Image 1 Caption: An image from Apollo 11 (1969).

In Hesiod's (fl. c. 700 BCE) Theogony, Chaos is the first primordial god and then appeared Gaia (the Earth).

But Chaos is NOT chaos (disorder) NOR physics chaos, but emptiness, nothingness, void, the abyss. The ancient Greek word in this context is the origin of the word chasm.

But Hesiod's Earth predated the spherical Earth theory of, probably, Parmenides (fl. c.500 BCE) (see Ancient Astronomy file: parmenides_earth.html).

Mythical Cosmology and Creation Myth

1. All early human societies, yours truly supposes, had their own mythical cosmologies.

2. Most of these mythical cosmologies, yours truly supposes---yours truly hasn't done an actual count---have anthropomorphic gods that create the universe by ordering it up or, often it seems, by biological generation---sexual reproduction or from the body parts of primordial gods or monsters.

3. But it still seems necessary for an origin in time with earliest uncreated primordial gods who just were.

4. However, it also seems in societies of some level of sophistication that philosophy speculation about the origin of universe leads to the idea of origin from primordial bodies or forces without much personality. This is true in Greek mythology according to Hesiod (fl. c. 700 BCE) in his Theogony (Origin of the Gods) (see Sacred Texts: Hesiod's Theogony translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1884--1924)). A discussion of Theogony is given by Cornford, 1952, 191--203. The geneology of Theogony is given in The Structure of Hesiod's Theogony: Joe Farrell, University of Pennsylvania and, with some humorous additions, in Ancient Astronomy file: theogony.html.

   The passage of Theogony that details the origin of the universe is:

   In truth at first Chaos came to be,
   but next wide-bosomed Earth,
   the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones
   who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus,
   and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth,
   and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods,
   who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels
   of all gods and all men within them.
   From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night;
   but of Night were born Aether and Day,
   whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebus.
   And Earth first bore starry Heaven, equal to herself,
   to cover her on every side,
   and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods.
   And she brought forth long hills,
   graceful haunts of the goddess Nymphs who dwell
   amongst the glens of the hills.
   She bore also the fruitless deep with his raging swell,
   Pontus, without sweet union of love.
   But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus ...
   

   Translation: Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1884--1924). For text, see Sacred Texts: Hesiod's Theogony, line 116, Perseus Digital Library: Hesiod's Theogony, line 116--, and the revised translation Barry F. Vaughan: Hesiod's Theogony, line 116--.

5. See below Ancient Astronomy file: theogony_videos.html:

6. To expand a bit on Theogony:
   1. First, Hesiod wrote Theogony---it is NOT a pure oral tradition such as those modern anthropology has been able to collect in the recent past though probably NOT for much longer if still possible at all.

      Nevertheless, Hesiod was probably close to the pure oral tradition---but recall, there were probably many pure oral traditions and Hesiod selected and ordered those he liked to create a literary product.

      Hesiod also probably got some ideas from Babylonian mythological cosmology, but probably very indirectly, and they probably just supplemented the ideas of the dome of the sky, underworld, and flat Earth and ocean that archaic Greeks (c.800--480 BCE) already had and that were common in many early societies (e.g., Norse mythology).

      

   2. Image 2 Caption: "Chaos" (c.1875) by George Frederic Watts (1817--1904) and assistants.

      One can interpret the painting "Chaos" (c.1875) as a juxtaposition of creation, the origin of consciousness, and consciousness contemplating universe.

   3. The Greek primordial gods:
      1. Chaos is the Ur-god or Ur-universe. The word Chaos in this context means emptiness, nothingness, void, the abyss. But to the ancient Greeks, it could also mean abyss, chasm, or yawn????. Chaos is only anthropomorphized to the extent that he/she gives birth to other slightly more anthropomorphized gods.
      2. Gaia (the Earth), the Greek mythology version of the Earth Goddess. NOT a child of Chaos, she just came into existence spontaneously.
      3. Tartarus (the Abyss) (virtually the same as the deepest part of the Greek underworld and sometimes approximately as Hell). NOT a child of anything, it just came into existence spontaneously.
      4. Eros. NOT a child of anything, he/she/it just came into existence spontaneously.
      5. Uranus (the Sky). Child of Gaia.
      6. Other useful Greek primordial gods also came from procreation (e.g., Erebus (Gloom), Nyx (Night), etc.)

   4. As foreshadowed above, the Greek primordial gods (i.e., Chaos (Void), Gaia (the Earth), Tartarus (the Abyss), and Eros (Love)) which are just giant physical bodies or forces. Later on in Theogony, the Greek primordial gods and some of their early progeny sometimes acquire personality at times while still being physical bodies or forces at times too. The later generations of Greek gods have a lot more personality---e.g., Zeus, Psamanthe, etc. For more on the geneology of the Greek gods, with some humorous additions, see Ancient Astronomy file: theogony.html.

   5. We can see Theogony as a step toward the philosophical physics and cosmology of the Presocratic philosophers. See, e.g., the discussion of this in Cor-198--201. Since the Presocratic philosophers were a starting point for modern physics and cosmology, Theogony can be including in "starting point".

