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"There is, first of all
... the greatest lie about the things of greatest
concernment, which was no pretty invention of him
who told how Uranus did what Hesiod says he did to
Cronos, and how
Cronos in turn took his revenge; and then
there are the doings and sufferings of
Cronos at the hands of his son. Even if
they were true I should not think that they ought
to be thus lightly told to thoughtless young
persons. But the best way would be to bury them in
silence, and if there were some necessity for
relating them, that only a very small audience
should be admitted under pledge of secrecy and
after sacrificing, not a pig, but some huge and
unprocurable victim, to the end that as few as
possible should have heard these tales."
[Socrates. Plato,
Republic
378a]
"Of
Gaia and Uranus were born the children
Oceanus and Tethys; and of these, Phorcus,
Cronos, Rhea, and all that go with them;
and of Cronos and Rhea were born
Zeus and Hera and all those who are, as we know,
called their brethren; and of these again, other
descendants." [Timaeus. Plato,
Timaeus
41a]
"...
Cronos, according to tradition, is the
son of Uranus; but the upward gaze is rightly
called by the name urania ... and the astronomers
say ... that from this looking people acquire a
pure mind." [Socrates. Plato,
Cratylus
396c]
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Uranus is Sky or Heaven.
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First ruler
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Since nothing is, strictly speaking, created,
but procreated, some have said that Uranus (Sky) is
the son of Gaia (Earth),
who came into being short after
Chaos. Uranus, who was the
first ruler of the Universe, covered
Gaia on every side and
became, in time, the abode of the gods.
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No starry sky
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Someone might recall, when thinking about
Uranus, the stars with which Heaven is crowned. But
even though Uranus has been later called "starry
heaven", that was not the case in those primeval
times, and not even Night
was starry. For there were no stars in the sky yet,
just as there was no Sun and no Moon. For
Helius (Sun) is the
grandson of Uranus, and
Selene (Moon) his
granddaughter. And the stars themselves were
procreated later by Astraeus 1, son of Crius 1, one
of the TITANS, and
Eurybia 1, daughter of
Gaia.
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Cruel against his children
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Uranus had intercourse with his mother
Gaia and had by her the
HECATONCHEIRES,
the CYCLOPES, and
TITANS. But he, they say,
hating his offspring, hid some or many of them away
in a secret place on earth, or as some say, cast
them into Tartarus, which is a gloomy place in the
Underworld as far
from Earth as Earth is from Heaven.
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Castration of
Uranus
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But since stern tyrants are often conspired
against, Gaia, grieved at
the fate of her children, addressed the
TITANS, saying:
"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."
[Gaia to the
TITANS. Hesiod,
Theogony
165]
This is how she persuaded the
TITANS to attack their
father, arming Cronos
with an adamantine sickle with jagged teeth. So
when Uranus, longing for love, lay about
Gaia spreading himself full
upon her, Cronos, coming
out from his ambush, lopped off his father's
genitals, and cast them away to fall behind him
into the sea at cape Drepanum in
Achaea; but some say that
the island of Corcyra, said also to be the abode of
the Phaeacians, was
called Drepane (Sickle-island) for this same
reason.
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Prophecy
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However, as Heaven's generative power is strong,
many others were born from the severed genitals of
Uranus [see Castration of
Uranus]. And when this first ruler of the
universe was thus defeated by his own offspring, he
prophesied that they had performed a fearful deed,
and that vengeance for it would come afterwards.
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Advises his daughter
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When Rhea 1 was about
to give birth to Zeus, who
later dethroned Cronos as
Uranus and Gaia prophesied,
she came to her parents, seeking for help to devise
a plan in order to conceal her child, and avoid it
being devoured by Cronos.
Then her parents told her to hide in
Crete, and revealed what
was fated to happen to
Cronos.
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Advises his grandson
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When Zeus, after
overthrowing his father
Cronos, had married his
first wife Metis 1, he, following the instructions
of Uranus and Gaia,
devoured this most wise goddess and put her in his
belly. For, Uranus and Gaia
had said, she was destined to bear a son that would
dethrone his father. But wise Metis 1 being in his
belly, all good or evil that she might devise,
would be for the benefit of the god who swallowed
her.
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Held by Atlas
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When the OLYMPIANS
fought the TITANS, the
conflict reached such a magnitude that Heaven
groaned and was shaken, threatening to fall upon
earth. But after the war, and ever since, Heaven
has been kept apart from Earth, and the great vault
of the sky is held by
Atlas, who tireless keep
it upon his head until today.
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Parentage [two versions]
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Mates
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Offspring
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Notes
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Gaia
(by herself)
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Aether & Hemera
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Aether is the brighter purer air, or
upper sky. Hemera is Day.
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TITANS
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Some have said that even some elder
MUSES are daughters of
Uranus, the younger ones being those who are
children of Zeus.
The order in which Uranus' children were born is
matter of dispute. Some give the order here shown
to the left, whereas others say that first the
HECATONCHEIRES
were born, then the
CYCLOPES, and then the
TITANS.
Concerning the GIANTS,
some say that they were born last of them all,
being the offspring of Uranus and
Gaia; but others affirm
that they were born from Uranus' Blood, when Uranus
was castrated.
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HECATONCHEIRES
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The
HECATONCHEIRES
were of huge size and might, and each of them (they
were three: Briareus, Cottus, and Gyes) had a
hundred hands and fifty heads.
Uranus cast them into Tartarus, and for that
reason Gaia persuaded
Cronos and the
TITANS to revolt against
their father. But when
Cronos seized power, he
again hurled them down to Tartarus. Later, as
Zeus attacked
Cronos,
Gaia prophesied victory to
him if he would have as allies the
HECATONCHEIRES.
And when Zeus overcame the
TITANS, he shut them up
in Tartarus instead, and appointed the
HECATONCHEIRES
their guards.
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Lyssa
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Lyssa is the kind of raging madness remembered
for having driven Heracles
1 out of his mind.
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Uranus' Blood
The blood that flew when
Cronos cut off his
father's genitals, falling on earth, created the
ERINYES, the MELIADS
[see NYMPHS], and the
GIANTS.
Uranus' Genitals
From Uranus' Genitals, which
Cronos threw into the
sea, Aphrodite was
born.
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