gaïa, or Ge, can refer to any one of the following: Gaia is a Greek and Roman goddess, also known as the Earth Mother. ... Ancient Greek writers used the name Pelasgians (Gk. ... In Greek mythology, there were many women with the name Eurýnomê (far ruling). Wife of Ophion and a daughter of Oceanus (may be the same as the following) An Oceanid who mothered the Charites (may be the same as the following) Daughter of King Nisus of Megara and mother of... Orphism or Orphic cubism, is a term coined in 1912 France by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. ...


The idea is also found in Mesopotamia and associated with Tiamat the 'Dragon' of Chaos, from whose dismembered body the world was formed. Mesopotamia (Greek: Μεσοποταμία, translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan between rivers; Aramaic name being Beth Nahrain house of rivers) is a region of Southwest Asia. ... Tiamat is a primeval monster/goddess in Babylonian and Sumerian mythology, and a central figure in the Enûma Elish creation epic. ...


Primal Chaos was sometimes said to be the true foundation of reality, particularly by philosophers such as Heraclitus and those trained in Orphic schools. It was the opposite of Platonism. It was also probably what Aristotle had in mind when he developed the concept of Prima Materia in his attempt to combine Platonism with the Presocraticism and Naturalism. It was a concept inherited by the theory of Alchemy. Heraclitus by Johannes Moreelse Heraclitus of Ephesus (Greek Herakleitos) (about 535 - 475 BC), known as The Obscure, was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Ephesus in Asia Minor. ... Platonic idealism is the theory that the substantive reality around us is only a reflection of a higher truth. ... Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Aristotelēs 384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, who studied with Plato and taught Alexander the Great. ... The primitive formless base of all matter, according to Aristotle and the Alchemists, given particular manifestation through the influence of Forms. ... Pre-Socratic philosophers are often very hard to pin down, and it is sometimes very difficult to determine the actual line of argument they used in supporting their particular views. ... Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that do not distinguish the supernatural from nature. ... For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation). ...


It has more recently been revived in Chaos Magic.


References


  Results from FactBites:
 
Chaos - MSN Encarta (100 words)
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.
In a later theory Chaos is the formless matter from which the cosmos, or harmonious order, was created.
Thelemapedia: The Encyclopedia of Thelema & Magick | Chaos (502 words)
Chaos is described as the "All-Father", "One Father of Life", "the Dyad", and the "Father of thought".
On the Tree of Life, Chaos is identified with the Sephira Chokmah or Wisdom (whose traditional title is 'Ab', 'Abba' or Father), and is in turn attributed to the 'part of the soul' called Chiah (the "Life-force"), and Yod (seed) of Tetragrammaton; all of these associations are attributed to the element of fire.
As both the "Word" or "Logos" of the Gnostics, and the Wisdom of the Kabbalists, Chaos pertains specifically to the 9=2 Grade of Magus (the 11th progressive Grade in the A.'.A.'.), which it conceals.
  More results at FactBites »

 

COMMENTARY     


Share your thoughts, questions and commentary here
Your name
Your location
Your comments
Please enter the 5-letter protection code


Lesson Plans | Student Area | Student FAQ | Reviews | Press Releases |  Feeds | Contact
The Wikipedia article included on this page is licensed under the GFDL.
Images may be subject to relevant owners' copyright.
All other elements are (c) copyright NationMaster.com 2003-5. All Rights Reserved.
Usage implies agreement with terms.