Uranos

Uranos, also called Ouranos in (Ancient Greek: Οὐρανός - "sky" or "heaven"), is the personification of the sky in Greek mythology. He is the son and husband of the primordial goddess Gaia and father of the Titans, Hekatonkheires, and Elder Cyclopes. His Roman equivalent was Caelus, the husband of Terra, as Gaia was known to the Romans. The planet Uranus is named after him, as well as the radioactive chemical element uranium.

Revolt of the Titans

Gaia was one of the Protogenoi (Greek: "first born") - the first beings to have sprung forth from the void of Chaos. Uranos himself soon came into being, as Gaia took him for her husband. Together, they sired three races of children: the Hekatonkheires, Elder Cyclopes, and the Titans. Gaia loved her children dearly, however, Uranos loathed and despised them; disgusted by their appearance, he cast them into Tartarus.

Gaia soon forged a scythe out of the hardest metal and gathered her remaining children (the Titans), urging them to take the weapon, kill Uranos, and free their brothers. Almost all of them refused, for fear of their father; only Kronos, the youngest Titan, was willing. He took the scythe, and lay in wait for Uranos to come down to Earth to lie with Gaia. Kronos, with the help of his elder brothers, successfully ambushed Urranos, taking the scythe and castrating him; he then chopped Uranos into pieces, his blood spilling forth across the Earth. When Kronos threw Uranos' genitals into the sea (as an insult to Okeanos for not helping with the murder), there formed sea foam, from which Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, sprang forth. Other beings which sprang from Uranos' blood include the Gigantes, the Furies, and Meliae.

References

• Hesiod, Theogony