Uranus

The Latin Caelus, a son of Gaea,1 but is also called the husband of Gaea, and by her the father of Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, Cronus, of the Cyclopes — Brontes, Steropes, and Arges — and of the Hecatonchires — Cottus, Aegaeon and Gyges.2 According to Cicero,3 he also was the father of Hermes by Dia, and of Aphrodite by Hemera.

Uranus hated his children, and immediately after their birth, he confined them in Tartarus, in consequence of which he was unmanned and dethroned by Cronus at the instigation of Gaea.4 Out of the drops of his blood sprang the Gigantes, the Melian nymphs, and according to some, Silenus, and from the foam gathering around his limbs in the sea, sprang Aphrodite.5

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Iconography

Uranus does not seem to appear in early Greek art, but in the Roman era was frequently depicted as the Aeon -- the god of eternal time.

References

Notes

  1. Hesiod. Theogony, 126 ff.; comp. Cicero. On the Nature of the Gods iii, 17.
  2. Theogony, 133 ff.
  3. On the Nature of the Gods iii, 22, 23.
  4. Theogony, 180.
  5. Hesiod. Theogony, 195; Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library i, 1; Servius on Virgil's Aeneid v, 801; on Virgil's Eclogues, vi, 13.

Sources

  • Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.