In Greek mythology, Uranus ( , also ),["We did not regard them as being in any way worthy of worship," Karl Kerenyi, speaking for the ancient Greeks, said of the Titans (Kerenyi, p. 20); "with the single exception, perhaps, of Cronos; and with the exception, also, of Helios."] and Uranus does not appear among the usual themes of Greek painted pottery. Elemental Earth, Sky, and Styx might be joined, however, in solemn invocation in Homeric epic.[As at Homer, Iliad 15.36 ff., Odyssey 5.184 ff.] The translation of his name in Latin is Caelus.[Grimal, s.v. Caelus, pp. 83–84.][Varro, De lingua Latina 5.58.][Marion Lawrence, "The Velletri Sarcophagus", American Journal of Archaeology 69.3 (1965), p. 220.]
Etymology
Most linguists trace the
etymology of the name italic=yes to a
Proto-Greek form
*Worsanós (Ϝορσανός),
[West 2007, p. 137. Originally reconstructed in: Johann Baptist Hofmann, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Griechischen (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1950).] enlarged from *
ṷorsó- (also found in Greek italic=yes
(italic=yes) 'to urinate',
Sanskrit varṣá 'rain',
Hittite language ṷarša- 'fog, mist').
[Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 1128–1129.] The basic Indo-European root is
*ṷérs- 'to rain, moisten' (also found in Greek
eérsē 'dew', Sanskrit
várṣati 'to rain', or
Avestan language aiβi.varəšta 'it rained on'), making Ouranos the "rain-maker",
or the "lord of rain".
[West 2007, p. 137.]
A less likely etymology is a derivative meaning 'the one standing on high' from PIE * ṷérso- (cf. Sanskrit várṣman 'height, top', Lithuanian viršùs 'upper, highest seat', Russian verh 'height, top'). Of some importance in the comparative study of Indo-European mythology is the identification by Georges Dumézil (1934)[Georges Dumézil, Ouranos-Varuna – Essai de mythologie comparée indo-européenne (Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve, 1934).] of Uranus with the Vedic deity Varuna (Mitanni Aruna), god of the sky and waters, but the etymological equation is now considered untenable.[Manfred Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen, vol. 2, s.v. "Váruṇa" (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1996), 515–6.
Edgar C. Polomé, "Binder-god", in Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (London–Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), 65.]
Genealogy
In Hesiod's
Theogony, which came to be accepted by the Greeks as the "standard" account,
[Hard, p. 21; Fowler 2013, p. 5.] from Gaia (Earth), the first entity to come into existence after Chaos (Void), came Uranus, the
Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea).
[Fowler 2013, p. 5; Hard, p. 24; Gantz, p. 10; Hesiod, Theogony 126–132.]
Then, according to the Theogony, Uranus mated with Gaia, and she gave birth to the twelve Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronus; the Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes and Arges; and the Hecatoncheires ("Hundred-Handed Ones"): Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges.[Hesiod, Theogony 132–153. Compare with Apollodorus, 1.1.1–3, which first mentions the Hecatoncheires, whom he names as Briareus, "Gyes" and Cottus, then the Cyclopes and the Titans.]
Further, according to the Theogony, when Cronus Castration Uranus, from Uranus's blood, which splattered onto the earth, came the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants, and the Meliae. Also, according to the Theogony, Cronus threw the severed genitals into the sea, around which "a white foam spread" and "grew" into the goddess Aphrodite,[Hesiod, Theogony 173–206.] although according to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.[Homer, Iliad 3.374, 5.370–71, 20.105, Odyssey 8.308, 320; see Gantz, pp. 99–100.]
Other accounts
Other sources give Uranus other genealogies. In the lost epic poem the
Titanomachy, Uranus was apparently the son of Aether,
[Gantz, p. 12; Grimal, s.v. Uranus; Eumelus fr. 1 (West 2003, pp. 222–225).] while according to others Uranus was the son of one "Acmon".
[ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Acmon; Eumelus fr. 1 (West 2003, pp. 222–225); Callimachus fr. 498; Alcman fr. 61 Campbell =.] According to
Orphism texts, Uranus (along with Gaia) was the offspring of
Nyx (Night) and
Phanes.
[West 1983, pp. 70, 85; Gantz, p. 742; Meisner, pp. 37, 70, 197; Grimal, s.v. Uranus.]
The poet Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BC), was said to have made Uranus, the father of Eros, by either Gaia, according one source, or Aphrodite, according to another.[Gantz, p. 3; Sappho fr. 198 Campbell = =.]
