Using the word to simply mean “confusion” is a very English definition and only became popular after the 1600s. The word “chaos” would continue to refer to voids and abyss well into the 15th century. In Hebrew, the word translates to “void” and is believed to be the same word used in Genesis 1:2, “And the earth was without form, and void.” “Chaos,” or “Khaos,” is a Greek word that literally means a “chasm” or “void” that is impossible to measure. It is this personification that led to her presentation in Aristophanes’ play. When “personified,” however, early versions of Chaos have her represented as a goddess of the invisible air and the birds which fly in it. As such, they are one of the “deathless gods,” without form or gender, and often referred to as an element instead of a being. “ At the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Gaia, and Eros, fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.įrom Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus.“ What God is Chaos?Ĭhaos is one of the primordial gods of early Greek myth. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, Chaos was the first of the Greek gods, followed by Gaia (or Earth). Nyx (or Night), Erebus (darkness), and Tartarus were other primordial gods.

He mated in deep Tartarus with dark Chaos, winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, which was the first to see the light.“ Firstly, blackwinged Night laid a germless egg in the bosom of the infinite deeps of Erebus, and from this, after the revolution of long ages, sprang the graceful Eros with his glittering golden wings, swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest. Earth, the air and heaven had no existence. “ At the beginning there was only Chaos, Night, dark Erebus, and deep Tartarus. The chorus of Aristophanes’ comedy, Birds, states: What is Chaos in Hermeticism and Alchemy?Ĭhaos is the parent of all Greek gods.Who Was the Father of Chaos in Greek Mythology?.

Erebus greek god