How the World Began In the beginning, there was a vast, seething confusion Where there were no limits or boundaries to the world There was no plan or outline within this confusion, and there was a tremendous disorder According to the people of ancient Greece, this was known as Chaos Hidden within Chaos were all the things that now exist After a long, long lapse of ages, Chaos as it was known changed It ceased to be mere darkness and confusion Chaos resolved itself into two majestic deities known as Gæa and Uranus Gæa was known as Mother Earth, and Uranus as the Overhanging Heavens A memory of Chaos still existed, and it existed as Night The marriage of Gæa and Uranus spawned many offspring—twelve in all Six of the children were very beautiful, and came to be known as the Titans The other six children were terrifying monsters The Titans were of great size and strength—like men, only much grander The monsters were also of great size and strength, but were horrible creatures Among those known as the Titans were Oceanus and Tethys, who rule the sea Hyperion and Thea were the deities of the Sun and of the Moon Rhea would later be known as the Great Mother Themis was the guardian of Law and Justice; Mnemosyne being the goddess of Memory There was also Cronus, who was the youngest and most powerful of them all Among the children were also the monsters known as Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes The monsters known as Hecatoncheires had each a hundred hands While the monsters known as Cyclopes had each only one eye Hecatoncheires could throw a hundred stones at once with its hundred hands And Cyclopes could scope out things that were of great distance Uranus hated all his children, but he hated the monsters above all He therefore confined all the monsters to Tartarus—the dark realms of the Earth Gæa, to whom none of her brood was hateful, called upon the Titans to help her She was very angry that her children were imprisoned Yet only the Titan Cronus would come to the aide of his mother When Cronus confronted Uranus, he slew the greatest of the Titans with a sharp sickle From the blood of Uranus spawned two different creatures Creatures known as the Giants sprang forth from the first drawing of his blood The giants were more like men than gods and wore the skins of wild beasts From the second drawing of his blood sprang forth the Furies—the torturers of blood shedders Once his father Uranus was overthrown, Cronus seized rule of the World He took Rhea, the Great Mother, to be his wife Once the marriage was completed, his divided his Empire among his fellow Titans However, he feared a fate similar to that of his father, and he feared his children As each child was born, he swallowed it Vesta, Ceres, and Juno—his daughters—and Pluto, Neptune, and Jupiter—his sons They were all swallowed—all except for Jupiter Rhea cunningly replaced the child Jupiter with a stone Cronus, an unwitting father of Jupiter, swallowed the stone Rhea then sent Jupiter away to the secluded island of Crete After being conveyed by secrecy to the island of Crete, Jupiter was nurtured to full strength He was put under the care of the nymphs Ida and Adrastea The nymphs fed him the milk of the goat Amalthæa Once Jupiter attained full growth and strength, he resolved to conquer Cronus Jupiter then returned With the aide of Gæa, Jupiter managed to make Cronus disgorge the swallowed gods With the help of these gods and the monsters, he made war on Cronus And on the side of Cronus ranged almost all of the Titans The Cyclopes, in gratitude for their release, forged for Jupiter the thunderbolts and lightning Hecatoncheires provided him with the shock of earthquakes as a weapon On one mountain stood the old gods—on the other mountain stood the new gods For ages the war lasted—every time a battle took place, the whole Earth shook It shook with the tread of the divine warriors While it shook, the air resounded with their tremendous battle cries Forests burst into flames, rivers boiled, and the very skies were scorched At last the Titans could no longer withstand the might of the new gods The young gods pursued and overcame the old gods and hurled them from their mountain The old gods were thus confined in Tartarus The son of one of them, Atlas, was assigned the task of bearing the world on his shoulders forever Prometheus and Epimetheus—sons of another Titan—refused to take arms and escaped punishment The gods then divided the world among themselves—Jupiter became the king of the gods Jupiter ruled over everyone on Mount Olympus, and he took Juno to be his wife Neptune was chosen to rule over the sea, Pluto to rule over the underworld Vesta became the goddess of hearth and home, and Ceres the goddess of agriculture This is how the world began
I didn't know it was possible, but you actually made history/mythology fun to learn. Great job! Great vocab too!
Wow. That was f***ing amazing Will! *head is spinning* But in all seriousness, that was a very interesting read...I think the topic you chose was very cool...I LOVE mythology so obviously I loved your poem.