The mythographer Apollodorus, gives a slightly different genealogy from Hesiod's. Without mentioning any ancestors, he begins his account by saying simply that Uranus "was the first who ruled over the whole world."[Apollodorus, 1.1.1] According to Apollodorus, the Titans (instead of being Uranus's firstborn as in Hesiod) were born after the three Hecatoncheires and the three Cyclopes,[Apollodorus, 1.1.1– 1.1.2] and there were thirteen original Titans, adding the Titanide Dione to Hesiod's list.[Apollodorus, 1.1.3]
Passages in a section of the Iliad called the Deception of Zeus suggest the possibility that Homer knew a tradition in which Oceanus and Tethys (rather than Uranus and Gaia, as in Hesiod) were the parents of the Titans.[Fowler 2013, pp. 8, 11; Hard, pp. 36–37, p. 40; West 1997, p. 147; Gantz, p. 11; Burkert 1995, pp. 91–92; West 1983, pp. 119–120; Homer, Iliad 14.201, 302 =, 245.] Plato, in his Timaeus, provides a genealogy (probably Orphic) which perhaps reflected an attempt to reconcile this apparent divergence between Homer and Hesiod, with Uranus and Gaia as the parents of Oceanus and Tethys, and Oceanus and Tethys as the parents of Cronus and Rhea and the other Titans.[Gantz, pp. 11–12, 743; West 1983, pp. 117–118; Fowler 2013, p. 11; Plato, Timaeus 40d–e.]
In Roman mythology, Uranus's counterpart was Caelus (Sky). Cicero says Caelus was the offspring of Aether and Dies (Day),[Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.44.] and that Caelus and Dies were the parents of Mercury (Hermes).[Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.56.] Hyginus says that, in addition to Caelus, Aether and Dies were also the parents of Terra (Earth), and Mare (Sea).[Fabulae, Fabulae Theogony 1–2 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95).]
Mythology
Castration and overthrow
As Hesiod tells the story, Gaia "first bore starry Heaven Uranus, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods."
[Hard, p. 24; Gantz, p. 10; Hesiod Theogony 126–128.] Then, with Gaia, Uranus produced eighteen children: the twelve Titans, the three
Cyclopes, and the three
Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handers),
[Hesiod, Theogony 132–153.] but hating them,
[Hesiod, Theogony 154–155. Exactly which of these eighteen children Hesiod meant that Uranus hated is not entirely clear, all eighteen, or perhaps just the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers. Hard,
p. 67; West 1988, p. 7, and Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154–160, make it all eighteen; while Gantz, p. 10, says "likely all eighteen"; and Most, p. 15 n. 8, says "apparently only the ... Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers are meant" and not the twelve Titans. See also West 1966, p. 206 on lines 139–53, p. 213 line 154 γὰρ. Why Uranus hated his children is also not clear. Gantz, p. 10 says: "The reason for Uranus' hatred may be his horrible appearance, though Hesiod does not quite say this"; while Hard, p. 67 says: "Although Hesiod is vague about the cause of his hatred, it would seem that he took a dislike to them because they were terrible to behold". However, West 1966, p. 213 on line 155, says that Uranus hated his children because of their "fearsome nature".] he hid them away somewhere inside Gaia.
[Hesiod, Theogony 156–158. The hiding place inside Gaia is presumably her womb, see West 1966, p. 214 on line 158; Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154–160; Gantz, p. 10. This place seems also to be the same place as Tartarus, see West 1966, p. 338 on line 618, and Caldwell, p. 37 on lines 154–160.] Angry and in distress, Gaia fashioned a
sickle made of
adamant and urged her children to punish their father. Only her son Cronus, the youngest Titan, was willing to do so.
[Hesiod, Theogony 159–172.] So Gaia hid Cronus in "ambush", giving him the adamantine sickle, and when Uranus came to lie with Gaia, Cronus reached out and castrated his father, casting the severed testicles into the sea.
[Hesiod, Theogony 173–182; according to Gantz, p. 10, Cronus waited in ambush, and reached out to castrate Uranus, from "inside Gaia's body, we will understand, if he too is a prisoner".] Uranus's castration allowed the Titans to rule and Cronus to assume supreme command of the cosmos.
[Hard, p. 67; West 1966, p. 19.]
For this "fearful deed", Uranus called his sons "Titans (Strainers) in reproach" and said that "vengeance for it would come afterwards."[Hesiod, Theogony 207–210.] According to Hesiod, from the blood that spilled from Uranus onto the Earth came forth the Giants, the Erinyes (the avenging Furies), and the Meliae (the ash-tree ). From the genitals in the sea came forth Aphrodite.[Hesiod, Theogony 183–199.] According to some accounts, the mythical Phaeacians, visited by Odysseus in the Odyssey, were also said to have sprung from the blood of Uranus's castration.[Lane Fox, p. 274 with n. 37; Acusilaus fr. 4 Fowler =; Alcaeus fr. 441 Campbell; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.981–992.]
