Where Nothing Was
First of all, there was Chaos. Chaos means an empty gap, and in that place there was no sky yet, no earth, no sea.
The first thing to appear out of that bare place was the earth, broad-breasted Gaia. Gaia became the solid floor for everything to stand on.
Gaia was not the only thing that came out of that bare place, and Tartarus came out too, the deepest darkness of all, far below the earth. Chaos did not give birth to them, and they simply came out of the empty gap.
Earth Bore the Sky
Gaia bore the sky by herself, and that sky, full of stars, was Uranus. Uranus wrapped around Gaia from every side.
That was how earth and sky first became a pair. As Gaia bore the high mountains and the wide sea as well, the large shape of the world settled into place, one piece at a time.
The First Children
The children born to Gaia and Uranus were the Titans, strong and enormous. Cronus was the youngest of them.
The one-eyed giants, the Cyclopes, were born too, and so were giants with a hundred arms each. For the first time the world had a loud, crowded family.
The Father Who Hated His Children
But Uranus did not love his children, and was afraid of them instead. They were too strong.
As each child was born, Uranus shut it deep underground, and the inside of Gaia’s body filled up with buried children. Their mother Gaia ached and groaned.
Today, We Think About Beginnings
The Greeks believed the world started in an empty gap. Out of that gap came the earth, then the sky, then the first family.
Every story has a beginning, and a beginning always has what comes next hidden inside it. The one who bore those children, and who watched them buried, was the earth herself. Did the children buried underground really stay there?