Chaos

Chaos was the origin of everything and the very first thing that ever existed. It was a primordial void, which everything was created from including the universe and the Greek Gods. In ancient Greek, Chaos is translated as ‘the gaping void.’ The first deities that emerged from Chaos were Gaea (the Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld) and Eros (love); and later Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (night) also were created.

In the beginning, Chaos was a state of random disorder existing in primordial emptiness, and soon later a Cosmic Egg formed in its belly and it hatched producing the first deities into the darkness. Chaos was often thought of to be female, possessing both anthropomorphic and tangible qualities however this interpretation changed as the mythology evolved according to different historians and poets. The far-reaching idea is that Chaos is a space that separates and divides the Earth and the Sky.

According to Hesiod, the Greek historian, Chaos was also a place much like Tartarus and later the Heavens above. Hesiod described it as a place far away, underground and gloomy it was also capable of being affected by Zeus‘ thunderbolts. With the first gods emerging from Chaos, Hesiod establishes the deities related to each element known beginning with the primordial elements: the Earth, the Sky, and the Sea. In Hesiod’s account of Zeus’ fight with the Titans, he describes how an alarming heat took over Chaos, and it seemed as though Gaia and Uranus had rushed towards each other and met. The union gives the impression that Chaos moved away from her usual place of being between the earth and heaven. Hesiod also goes on to say that the Titans, after suffering defeat were residing in the gloomy Chaos, far away from the Olympian gods.

For the Roman poet Ovid, Chaos was a shapeless mass where all the elements were jumbled together. In later theory, Chaos is the formless matter from which the cosmos or order was created. Little is known about Chaos, likely due to her state of being and role in Greek mythology. Later sources like Ovid’s describe Chaos as lifeless and formless, a state before the world and order and not a divine presence. These following accounts may be the result of an increasing importance of the Olympian gods like Zeus and Hera, at the expense of other earlier deities like Chaos. In Ovid’s Metomorphoses he describes her as “rather a crude and indigested mass, a lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed, of jarring seeds and justly Chaos was named.”
Other Interesting Facts About Chaos

• There was no cult created or organised worshipping of Chaos in Ancient Greece which may be why there is little information about Chaos
• The earliest reference to Chaos is by Hesiod in his book “Theogony” around 700 BC
• Hyginus wrote that Chaos was born out of moisture and fog, and was the mother of night and darkness as well as day and light
• Chaos is described as a “Goddess without myths.”
• The modern etymology (meaning of the word) behind the word Chaos originates from the Greek word Khaos used to name the deity of which everything came from and mostly closely resembles Ovid’s description of her- “complete disorder and confusion”