Ouranos
the primordial Sky and first ruler of creation
Ouranos was the primordial god of the sky and the first true ruler of all creation, who shaped the heavens and fathered the Titans with Gaia. His tyranny and his banishment of his monstrous children led his son Cronos to castrate and overthrow him.
Ouranos was the primordial god of the sky, the stars, and creation, the first true ruler of all that exists. Having conquered the primordial Chaos, he took Gaia the Earth as his queen and fathered the Titans upon her. His tyranny, and his banishment of his monstrous elder children, drove his youngest son Cronos to castrate and overthrow him, making Ouranos the first instigator of the Cycle of Patricide that would haunt his line.
Conqueror of Chaos#
Ouranos fought in the war of the Primordials, the eternal conflict before the beginning of time, and his faction prevailed. He conquered and brought to order the primordial Chaos, the realm to which the Blades of Chaos were later linked, and is said to have given life to the universe and created the heavens. As the primordial god of the sky, Ouranos embodied his domain utterly: within him were entire galaxies, and he himself was the infinite space of the stars. Victorious in that ancient war, he became the first true ruler of all creation, shaping the primordial cosmos and taking Gaia, the Earth Mother, as his wife and queen.
Father Sky and the banished children#
Ouranos and Gaia first bore three mighty Cyclopes, then three terrifying Hecatonchires. So revolted was the Skyfather at the hideousness of these children that he deemed them unfit to walk the Earth where he might see them and banished them into Tartarus, the primordial abyss. Gaia was shocked and betrayed by such cruelty toward her children, but she was powerless to challenge her husband, the ruler of all.
Their next children were the twelve elder Titans, who lived on the Island of Creation and were merely tolerated by their father. The Titans expanded the cosmos with new domains, the Sun and Moon, divine law and order, and finally Time itself, brought forth by the youngest, Cronos. Cronos hated his father for his tyranny and for his treatment of Gaia, a hatred fed, perhaps, by his own ambition to rule.
The overthrow#
When Gaia beseeched her Titan children to stand against the tyrant, none dared except Cronos, the youngest and most ambitious. He challenged his father for supremacy over the universe in a terrible cosmic battle against the conqueror of Chaos himself. When it was over, Cronos stood triumphant and castrated his father, a mockery of the lustful advances Ouranos had forced upon the Earth Mother, and so the Golden Age of the Titans began.
The first instigator#
Because his banishment of the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires was what turned Cronos against him, Ouranos can be counted the original instigator of the Cycle of Patricide that would run through his descendants, from Cronos to Zeus and at last to Kratos. It was Ouranos, not Cronos, who first raised his hand against his own family, in the war in which he conquered his mother Chaos and slew the fellow Primordials who opposed him before the beginning of time. Long after his death, Zeus and Athena would speak of him as the one who had brought order to Chaos, and the chain of patricide he began continued to shape the history of gods and Titans alike.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Ouranos?
- Ouranos was the primordial god of the sky, the stars, and creation, the first true ruler of all that exists. He took Gaia the Earth as his queen and fathered the Titans upon her.
- How did Ouranos become ruler of creation?
- Ouranos fought in the war of the Primordials, the eternal conflict before the beginning of time, and his faction prevailed. He conquered and brought to order the primordial Chaos and became the first true ruler of all creation, taking Gaia as his wife and queen.
- Why did Ouranos banish his children to Tartarus?
- Ouranos and Gaia first bore three Cyclopes, then three Hecatonchires, and the Skyfather was so revolted by their hideousness that he deemed them unfit to walk the Earth where he might see them. He banished them into Tartarus, the primordial abyss, which shocked and betrayed Gaia.
- How was Ouranos overthrown?
- When Gaia beseeched her Titan children to stand against the tyrant, only Cronos, the youngest and most ambitious, dared. He challenged his father in a terrible cosmic battle and castrated him, ending his reign and beginning the Golden Age of the Titans.
- Why is Ouranos called the first instigator of the Cycle of Patricide?
- His banishment of the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires was what turned Cronos against him, so Ouranos can be counted the original instigator of the Cycle of Patricide that ran through his descendants, from Cronos to Zeus and at last to Kratos. He first raised his hand against his own family in the war where he conquered his mother Chaos and slew the Primordials who opposed him.
