Selections Author:Ovid Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: iii. Outline Of The Greek Mythology. The Greek mythology may most conveniently be treated in four divisions: myths of the origin and government of the world, ... more »myths of the origin and early life of man, myths of deities, and myths of heroes. i. Myths Of The Origin And Government Of The World. The Iliad vaguely mentions the all-encompassing border- stream of the world, Okeanos, as the origin of things, without suggesting by what process they were produced from it. The myth of the origin of the world which gained widest acceptance among the Greeks was that elaborated by Hesiod in his Theogony. According to this, in the beginning was Chaos, Yawning Abyss. Then Gaia, wide-bosomed Earth, Eros, Love, Erebos, Darkness, and Nyx, Night, came into being. From Erebos and Nyx sprang Aither, clear upper Sky, and Hemera, Day. Gaia produced Ouranos (Latin Uranus), starry Heaven, Ourea, great Mountains, home of the nymphs, and Pantos, the unfruitful Sea. Uranos became the spouse of Gaia. From them were begotten the twelve Titans, which apparently are to be considered personifications of the elementary forces of Nature. Several of the Titans are mentioned in pairs, male and female, as Okeanos (Latin Oceatmi) and Tethys, Hyperion and Theia, Kronos and Rhea. Of the same origin were the three Cyclops, or Round-eyes, Bronfes, Thunder, Steropes, Lightning, and Arges, Thunderbolt; and also the threeHundred-handed, Hekatoncheires, which were at first perhaps a personification of the violent waves of the sea. The Titans and Hekatoncheires bade fair to become too mighty for their father Uranos, so he hurled them back again into the earth. Gaia, resenting this treatment, incited the Titans to vengeance. She fashioned a strong sharp sickle, and showed Kronos how to do his father an irreparabl...« less