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HOW THE WORLD AND
MANKIND WERE
CREATED

A.THE BEGINNING WAS CHAOS
? Long before the gods appeared, in the dim past,
uncounted ages ago, there was only the formless
confusion of Chaos brooded over by unbroken
darkness.
? Night (Nyx) was the child of Chaos and so was Erebus,
which is the unfathomable depth where death dwells.
? From darkness and from death Love (Eros) was born,
and with its birth, order and beauty began to banish
blind confusion. Love created Light (Ether) with its
companion, radiant Day (Hemera).

B. GAEA AND OURANOS
? With the coming of love and light it seemed natural that
the earth also should appear�� Earth was the solid
ground, yet vaguely a personality, too. Heaven was blue
vault on high, but it acted in some ways as a human being
would.
? The first creatures who had the appearance of life were
the children of Mother Earth and Father Heaven (Gaea and
Ouranos).
? Three of them, monstrously huge and strong, had each a
hundred hands and fifty heads (Hecatonchires). To three

? Last came the Titans. There were a number of these and
they were in no way inferior to the others in size and
strength, but they were not purely destructive. Several of
them were even beneficent.
? Only one of the Titans was bold enough, the Titan
Cronus. He lay in wait for his father and wounded him
terribly. The Giants, the fourth race of monster, sprang up
from his blood.
? From this same blood, too, the Erinyes (the Furies) were
born. Their office was to pursue and punish sinners.
? From that time on for untold ages, Cronus was lord of the
universe, with his sister-queen, Rhea (Ops). Finally, one

?He had good cause to do so, for Cronus had learned
that one of his children was destined someday to
dethrone him and he thought to go against fate by
swallowing them as soon as they were born.
?But when Rhea bore Zeus, her sixth child, she
succeeded in having him secretly carried off to Crete,
while she gave her husband a great stone wrapped in
swaddling clothes which he supposed was the baby
and swallowed down accordingly.
?There followed terrible war between Cronus, helped
by his brother Titans, against Zeus with his five

? One of the sons of the Titan Iapetus, whose name was
Prometheus and who was very wise, took sides with Zeus.
Prometheus��s brother Atlas suffered a still worse fate.
? Even after the Titans were conquered and crushed, Zeus was
not completely victorious. Earth gave birth to her last and
most frightful offspring, a creature more terrible than any that
had gone before. His name was Typhon.
? But Zeus had now got the thunder and lightning under his
own control. He struck down with it.
? Still later, one more attempt was made to unseat Zeus: The
Giants rebelled. But by this time the gods were very strong
and they were helped, too, by mighty Hercules, a son of Zeus.
From then on, Zeus and his brothers and sisters ruled,

C. PROMETHEUS AND EPIMETHEUS:
THE CREATORS OF MANKIND
? There is more than one account of how that man came to
pass. Some say it was delegated by the gods to Prometheus
and to his brother, Epimetheus.
? Prometheus, whose name means forethought, was very wise,
wiser than the gods, but Epimetheus, which means
afterthought, was a scatterbrained person who invariably
followed his first impulse and then changed his mind.
? Before making men he [Epimetheus] gave all the best gifts to
the animals, strength and swiftness and courage and shrewd
cunning, fur and feathers and wings and shells and the like �C

?Too late, as always, he was sorry and asked his
brother��s help. Prometheus, then, took over the
task of creation and thought out a way to make
mankind superior.
?He fashioned them in a nobler shape than the
animals, upright like the gods; and then he went
to heaven, to the sun, where he lit a torch and
brought down fire, a protection to men far better
than anything else, whether fur or feathers or
strength or swiftness.

D. THE FIVE RACES OF GODS
? According to another story, the gods themselves created
men. They made first a golden race. These, although
mortals, lived like gods without sorrow of heart, far from
toil and pain. They also rich in flocks and beloved of the
gods. When the grave covered them they became pure
spirits, beneficent, the guardians of mankind.
? The second race of silver was very inferior to the first.
They had so little intelligence that they could not keep
form injuring each other. They too passed away, but,
unlike the gold race, their spirits did not live on after

?Next, the race of brass. They were terrible men,
immensely strong, and such lovers of war and
violence that they were completely destroyed by
their own hands.
?This, however, was all to the good, for they were
followed by a splendid race of godlike heroes who
fought glorious wars and went on great
adventures which men have talked and sung of
through all the ages since. They departed finally to
the isles of the blessed, where they lived in perfect

