Chaos in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Chaos

5 passages from 4 ancient authors that tell of Chaos, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Chaos was, according to Greek mythology, the origin of everything, and the first thing that ever existed. It was the primordial void, the source out o... For the story in one place, read our article on Chaos.

Hesiod (2)

Hesiod, Theogony 100–129Invocation of the Muses; Chaos, Gaia and the first gods (100-129)The proem closes with an invocation: the Muses are asked to tell how the gods and the world first came to be. The cosmogony begins with Chaos, broad-breasted Gaia (Earth), murky Tartarus and Eros, fairest of the gods. Erebus and Night come from Chaos and bear Aether and Day, and Gaia bears Uranus (Heaven) and the hills.
Hesiod, Theogony 780–819Styx and the oath of the gods (780-819)Iris fetches water from the Styx, the eldest daughter of Oceanus, which the gods swear by. A god who perjures himself lies breathless for a year and is then barred from the feasts of the gods for nine years. Beyond lie the sources and limits of earth, sea and sky, and the Titans live beyond Chaos; Cottus and Gyes live on Ocean's foundations, and Briareos marries Poseidon's daughter.

Aristophanes (1)

Aristophanes, Birds 682–722Parabasis: Chaos, Love and the birth of the birdsThe Chorus call on frail, short-lived men to listen to the birds and learn about Chaos, Darkness, Night and Tartarus. They sing that Love was hatched from an egg laid by Night and gave birth to the birds, who are therefore older than the gods. They add that the birds assist lovers, mark the seasons for the farmer and the sailor, and are the true oracles of men, since a sneeze, a rumour or a servant may all be called a bird.

Ovid (1)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.1–88Invocation and the CreationThe poet asks the gods to inspire his song of bodies changed into new forms, from the beginning of the world to his own time. Before sea, earth and sky there was only Chaos, a rude and shapeless mass in which the elements strove with one another. A god, or kindly Nature, ends the strife by separating land from sky and sea from land, and gives the world its order, with fish in the water, beasts on the earth and birds in the air; then man is made, to look up to the stars.

Pausanias (1)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.27.1–8Thespiae: the worship of Love, the statues by Praxiteles and the sanctuary of HerculesPausanias says the Thespians honour Love above all gods and keep an ancient image of him in the form of an unwrought stone. He discusses the poets' accounts of Love's parentage, the statues by Lysippus and Praxiteles, and their removal by Caius and Nero. He lists other sights of Thespiae, including works by Praxiteles, a bronze statue of Hesiod and the temple of the Muses. He ends with the sanctuary of Hercules, whose priestess remains a virgin, and the tale of Thestius' fifty daughters.