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Uranus. RVI-0116: Caelus, statuette. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Göttingen, 1845- Dresden, 1923), Ausfürliches Lexikon der griechisches und römisches Mythologie, 1884.
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"There is, first of all ... the greatest lie about the things of greatest concernment, which was no pretty invention of him who told how Uranus did what Hesiod says he did to Cronos, and how Cronos in turn took his revenge; and then there are the doings and sufferings of Cronos at the hands of his son. Even if they were true I should not think that they ought to be thus lightly told to thoughtless young persons. But the best way would be to bury them in silence, and if there were some necessity for relating them, that only a very small audience should be admitted under pledge of secrecy and after sacrificing, not a pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim, to the end that as few as possible should have heard these tales." (Socrates. Plato, Republic 378a).
"Of Gaia and Uranus were born the children Oceanus and Tethys; and of these, Phorcus, Cronos, Rhea, and all that go with them; and of Cronos and Rhea were born Zeus and Hera and all those who are, as we know, called their brethren; and of these again, other descendants." (Timaeus. Plato, Timaeus 41a).
"... Cronos, according to tradition, is the son of Uranus; but the upward gaze is rightly called by the name urania ... and the astronomers say ... that from this looking people acquire a pure mind." (Socrates. Plato, Cratylus 396c).
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Uranus is Sky or Heaven.
First ruler
Since nothing is, strictly speaking, created,
but procreated, some have said that Uranus (Sky) is
the son of Gaia (Earth),
who came into being short after Chaos. Uranus, who was the
first ruler of the Universe, covered Gaia on every side and
became, in time, the abode of the gods.
No starry sky
Someone might recall, when thinking about
Uranus, the stars with which Heaven is crowned. But
even though Uranus has been later called "starry
heaven", that was not the case in those primeval
times, and not even Night was starry. For there were no stars in the sky yet,
just as there was no Sun and no Moon. For Helius (Sun) is the
grandson of Uranus, and Selene (Moon) his granddaughter. And the stars themselves were procreated later by Astraeus 1, son of Crius 1, one of the TITANS, and Eurybia 1, daughter of Gaia.
Cruel against his children
Uranus had intercourse with his mother Gaia and had by her the HECATONCHEIRES,
the CYCLOPES, and TITANS. But he, they say,
hating his offspring, hid some or many of them away
in a secret place on earth, or as some say, cast
them into Tartarus, which is a gloomy place in the Underworld as far
from Earth as Earth is from Heaven.
Castration of
Uranus
But since stern tyrants are often conspired
against, Gaia, grieved at
the fate of her children, addressed the TITANS, saying:
"My children,
gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey me, we
should punish the vile outrage of your father; for
he first thought of doing shameful things." (Gaia to the TITANS. Hesiod, Theogony 165).
This is how she persuaded the TITANS to attack their
father, arming Cronos with an adamantine sickle with jagged teeth. So
when Uranus, longing for love, lay about Gaia spreading himself full
upon her, Cronos, coming
out from his ambush, lopped off his father's
genitals, and cast them away to fall behind him
into the sea at cape Drepanum in Achaea; but some say that
the island of Corcyra, said also to be the abode of
the Phaeacians, was
called Drepane (Sickle-island) for this same
reason.
Prophecy
However, as Heaven's generative power is strong, many others were born from the severed genitals of Uranus (see Castration of
Uranus). And when this first ruler of the universe was thus defeated by his own offspring, he prophesied that they had performed a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come afterwards.
Advises his daughter
When Rhea 1 was about
to give birth to Zeus, who
later dethroned Cronos as
Uranus and Gaia prophesied,
she came to her parents, seeking for help to devise
a plan in order to conceal her child, and avoid it
being devoured by Cronos.
Then her parents told her to hide in Crete, and revealed what
was fated to happen to Cronos.
Advises his grandson
When Zeus, after
overthrowing his father Cronos, had married his first wife Metis 1, he, following the instructions of Uranus and Gaia,
devoured this most wise goddess and put her in his
belly. For, Uranus and Gaia had said, she was destined to bear a son that would dethrone his father. But wise Metis 1 being in his belly, all good or evil that she might devise, would be for the benefit of the god who swallowed her.
Held by Atlas
When the OLYMPIANS fought the TITANS, the
conflict reached such a magnitude that Heaven
groaned and was shaken, threatening to fall upon
earth. But after the war, and ever since, Heaven
has been kept apart from Earth, and the great vault
of the sky is held by Atlas, who tireless keep
it upon his head until today. |