   
7. Image 3 Caption: An imaginative cartoon of the Hesiodic-Homeric cosmos.

8. Homer (c. 8th century BCE) (a little) and Hesiod (fl. c. 700 BCE) (a bit more) only vaguely and inconsistently discussed cosmology. As we discussed above, Hesiod, before diving into a Greek mythical cosmology, did briefly describe something that can be considered physical cosmology starting from the Greek primordial gods who were also the constituents of the world/universe: i.e., objects and forces. Image 3 is loosely based on Hesiod's ideas on physical cosmology supplemented a bit by Homer, and ideas from early Presocratic philosophers, including some from Anaximander (610?--546? BCE) (Fu-23--30) and the Greek atomist Presocratic philosophers Leucippus (first half of 5th century BCE) and Democritus (c.460--c.370 BCE) (Fu-136--151). All these ideas are premised on the flat Earth theory. The result is just an imaginative compromise amalgam

9. Note, Image 3 has both Mount Olympus (2917.727 m) and a heavenly Olympus.

   To explicate: Hesiod definitely says the Olympian gods (which are NOT all Greek gods) live on "snowy Olympus' peak" (Theogony, translation Wender-27, line 118), but just a few lines later that "starry Heaven" (Ouranos the primordial sky god, but also the physical sky) was the home of the gods. Homer (c. 8th century), in fact, sometimes uses Ouranos and Olympus as synonyms for the heavenly home of the gods (Wikipedia: Mount Olympus: Name and mythological associations). Also, in fact, the heavenly Olympus was probably what most ancient Greeks thought from c.700 BCE on Wender-169), while still regarding Mount Olympus (2917.727 m) as a sacred place. Note, Mount Olympus is only ∼ 2900 m and could easily be climbed in ancient times and when you got there it is was a barren peak (Wikipedia: Mount Olympus: Climbing expeditions). Note also, the modern Mount Olympus was NOT recognized by all ancient Greeks as the "Olympus" as far as we know before the 5th century BCE (Wikipedia: Mount Olympus: Name and mythological associations).

10. Places and things labeled on Image 3: Anatolia, Atlas Mountains, Egypt, Hades (the god of the underworld and the underworld itself), Helios (Sun god and physical Sun), Hellas (Greece), Italy, Libya, Mount Olympus (2917.727 m), Oceanus (a god and the world encircling ocean), Selene (Moon goddess and physical Moon), Tartarus (the Abyss, the deep underworld), Thalassa (Mediterranean Sea).

11. The physical cosmology of Image 3 is a lot like that of Ancient Near Eastern cosmology (see Babylonian astronomy file: babylonian_cosmos.html) which is probably partially by cultural diffusion from Ancient Near East, but probably also just convergence of ideas in flat Earth theorizing. It is also a lot like Norse mytholocial cosmology probably mainly due to convergence of ideas in flat Earth theorizing (see Ancient Astronomy file: cosmos_norse_yggdrasil.html).

    Probably, many mythological cosmologies were similar to Greek mythical cosmology, Ancient Near Eastern cosmology, and the Norse mytholocial cosmology. For societies that are geographically very localized the dome of the sky, underworld, and flat Earth and ocean seem pretty natural.

12. The ancient Greeks saw the underworld (their version being Hades (the god of the underworld and the underworld itself)) as the land of the dead. This is probably pretty common. We bury the dead, and so that is where they dwell.

    It is also natural to see the underworld as where the astronomical objects / sky gods were when they were below the horizon.

13. What was beyond the boundaries of the world for the ancient Greeks and others with a similar physical cosmologies?

    One answer is: There is a special place in Hades for people who ask such questions.

    But the question can't be put off forever.

    

14. Image 4 Caption: This is an imaginative map of the Earth (the flat Earth) as known from Homer's (c. 8th century BCE) Iliad and Odyssey plus modern geography. Some places are real, some arn't, the peoples mostly arn't real or arn't the same as the real ones: Aeaea (Circe's island, unlabeled), Amazons, Anatolia, Argos, Athens, Atlas Mountains, Avernus (entrance to the underworld), Charybdis (unlabeled), Chios (unlabeled), Cimmerians, Corcyra (unlabeled), Crete, Cyclops, Cyprus, Egypt, Elysium, Ethiopia, geography of the Odyssey (arrowed line), Hellas, Hyperborea (unlabeled), Imbros (unlabeled), Ionia (unlabeled), Ithaca, Italy (unlabeled), Knossos (unlabeled), Kythira (unlabeled), Lotus-eaters, Libya, Lydia, Miletus (unlabeled), Mount Athos (2033 m), Mount Olympus (2917.727 m, unlabeled), Mycenae unlabeled), Oceanus, Ogygia, Phoenicia, Pieria, Peloponnese, Pylos, Psamanthe (unlabeled), Rhodes, Scheria (maybe Corcyra), Scylla, the Sea (Thalassa, Mediterranean Sea), Sidon, Sparta, Temesa, Thebes, Thera (unlabeled), Thrace, Trinacria, Troy, etc.

    

15. Image 5 Caption: "First [proton (p+)]-[lead (Pb) ion] particle collision at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)." (Somewhat edited.)

    An image which serves as a symbol of creation as understood in modern physics.

Images:

1. Credit/Permission: NASA, 1969) / Public domain.
   Image link: NASA: Apollo Flight Journal: Apollo 11 Day 1, part 4: Navigation and Housekeeping. Direct image link: AS11-36-5344.
   
2. Credit/Permission: George Frederic Watts (1817--1904) and assistants, circa 1875 (uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by User:DcoetzeeBot, 2011) / Public domain.
   Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Assistants and George Frederic Watts - Chaos - Google Art Project.jpg.
   
3. Credit/Permission: © David Jeffery, 2025 / Own work.
   Image link: Itself.
   
4. Credit/Permission: P.V.N. Myers (1846--1937), A history of Greece for colleges and high schools (Boston, MA: Ginn & Company, 1895, p. 9), 1895 / Public domain.
   Image link: Itself.
   Image source link: HathiTrust: The World According to Homer, Circa 700 BC. There are other online sources for the image: e.g., Maps ETC: The World According to Homer, Circa 700 BC.
   
5. Credit/Permission: © Peter Jenni (1948--) (see also Peter Jenni (1948--) (AKA User:Pcharito), 2014 / CC BY-SA 3.0.
   Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Ev059HR 3D.png.