Greek Myth Creation
Beginning of Everything

The most detailed account of Greek Myth Creation comes from Theogony , a poem composed by Hesiod, a greek poet. Greek Mythology starts with the Creation of the universe and the human race.

To the Greeks, everything in the world began with Chaos, a primordial void of darkness. After Chaos came Gaia, the Earth which was born from Chaos or appearing on its own. After Chaos and Gaia came Tartarus, which is deep inside the Earth, the lowest level of the Underworld. Then came Eros, the most beautiful of all immortals.

All else came into being after these four have emerged. Chaos give birth to Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). While sleeping, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (God of the Sky and Sky himself) and Pontus (God of the Sea and Sea). Uranus was the first son of Gaia and later became her husband.

After the emergence of Erebus, Nyx, Uranus and Pontus, all the rest of Creation came from mating. Uranus, the sky, grew as huge as Gaia and enveloped her. Fertile rain fell to the earth and Gaia then gave birth to the rest of the physical world, mountains, oceans, flowers and trees. Their children included 12 children - the Titans, three Cyclops and three hundred handed Giants. In a nutsell, this is how the world came about in Greek Mythology.

Prometheus and the Theft of Fire

There were many tales of where the first humans came from. One of the most convincing tales credited one of the elder Greek Gods (a Titan), Prometheus, who created humans out of mud in the image of the gods.

In the early history of man, an argument emerged on which portion of a sacrificial bull must be given to the gods. The Olympians asked Prometheus to arbitrate. Prometheus then created two piles of meat, one pile had the choicest flesh but with the unappetizing looking stomach on top and the other pile had only bones and but was covered with a layer of juicy fat.

Prometheus then asked the supreme Greek God Zeus to choose which portion should go to the gods. Zeus saw through the deception but still choose the fat-covered bones in order to create an eternal enmity between gods and humans.

Zeus was furious that Prometheus tried to trick him and therefore decided to withdraw the gift of fire to humankind. Man can get the best part of the meat but will have to eat it raw. However, Prometheus stole the fire away from the flaming chariot of Helius (the Sun) and hid in a the hollow stalk of a plant. He then happily sped to man with this heavenly gift of fire.

Revenge of Zeus - Pandora

Zeus rage shook the heavens when he found out that Prometheus stole the fire. To punish Prometheus and mankind, he instructed Hephaestus (God of fire, artisans, smiths) to create a woman of stunning beauty from clay and water.

Pandora, the first woman was thus created. She was then given a final gift, jar which she must not open. Hermes then swiftly brought her down to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. Though Prometheus had forseen that Zeus will retaliate and warned his brother against accepting the gift. Epimetheus did not heed the warning as he was attracted to the great beauty of Pandora.

Pandora stayed on earth for a while before she became curious about the jar the gods gave her. When she opened it, all the misfortune of the world overflowed to the earth. The gifts were in fact labour, old age, evil, plague - brought only trouble to mankind. Panicked, she then quickly replaced the jar lid just before Hope could come out. The rest of the evils and dieseas were already out causing humans much pain and hurt thereafter.

According to Hesiod, not only did the first woman Pandora, released the evils upon the world, she also became the mother of all wicked women. Those who nag