The Genesis in Greek myths related by Hesiod include for two different lineages starting respectively with Chaos and Gaia. It begins as follows:
“Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros, fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.” (Hesiod. Theogony, trans H.G. Evelyn-White, verse 116)
To fully understand this web page, it is recommended to follow the progression given in the tab Greek myths interpretation. This progression follows the spiritual journey.
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Chaos is the first element to appear in Hesiod’s version of the tale. Usually this word is used in the sense of a void assimilated into a general disorder – the tohu-bohu of Genesis in the Bible, a world “empty and vague”. But in this case there is no connotation of disorder or confusion: if there is a sense of emptiness, it is that of a void potentially containing everything.
The character structuring this word, “Khi”(Χ), expresses the concept of the point in which is contained everything, the One concentrated into Himself, the Absolute, the Tao, the Void, etc., which is far beyond our present capacity of comprehension.
According to Hesiod however, human consciousness is capable of reaching this point only in temporary flashes when it is elevated to the highest planes of the mind, for he tells us that Zeus can bring to it his lightning.
This absolute found outside the realm of time, space and even manifestation is the kingdom of the infinite and the eternal. Therefore the concepts of dawning or manifestation are used only in a symbolic sense here. There is no need for inception, and the four primary divine entities coexist eternally.
Then, with the presence of Gaia, Chaos becomes the Consciousness- Force and Gaia (or Ge) becomes its movement of externalisation which will later on become the principle of Existence and Becoming and in the denser planes the personification of Earth and Matter.
The characters which form the word Gaia (Γ+Ι) express a consciousness which leaps from the highest level. This is only a representational distinction, for at this stage we cannot truly differentiate into levels. As a foundation of Existence, Gaia is at the origin of the principles of manifestation which in turn will direct creation.
Simultaneous with the emergence of Gaia appears the mist-enveloped Tartarus, the principle of non-existence (Non-Being) and non-consciousness which seems akin to Sri Aurobindo’s concept of Nescience. In direct opposition to Gaia, this is what permits the Absolute to “forget itself”, to carry out the supreme divine sacrifice. But at this stage nothing is yet compartmentalised as all is One. We can read this in the character structure of the name “Tartarus” assembled in the classical form x+Ρx, here Τ+ΡΤ+Ρ “Consciousness + reversal (negation) of consciousness + according to the divine plan.” It is a region which Hesiod describes as being “as distant from the earth as the earth is distant from the sky, for it would take nine days and nine nights for the bronze anvil descending from the sky to reach the earth on the tenth night, and it would take it as long to descend from the Earth to Tartarus.” (Theogony 744) ”
The duration of the fall of the anvil reveals the necessity for a manifestation to have a full period of gestation.
Tartarus can be understood as a passive resistance, a power which opposes itself permanently to the pressure of the Absolute and to its incoercible attraction to Existence in Becoming.
According to Hesiod, this union with Gaia will engender Typhon, a symbol of ignorance which manifests itself in the densest planes by “filling with smoke, blinding and generating the first mental storms”.
In the Homeric hymn to Apollo it is Hera who created Typhon to avenge herself on the birth of Athena whom Zeus brought to life alone: the power of limitation (Hera) was thus utilizing ignorance (Typhon) to thwart the force of evolutionary expansion (Zeus) which had generated the impulse for inner growth (Athena).
When Zeus vanquished Typhon and human consciousness progressed beyond the animal stage, ignorance remained active through the intermediary of the children of Typhon, the great monsters Cerberus, “the guardian of Death”, the Lernaean Hydra, “Desire”, the Chimera, “Illusion” and the dog Orthros, “Untruth”.
Finally appeared Eros, Joy or Divine Delight (Ananda in the Indian tradition), the third term of the indivisible trinity and the expression of the relationship between the Consciousness-Force and its power of execution.
He governs intelligence and the right desire in the depths of the hearts of men and gods alike: as a supreme expression of Love simultaneously transcending and acting from within he supports and leads intelligence and the Wisdom-Will of the soul or the psychic being rather than that of the ego. In Questions and Answers of 9-01-1957, the Mother makes the following statement: “All those who have had the inner experience have had this experience, that the moment one re-establishes the union with the divine source, all suffering disappears. But there has been a very persistent movement, about which I spoke to you last week, which put at the source of creation not this essential divine Delight but desire. This delight