By the Gods!
RSSPosts tagged with "primordial"
Nyx
In Greek mythology, Nyx was the primordial goddess of the night. We’re talking old even for the gods, here. Three generations before Zeus ‘n the gang, two before the Titans came on the scene; Nyx is ancient stuff, guys. She was born of Chaos, the great primordial deity who existed before naught else was made. These initial gods, as they were born out of Chaos, became the foundations of the universe. Gaia, from who Zeus and the Olympians trace their ancestry, was a sister of Nyx, for example, and she was the living Earth itself.
Most of what we know of Nyx comes from Hesiod’s Theogony, a history of the gods and the universe according to Greek paganism. Nyx, the night, was born, and then bore children with Erebus, the god of shadow and darkness: Aether (atmosphere), and Hemera (day). Later on, she made a few kids on her own, without Erebus. Momus (blame), Moros (doom), Thanatos (death), Hypnos (sleep), Charon (the ferryman of Hades), and the Oneiroi (dreams)…
Excuse me— there are more, I just need to catch my breath. Okay:
… the Hesperides, the Keres, the Moirae (the Fates), Nemesis (retribution), Apate (deception), Philotes (friendship), Geras (age) and Eris (strife) were all her kids. She was dedicated, you could say.
In other Greek texts, Nyx was sometimes listed as the first principle deity, before Chaos (in these cases Chaos often wasn’t mentioned at all), so she was clearly held in high regard. There were a handful of cults devoted to the goddess of Night, though she was not an object of direct worship very often, as were the Olympians. She was given respect, to be sure, but not the same devotion we would see toward the more contemporary Greek gods.
Bor
Bor was the son of Buri, the husband of Betsla the giantess, and the father of Odin, Vili, and Ve. Bor was an ancient god that lived in the time before the world had been made. If you recall, in the Norse tradition, we have the work of Odin and his brothers to thank for the slaying of Ymir and creation of the world. When Bor was around, there was only the ice of Niflheim and the fires of Muspellsheim. The place where these two worlds met was called Ginnungagap, and is pictured above. Must’ve been boring, even for an ancient god.
Bor’s father-in-law, the giant Bolthur, also had a son who imparted his wisdom to his nephew Odin. Bor didn’t really have that big of a role in Norse mythology, and there’s no evidence to suggest that he was actively worshipped in Germanic cultures. Though, he’s important in the sense that he’s Odin’s daddy, and Odin is pretty damn important. What happens to Bor and where does he go? We’re not really sure, as he doesn’t show up anywhere else. Everyone else seems to come back for the final clash at Ragnarok, however, so maybe Bor’ll show up and fight for the Aesir? Then again, he was before the time of the Aesir and their war against the frost giants, so he wouldn’t really have “a side” in that conflict, would he?
Tiamat
In the Babylonian creation myth, (Enuma Elish) Tiamat was the primordial salt-water ocean god that existed at the beginning of time. The universal primeval mother, she was depicted as a monstrous female dragon and was believed to embody the forces of chaos. The waters of Tiamat mingled with the fresh-water primordial ocean, Apsu, and in doing so initiated the creation of the gods.
Tiamat eventually assaulted some of the younger gods due after Ea (their leader, essentially) captured Apsu. Tiamat gave birth to an army of monsters that were “sharp of tooth and merciless of fang” and waged war on these young gods. (Note: this is where the image of Tiamat as a dragon comes from, the description of her children)
Nobody could stop the raging Tiamat, but eventually Marduk took up the challenge. They fought, and when Tiamat opened her jaws to swallow Marduk, he threw a raging storm into her mouth so that she was unable to close it. Then he did what anyone would do: catch ‘er in a net and fill ‘er with arrows before pulling her insides out. Classy. Marduk split Tiamat’s skull and slashed her body in two. One half of the body became the heavens, the other the ocean floor. He then pierced her eyes to form the sources of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and bent her tail into the sky to form the Milky Way.
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