Gallery
Images via God of War Wiki
Sources
- WikiOuranos — God of War Wiki entry
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Athena
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Cronos
Cronos was the Titan of Time and Harvest, last and mightiest of the Titans born to Gaia and Ouranos. He overthrew his own father, was overthrown by his son Zeus, and was condemned to bear Pandora's Temple before dying at the hands of Kratos.
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Gaia was the Primordial Goddess of the Earth, mother of the Titans and grandmother of the Olympians. She raised the infant Zeus, mourned the fall of her children, and bound her fate to Kratos in a war of vengeance that ended with both betrayed.
Titans
The Titans were the second generation of Greek deities, born to Gaia and Ouranos on the Island of Creation. They ruled the cosmos through the Golden Age until Zeus and the Olympians cast them down into Tartarus, and ages later they rose one final time at the side of Kratos.
Zeus
Zeus was the King of Olympus and ruler of the Greek Pantheon, the youngest son of Cronos who freed his siblings, ended the Great War, and claimed the heavens. Father of Kratos, he became the great antagonist of the Greek age and fell at last to the very son he had tried to destroy.
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The Blades of Chaos were a pair of fire-imbued chained blades forged in the Underworld for Ares and bound to the arms of Kratos. They became the signature weapons of his Greek era and the symbol of the bloodshed that earned him the name Ghost of Sparta, returning years later in the Norse realms.
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Aegaeon: the Hecatonchires made a prison
Aegaeon was one of the three Hecatonchires, a giant of many hands who broke a blood oath with Zeus and was punished by the Furies. His vast body was transformed into the living dungeon called the Prison of the Damned, in which Kratos was once chained.
Cronos
Cronos was the Titan of Time and Harvest, last and mightiest of the Titans born to Gaia and Ouranos. He overthrew his own father, was overthrown by his son Zeus, and was condemned to bear Pandora's Temple before dying at the hands of Kratos.
Cyclopes: the one-eyed giants of Greece
The Cyclopes were a race of burly, one-eyed giants of the Greek world. Once peaceful shepherds and master craftsmen, they were banished underground, freed by Zeus to fight in the Great War, and bred thereafter as beasts of war.
Cyclops
The Cyclopes were a species of burly, one-eyed giants, once peaceful herders and stonemasons banished to the Underworld before Zeus freed them to fight the Titans. In time they became beasts of war in the armies of the gods, their near-divine strength enough to threaten even demigods.
Gaia
Gaia was the Primordial Goddess of the Earth, mother of the Titans and grandmother of the Olympians. She raised the infant Zeus, mourned the fall of her children, and bound her fate to Kratos in a war of vengeance that ended with both betrayed.
Greek Gods
The Greek Gods were the pantheon that ruled over Greece across three generations, the Primordials, the Titans, and the Olympians. Once the masters of mortals, monsters, and the natural world, they were brought to near extinction by Kratos in his war of vengeance against Olympus.
Hecatonchires
The Hecatonchires were three giants of immense strength born of Ouranos and Gaia, mightier even than the Titans they helped to overthrow. One of their number, Aegaeon, was transformed by the Furies into a vast living prison for those who broke a blood oath with the gods.
Hyperion
Hyperion was the Titan of the Sun and Light, eldest and wisest of the sons of Ouranos, who first bore the Power of the Sun before his son Helios. He fell with his kind in the great war, and the gates that bear his name still cross the world.
Iapetus
Iapetus was a Titan of the first generation, son of Ouranos and Gaia, and the father of Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus. He fought against Zeus in the war of the Titans and was cast into Tartarus when the Olympians prevailed.
Mnemosyne
Mnemosyne was the Titaness of Memory and Remembrance, a daughter of Gaia and Ouranos who defected to the Olympians in the Great War. She became the lover of Zeus and bore him the nine Muses, but for opposing his cruelty she was at last cast down into Tartarus.
Nyx
Nyx was the Primordial of Night, one of the first beings born from Chaos and the sister-consort of Erebus. From the darkness she brought forth a host of lesser primordial gods and helped fashion the Island of Creation, drawing her cloak of night across the Greek heavens before withdrawing to her own world of eternal gloom.
Oceanus
Oceanus was the elder Titan who ruled the infinite waters of the young cosmos before Poseidon usurped his domain. Defeated in the Great War yet never imprisoned in Tartarus, he rose again during the siege of Olympus only to be cast down by Hades.
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