Chaos

Most retellings of Greek cosmology begin with Chaos. Usually described as feminine, Chaos was the swirling mixture of elemental mass that existed before anything else.

The first primordial gods were said to have emerged from within this chaotic space. Chaos contained the first building blocks from which all of creation would spawn.

This view of Chaos only existed in later mythology, however.

The word chaos in Greek meant "chasm." It was not originally applied to a confused mess of mass, but to an empty space.

In earlier cosmology, Chaos was not the first part of all creation. She was the primordial goddess of the lower atmosphere.

Her domain was the air that surrounded the living world, once that world was created. She represented both the invisible element of air and the thicker mists and fogs that sometimes filled it.

As the first elemental goddess of air, Chaos was the mother of all of the gods of air and mist that came after her.

Later versions of cosmology expanded this role to make Chaos the progenitor of all of the primordial gods. The name was still applied to the air, however.

As the first goddess of air, Chaos was also the mother of the things that lived in it. Birds, insects, and other flying creatures were her first mortal children.