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Chaos

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(Reguidit frae Chaos (meethologie))

In Greek meethology, Chaos (Greek: Χάος), accordin tae Hesiod,[1] Chaos ("Chasm")[2] wis the first thing tae exeest: "at first Chaos came tae be" (or wis)[3] "but next" (possibly oot o Chaos) came Gaia, Tartarus, an Eros.[4] Unambiguously born "frae Chaos" war Erebus (Darkness) an Nyx (Nicht).[5]

References

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  1. Hesiod, Theogony 116–122.
  2. West, p. 192 line 116 Χάος, "best translated Chasm"; Most, p. 13, translates Χάος as "Chasm", and notes: (n. 7): "Usually translated as 'Chaos'; but that suggests to us, misleadingly, a jumble of disordered matter, whereas Hesiod's term indicates instead a gap or opening".
  3. Gantz, p. 3, says "the Greek will allow both".
  4. Accordin tae Gantz, p. 4: "With regard to all three of these figures—Gaia, Tartaros, and Eros—we should note that Hesiod does not say they arose from (as opposed to after) Chaos, although this is often assumed." For example, Morford, p. 57, makes these three descendants of Chaos saying they came "presumably out of Chaos, just as Hesiod actually states that 'from Chaos' came Erebus and dark Night". Tripp, p. 159, says simply that Gaia, Tartarus and Eros came "out of Chaos, or together with it". Caldwell, p. 33 n. 116–122, however interprets Hesiod as saying that Chaos, Gaia, Tartarus, and Eros all "are spontaneously generated without source or cause". Later writers commonly make Eros the son of Aphrodite and Ares, though several other parentages are also given, Gantz, pp. 4–5.
  5. Gantz, p. 4; Hesiod, Theogony 123.