Greek primordial gods - Definition and Overview

The ancient Greeks proposed many different ideas about the primordial gods in their mythology. The many theogonies constructed by Greek poets each give a different account of which gods came first.

• In Homer, Ocean and Tethys are the parents of all the gods.
• In Hesiod, Chaos ("void", "gap") stands at the beginning, followed by Gaia, Eros, Night, Uranos, and then Aether, respectively.
• Orphic poetry made Night the first principle.
• Night is also the first deity in Aristophanes's Birds, producing Eros from an egg.
• Alcman made the water-nymph Thetis the first goddess, producing poros "path", tekmor "marker" and skotos "darkness" on the pathless, featureless void.

Greek philosphers and thinkers also constructed their own cosmogonies, with their own primordial gods:

• Pherecydes of Syros made Chronos ("time") the first god in his Heptamychia.
• Aphrodite and Ares were the first principles of Empedocles, who wove the universe out of the four elements with their powers of love and strife.
• In Plato's Timaeus, the demiurge models the universe on the Ideas.