Greek primordial gods

Greek primordial Gods
In Greek mythology the Prôtogenoi (pl.; Gr. Πρωτογενοι, sing. Protogenos) are a genealogy of primordial Greek gods, the name literally means "first born" or "primeval" and are a group of deities whose births are coterminous with the beginning of the universe.

The Protogenoi are the first entities or beings that come into existence. They form the very fabric of the universe and as such are immortal. The Prôtogenoi are a group of gods from which all the other gods descend. They preceded the Titans, the descendants of Gaia and Uranus.

Prôtogenoi
Although generally believed to be the first gods produced from Chaos, some sources mention a pair of deities who were the parents of these Prôtogenoi. These deities represent various elements of nature. Chaos has at times been considered, in place of Ananke, the female consort of Chronos. The female Prôtogenoi are capable of parthenogenesis as well as sexual reproduction.

Hesiod
According to Hesiod's Theogony(c. 700 BC):
 * Chaos (Void, Air, arche) - genderless (sometimes poetically female)
 * Erebus (Darkness) – male and Nyx (Night) – female
 * Aether (Light) – male and Hemera (Day) – female
 * Gaia (Earth) – female
 * Uranus (Heaven) – male
 * The Ourea (Mountains) – male
 * Pontus (Water, the Seas) – male
 * Tartarus (the great stormy Hellpit, which was seen as both a deity and the personification) – male
 * Eros (Procreation) - male

Other sources

 * Ananke (Compulsion) – female
 * Chronos (Time) – male
 * Hydros (Primordial Waters) - male
 * Thesis (Creation) - female
 * Phanes (Appearance) or Himeros or Eros elder (Procreation) or Protogonos (the First Born) – male (sometimes described as a hermaphrodite but addressed as male)
 * Phusis (Nature) or Thesis (Creation) – female
 * The Nesoi (Islands) - female
 * Thalassa (Sea) – female
 * Ophion (Serpent; often identified with Uranus, Oceanus, Phanes, or Chronos) - male

[edit] Alternatively attested genealogy structures
The ancient Greeks proposed many different ideas about primordial deities in their mythology, which would later be largely adapted by the Romans. The many religious cosmologies constructed by Greek poets each give a different account of which deities came first. Mother Earth Gaia, modern sculpture*The Iliad, an epic poem attributed to Homer about the Trojan War (an oral tradition of 700 or 600 BC) states that Oceanus (and possibly Tethys, too) is the parent of all the deities.[1 ] Philosophers of Classical Greece also constructed their own metaphysical cosmogonies, with their own primordial deities:
 * Alcman (c. 600 BC) made the water-nymph Thetis the first goddess, producing poros "path", tekmor "marker" and skotos "darkness" on the pathless, featureless void.
 * Orphic poetry (c. 530 BC) made Nyx the first principle, Night, and her offspring were many. Also, in the Orphic tradition, Phanes (a mystic Orphic deity of light and procreation, sometimes identified with the Elder Eros) is the original ruler of the universe, who hatched from the cosmic egg.[2 ]
 * Aristophanes (c. 456–386 BC) wrote in his Birds, that Nyx is the first deity also, and that she produced Eros from an egg.
 * Pherecydes of Syros (c. 600-550 BC) made Chronos ("time") the first deity in his Heptamychia.
 * Empedocles (c. 490–430 BC) wrote that Aphrodite and Ares were the first principles, who wove the universe out of the four elements with their powers of love and