Greek+&+Roman+Creation+Story

In the beginning there was an empty darkness. The only thing in this void was Nyx, a bird with black wings. With the wind she laid a golden egg and for ages she sat upon this egg. Finally life began to stir in the egg and out of it rose Eros, the god of love. One half of the shell rose into the air and became the sky and the other became the Earth. Eros named the sky Uranus and the Earth he named Gaia. Then Eros made them fall in love.

Gaea and Uranus together produced the twelve Titans and three Cyclopes, but Uranus feared his children as a threat to his throne, and bade Gaea take them back into her womb.

Gaea loved her children, however, and hated Uranus' tyranny. She supplied her youngest child, Chronos, with the idea and the weapon to kill his father. Chronos succeeded Uranus on the throne and married his sister Rhea. He freed the Titans and shared his kingdom among them, but imprisoned the Cyclopes in Tartarus, a fiery pit much like Hell.

Chronos and Rhea had six children, who would become six of the gods of the Greek pantheon. Chronos, however, was similarly afraid of his children, and decided to swallow him. Rhea plotted to keep the youngest, Zeus, out of Chronos' way, and gave her husband a rock swaddled in cloth to swallow instead.

Zeus was raised on the island of Crete and grew into a handsome youth. Eventually he slipped Chronos a drink to vomit up his other five siblings, and they and Prometheus, one of the Titans, fought and defeated Chronos and the Titans for power. Zeus ruled the earth and married his sister Hera; the gods together created humans to entertain and amuse them as they watched from their home on Mount Olympus.