?The fifth is that which is now upon the earth: the
iron race. They live in evil times and their nature
too has much of evil, so that they never have rest
from toil and sorrow. As the generations pass,
they grow worse; sons are always inferior to their
fathers.
?A time will come when they will worship power,
might will be right to them, and reverence for the
good will cease to be. At last when no man is
angry any more at wrongdoing or feels shame in

E. PANDORA: AS A WOMAN OF DISASTER
?The Father of Men and of Gods made a great evil
for men, a sweet and lovely thing to look upon, in
the likeness of a shy maiden, and all the gods
gave her gift, silvery raiment and a broidered veil,
a wonder to behold, and bright garlands of
blooming flowers and a crown of gold �C great
beauty shone out from it.
?They called her Pandora, which means ��gift of all.��
From her, the first woman, comes the race of

? Another story about Pandora is that the source of all
misfortune was not her wicked nature, but only her
curiosity. The gods presented her with a box into which
each had put something harmful, and forbade her ever
open it.
? For Pandora, like all women, was possessed of a lively
curiosity. One day she lifted the lid �C and out flew plagues
innumerable, sorrow and mischief for mankind.
? One good thing, however, was there �C Hope. It was the
only good the casket had held among the many evils, and
it remains to this day mankind��s sole comfort in
misfortune. So mortals learned that it is not impossible to

F. ZEUS VERSUS PROMETHEUS
?The new ruler of the gods owed Prometheus much for
helping him conquer the other Titans, but he forgot his
debt. Zeus had his servant, Force and Violence, seize
him and take him to the Caucasus.
?The reason for inflicting this torture was not only to
punish Prometheus, but also to force him to disclose a
secret very important to the lord of Olympus�� Zeus
knew that fate, which brings all things to pass, had
decreed that a son should someday be born to him who
would dethrone him and drive the gods from their

? Zeus sent his messenger, Hermes, to bid him disclose the
secret. Hermes warned Prometheus that if he persisted in
his stubborn silence, he should suffer still more terrible
things.
? But nothing, no threat, nor torture, could break
Prometheus. He refused to submit to cruelty and tyranny.
He knew that he had served Zeus well and that he had
done right to pity mortals in their helplessness.
? When Hermes war urging Prometheus to give in to Zeus
he spoke of this, but in such a way as to make it seem an
incredible sacrifice. Zeus seems to have accepted him as a
substitute. We are told, too, that Hercules slew the eagle

? Zeus sent his messenger, Hermes, to bid him disclose the secret.
Hermes warned Prometheus that if he persisted in his stubborn
silence, he should suffer still more terrible things.
? But nothing, no threat, nor torture, could break Prometheus. He
refused to submit to cruelty and tyranny. He knew that he had
served Zeus well and that he had done right to pity mortals in their
helplessness.
? When Hermes war urging Prometheus to give in to Zeus he spoke of
this, but in such a way as to make it seem an incredible sacrifice.
Zeus seems to have accepted him as a substitute. We are told, too,
that Hercules slew the eagle and delivered Prometheus from his
bonds, and that Zeus was willing to have this done.
? But why Zeus changed his mind and whether Prometheus revealed

G. DEUCALION AND PYRRHA:
THE FIRST STONE PEOPLE
? The story begins with Deluge. All over the earth men grew so
wicked that finally Zeus determined to destroy them.
? He sent the flood. He called upon his brother, the God of the
Sea, to help him, and together, with torrents of rain from
heaven and rivers loosed upon the earth, the two drowned the
land.
? Only towering Parnassus was not quite covered, and the bit of
dry land on its very topmost peak was the means by which
mankind escaped destruction. After it had rained through,
nine days and nine nights, there came drifting to that spot
what looked to be a great wooden chest, but safe within it

? They were Deucalion and Pyrrha �C he Prometheus�� son,
and she his niece, the daughter of Epimetheus and
Pandora.
? Prometheus knew the flood would come, and he had
bidden his son build the chest, store it with provision,
and embark in it with his life.
? When the chest came to land and they got out, to see no
sign of life anywhere, only a wild waste of waters, Zeus
pitied them and drained off the flood. Slowly like the
ebbing tide the sea and the rivers drew back and the
earth was dry again.

?Pyrrha and Deucalion came down from Parnassus,
the only living creatures in a dead world. They
found temple all slimy and moss-grown, but not
quite in ruins, and there they gave thanks for their
escape and prayed for help in their dreadful
loneliness.
?They were called the Stone People, and they were a
hard, enduring race, as was to be expected and,
indeed, as they had need to be, to rescue the earth
from the desolation left by the flood.

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How the World and Mankind were Created

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How the World and Mankind were Created