Without doubt, every culture has a creation myth of one sort or another, most with remarkable similarities and parallels. These myths – especially their parallels - reflect not only their originating culture, but also demonstrate elements of the cultures they came into contact with. By comparing creation myths of separate cultures, one can discern social and cultural elements of both cultures. One overwhelming parallel within otherwise differing creation mythologies is the concept of all creation involving some sort of love figure/character. In the Greek creation myth as presented in Hesiod’s Theogony, love in the form of Eros is not only the primary creative force, but also the primary origination of all self-awareness.
Hesiod’s Theogony states that “very first of all Chaos came into being” (Morford 56) but does not elaborate on how Chaos originated, nor does he describe Chaos much. From this Chaos, eventually all other material and non-material objects, including love, within the universe are brought forth (56-59). Chaos is not a god, nor is Chaos a self-aware figure of any other archetype. Chaos simply is. From Chaos comes Gaia and Tartarus and Eros, all apparently simultaneously. Gaia (Earth, female) and Eros (Love, male) are apparently the first self-aware gods, and “dark Tartarus in the depth of the broad land” represents the bowels of Earth, possibly a primary underworld which is not self-aware. All are asexual creations from the essential foundational void without the use of a partner.
What may be remarkable to our modern-day sensibilities is that Gaia is female. For the Greeks – a highly patriarchal society – to create a female figure as the first self-aware god is not without precedent. According to Morford, “comparative studies of iconography from primitive societies provide abundant evidence to confirm this archetype of the primacy of the feminine” (59). It seems that only in later (example: Christian) traditions that the primary consciousness becomes masculine.
Having the first self-aware figure be female may not be unusual, but why do the Greeks create earth, “hell”, and love all at the same time? What is fascinating about the Greek creation myth is that love is created, essentially, at the same time as (nurturing, self-aware) Earth/Gaia and the dark bowels (hell) of Earth. Are the Greeks implying that love is the foundation/birthplace of all, much as Earth is the foundation/birthplace of all plant and animal life? Or are they implying that love is solid – like Earth? Or is love a darkness, a “hell?” (56) It could be that Eros – love – is not exactly the specific emotion as we (or the Greeks) think of it but represents far more than just love. It may be that what came forth from Chaos is consciousness and self-awareness in the form of love – or even that without love, there cannot be consciousness. Love may indeed be the origin of all self-awareness: after all, we are most aware of ourselves when we are in love. It is through and because of love that we work and sacrifice much of our own personal needs, whether one is an ancient Greek or a modern American, this holds true. Chaos’ “creation” of love is creating not only self-awareness, but higher concepts of sacrifice for the greater good (of the loved one, the family, the clan/tribe/community, the state, the country).
Later Greek works such as Aristophanes Birds uphold and expand the concept that love is not just “love,” but actual conscious self-awareness. There are some differences within Aristophanes account of creation, specifically the order of creation. In the Birds, Chaos, Tartarus (bowels of Earth), Erebus (the “gloom of Tartarus,” which may be the consciousness or self-awareness of Taratarus), and Night were all first (57). Within Erebus, Night “brought forth an egg, from which Eros…burst forth” (57). Like Hesiod’s Theogony, all of this is created essentially from nothing – even Chaos – without the use of sex or partners. What is particularly telling about both Hesiod’s and Aristophanes’s version of the Greek creation myth is that Eros is the only one of the primary creations given physical description and attributes at any length (Aristophane: “back glistening with golden wings”, Hesiod: “most beautiful of all the immortal gods…” (56-57)).
Gaia (Ge, Earth) is not created until after Eros (Love) was created, although Gaia (Ge) is also created from Chaos. The fact that Gaia comes after Eros may be saying that without love, there can be no earth. Eros is then the cause of all further creation: Eros “caused all things to mingle” (57), and from this mingling came the immortals whom from which eventually came humans. While Hesiod specifically states that Gaia created Uranus herself, Aristophanes is vague about the ordering of who came first of the self-aware gods after Eros, but within the Birds it is abundantly apparent that for Aristophanes, Eros (love) is the defining creative force within the universe.
