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Greek Mythology: The myth of Creation
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This is the beginning of the world according to Greek mythology. A very good video to learn the pronunciation of the most important Greek gods.

In the beginning there was only Chaos. Then, out of the void appeared Erebus, The unknowable place where Death dwells, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless, darkness. Then, somehow Love was born bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. Once there was Light and Day, Gaia, the Earth, appeared.

Gaia gave birth to Uranus, the Greek name for heavens. Uranus covered Gaia from all sides and became her mate. They created the three Cyclopes, the three Hecatonchires, and the twelve Titans.

KINGDOM OF URANUS
Uranus hates the Hecatonchires. He imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the Earth, Gaia’s womb. She was angered. She plotted against him with the only child of hers that wasn’t scared of him: Cronus.

Cronus grabbed his father and castrated him with a stone blade. And from the sea foam where Uranus’s genitals fell, came Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, love and sexuality.

KINGDOM OF CRONUS
Cronus became the next ruler. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires in Tartarus. He married her sister Rhea, and after a prophesy that one of his sons would overthrow him, he became worried. To avoid this from happening he swallowed each of his children as they were born. Rhea became angry, so when she gave birth to the fifth baby she hid it and gave Cronus a rock to swallow instead. That baby was raised by nymphs. That child was Zeus.

KINGDOM OF ZEUS
After growing up, Zeus had the help of Metis to create a potion to make Cronus throw up. Cronus had eaten Hades, Hera, Hestia and Poseidon. After they were released they made Zeus their leader.

THE FALL OF THE TITANS (TITANOMACHIA)
There was a war after that, a war between the Titans and the gods. Zeus, with the help of the Cyclopes, won the war against Cronus and took over power.

THE CREATION OF MANKIND
The immortal gods thought it would be interesting to create beings like them, but with one difference: they would be mortal. Right after their creation Zeus ordered Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus to give this new species various gifts in the hope that they would evolve enough to entertain the gods.

Epimetheus gave the gifts of strength, beauty and agility to different species of animals. However he left the human race defenceless with no natural weapons. Prometheus, who liked the human race, stole reason from Athena and gave it to them. He then stole fire from the gates of Ephaestus and gave it to mankind to keep them warm. Prometheus then became the protector of the human race.

This angered Zeus, because he didn’t want the humans to resemble the gods. Zeus punished Prometheus and chained him down to the ground, and he was sent a giant eagle every day, that ripped out his liver, which would grows back for the only purpose of suffering over and over.

After thirty years of suffering, Hercules released Prometheus from the chains.

AND THAT IS HOW IT ALL BEGAN...
And it only took one child, one newborn, to change everything

CHAOS= pronounced /kəs/. "Chaos" is a state of complete disorder and confusion. The Greek God Chaos personifies this state of things, though it is not really a god, but rather an abstract concept.

THE VOID= the emptiness

EREBUS= the god who personifies the concept of darkness, including the darkness of Tartarus, the kingdom of the dead (a bit similar to hell).

UNKNOWABLE= UN (negative prefix) + KNOW + ABLE ( that can) = that can’t be known, impossible to know.

TO DWEL= to live (old fashioned and very formal)

NIGHT= The Greek goddess Nyx, who personifies the night.

ENDLESS= without end (the suffix –LESS means "without")

SOMEHOW= you use "somehow" to say that you don’t know how something happens

LOVE= the personification of love as the energy bringing forth life and keeping the universe going is called Eros, sometimes called Proto-Eros to distinguish it from the other Eros, Aphrodite’s son, god of human love (called "Amor" in Latin, the little "angel" with a bow and arrows).

MATE= sexual partner (esp. among animals)

CYCLOPES= A Cyclops is a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of its forehead; the plural form is "cyclopes".

HECATONCHIRES= The Hecatonchires (ch=k) were three gigantic figures of an archaic stage of Greek mythology, each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads. They were brutes of incredible strength and ferocity, even superior to that of the Titans, whom they helped overthrow, and the Cyclopes.

TITANS= The Titans, also known as the elder gods, ruled the earth before the Olympians overthrew them. The ruler of the Titans was Cronus who was de-throned by his son Zeus. Most of the Titans fought with Cronus against Zeus and were punished by being banished to Tartarus.

WOMB= (pronounced /woom/) A woman’s womb is the part inside her body were a baby grows before it’s born. GAIA’S WOMB is the centre of the earth, were Tartarus (hell) was supposed to be.

SHE WAS ANGERED= She was angry

TO PLOT= If someone plots to do something, they secretly plan to do it, especially when it is something illegal or wrong. To plot against somebody is to secretly plan to do something against somebody.

SCARED= afraid

GRAB= to take something (or somebody) suddenly and roughly

CASTRATE= to castrate a man is to cut his genital organs

FOAM= lots of small bubbles of air together in a mass, formed when air is mixed in with a liquid.

RULER= someone who governs, who takes political decisions about people, for example a king or a president.

PROPHESY= a statement that something will happen in the future.

OVERTHROW= If you overthrow a leader or a ruler you remove them by force (maybe to take their place and become the new ruler)

AVOID= stop, prevent

SWALLOW= when you eat something, you swallow it to make it pass from your mouth to your stomach

AS THEY WERE BORN= when they were born, the moment they were born

NYMPHS= beautiful female goddesses usually associated with natural things, such as rivers, fountains, seas, trees, etc.

THROW UP= vomit

RIGHT AFTER= the word "right" is used with expressions of time for emphasis

SPECIES= (pronounced /spi:ʃɪz/)

GIFTS= presents. In this case it refers to an inborn ability (an ability you are born with). For example, Mozart was very gifted for music / he had a gift for music.

DEFENCELESS= without defence (the suffix –LESS means "without")

WEAPONS= (pronounced /wepəns/) arms to fight, for instance, guns, knives, arrows, etc.

ATHENA= the goddess of wisdom (of intelligence)

MANKIND= all the people on earth (the humans)

EPHAESTUS= the god of fire and volcanoes, blacksmith for the rest of the gods.

TO RESEMBLE= to be similar to

RIPPED OUT HIS LIVER= broke his flesh and took his liver out. The LIVER is a big organ in our body that filters blood.

GROWS BACK= grows again. The verb particle BACK is often used with the meaning of "again"

PURPOSE= aim, intention

OVER AND OVER= once and again and again and again...

30 YEARS OF SUFFERING= remember that after prepositions and conjunctions we always use –ING

TO RELEASE= to free, to liberate

A NEWBORN= a child who has been born recently. Here it refers to Baby Jesus, founder of Christianity, the religion that put an end to Greek mythology.

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