Eros – love – eventually instigates some interesting bed-partners. Hesiod’s Theogony continues to describe the further creation of the universe. Out of Chaos comes Erebus (the “gloom of Tartarus,”) and “black Night” (56). Tartarus prior to this point is genderless and without any apparent self-awareness, Erebus (male) seems to be Tartarus’ self-awareness and actual conscious identity. Night (female) is night, but not necessarily the starry-sky of night as that is Uranus. Erebus and Night, two dark, self-aware gods, get together and from them births Aether and Day (56). Aether – the “upper atmosphere” and Day are both self-aware gods, and characters of light and life (56). In other words, from the dark bowels of earth and the darkness of night comes the air we breath – the sky above us, and the light of day – the warmth of the sun. This parallels rather nicely with the idea of Earth and Love coming from the nothingness, the void of (dark?) Chaos and very likely is an intentional parallel. Creating Tartarus and Eros (hell and love) at the same time from nothing, then granting Tartarus (hell) a self-aware identity and an appealing dark partner (Night) from which comes two essential needs for all earthbound life (air and light) creates an intriguing allegorical story to answer the simple question of how we came to be, but also provides sociological and cultural clues to the Greek view of love and creation: it’s “heaven” and “hell” all at the same time. One cannot have heaven (love, Eros, light, air) without hell (Tartarus, Erebus, Night, Chaos), along with someplace for it all to happen at (Earth).
Very likely thanks to the influence of Eros, Gaia (Earth) “first brings forth starry Uranus, equal to herself” (58). Uranus (male) is obviously the night sky meant to warm and protect Gaia/Earth, and also provide a home for the gods. Uranus is also a god, and the “husband” of Gaia[1]. While Uranus may appear to be “dark” because he is the starry night sky, his character is a “good” character, one intended to nurture and protect along with providing a secure home. Gaia and Uranus are “light” characters, versus the “dark” nature of Tartarus/Erebus and Night from which came forth the “light” of air and day. Gaia proceeds – without the help of Uranus – to create mountains and Pontus, then Gaia and Uranus together create Oceanus and a slew of children in the form of the Titans (Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Thebe, Thethys, and Cronus), the Cyclopes (Brontes, Steropes, and Arges) and “three other sons” – with 100 arms and hands and 50 heads each: (Cottus, Briareus, Gyes) (58-59). Within this section of the Theogony, the theme of creation from light/dark is continued. The Titans are all blessed, immortal gods, although their characters are not necessarily all “good.” The “three other sons” sound not only “dark” but downright grotesque and evil. So, in essence, while the “light” – the “good” – of Gaia (Earth), Eros (Love) came from the dark Chaos, and while the “light” – the “good” – of Aether (air) and Day (sunlight) came from the dark of Tartartus/Erebus (hell) and Night, some very dark evil things came from light/good characters. All of this could only happen through the instigation – the “caus(ing) to mingle” – of Eros (love).
For the Greeks, without Eros, there is no creation. Eros, by being created at the same time as Gaia (Earth) and the darkness of Tartarus (hell), is the binding force between the two and a key element of all further creation. No gods, no immortals, no heros, mountains, even the air and stars above all come into being without the agency, if not always explicitly, of Eros. Eros is not just an agent and instigator, Eros is also at the same time the very awareness within each character that provides the impetus to create and “bring forth” that which becomes our own world and awareness of self.
Works Cited
Morford, Mark P.O. and Robert J. Lenardon. Classical Mythology. 8th Edition. Oxford University Press: New York. 2007.
Written for Professor Tanner's Greek & Roman Mythology class at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs, 28th September, 2006.
[1] This element of the Greek creation myth – the primary female god creating her own husband – is not necessarily unusual for the times, for another example see the Sumerian Enuma Elish.
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