Various sites have been associated with Cronus's sickle, and Uranus's castration.[Grimal, s.v. Uranus.] Two of these were on the island of Sicily. According to the Alexandrian poet Callimachus (c. 270 BC), Cronus's sickle was buried at Zancle in Sicily, saying that it was "hidden in a hollow under the ground" there.[Lane Fox, p. 270; Callimachus, Aetia ( On Origins) 2, fr. 43.68–72. For a discussion of this sickle of Zancle see Lane Fox, pp. 270–273.] The other Sicilian site is Drepanum (modern Trapani), whose name is derived from the Greek word for "sickle". Another Alexandrian poet, Lycophron (c. 270 BC), mentions "rounding the Cronos' Sickle's leap", an apparent reference to the "leap" of the sickle being thrown into the sea at Drepanum.[Lane Fox, pp. 270–271; Lycophron, Alexandra 869.]
However, other sites were also associated with the sickle. The geographer Pausanias, reports that the sickle was said to have been thrown into the sea from the cape near Bolina, not far from Argyra on the coast of Achaea, and says that "For this reason they call the cape Drepanum".[Lane Fox, p. 273; Pausanias, 7.23.4.] The historian Timaeus located the sickle at Corcyra, which the islanders claimed to be Phaeacia the island home of the Phaeacians, who (as noted above) were said to have been born from the blood of Uranus's castration.[Lane Fox, p. 274 with n. 36, citing the scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica, 4.984 ff. Compare with Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.981–992.]
After his castration, Uranus recedes into the background. Uranus plays no further role in Greek mythology beyond the tradition that he and Gaia (now reconciled?)[Gantz, p. 41.] warned their son Cronus that he was destined to be overthrown by one of his children, advised their daughter Rhea, Cronus's wife, to go to Lyctus on Crete to give birth to Zeus, so that Zeus would be saved from Cronus, and advised Zeus to swallow his first wife Metis, so that Zeus would not in turn be overthrown by his son.[Grimal, s.v. Uranus; Hesiod, Theogony 463–464, 886–900. For a discussion of Uranus's prophesying see West 1966, p. 295, on line 463.] He is however identified on the Gigantomachy frieze on the Pergamon Altar, bearded and winged, fighting against the Giants with a sword, not too far from his daughter Themis, who is seen attacking another Giant.[ LIMC Ouranos; Honan, p. 21]
The sky (ouranos)
After his castration, the Sky came no more to cover the Earth at night, but held to its place, and, according to Carl Kerényi, "the original begetting came to an end".
[Kerényi, p. 22.] Uranus was scarcely regarded as anthropomorphic, aside from the genitalia in the castration myth. He was simply the sky, which was conceived by the ancients as an overarching dome or roof of bronze, held in place (or turned on an axis) by the Titan Atlas. In formulaic expressions in the Homeric poems
ouranos is sometimes an alternative to
Mount Olympus as the collective home of the gods; an obvious occurrence would be the moment in
Iliad 1.495, when
Thetis rises from the sea to plead with Zeus: "and early in the morning she rose up to greet Ouranos-and-Olympus and she found the son of Kronos ...".
William Sale remarks that "... 'Mount Olympus' is almost always used [as the home of the Olympian gods], but ouranos often refers to the natural sky above us without any suggestion that the gods, collectively, live there".[Sale, p. 3.] Sale concluded that the earlier seat of the gods was the actual Mount Olympus, from which the epic tradition by the time of Homer had transported them to the sky, ouranos. By the sixth century, when a "heavenly Aphrodite" (Aphrodite Urania) was to be distinguished from the "common Aphrodite of the people", ouranos signifies purely the celestial sphere itself.
Comparative mythology
Hurrian mythology
The Greek creation myth is similar to the
Hurrian creation myth. In Hurrian religion
Anu is the sky god. His son
Kumarbis bit off his genitals and spat out three deities, one of whom,
Teshub, later deposed Kumarbis.
[Guterbock, Hans Gustav. "Hittite Religion" in Forgotten Religions including some Primitive Religions" ed. Vergilius Firm. NY Philadelphia Library 1950: 88f,103f; See Hard, p. 34; Gantz, p. 743.]
Váruṇa
It is possible that Uranus was originally an Indo-European god, to be identified with the
Vedic Varuna, the supreme keeper of order who later became the god of oceans and rivers, as suggested by Georges Dumézil,
following hints in Émile Durkheim,
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912).
[The Durkheim connection was noted by Arnoldo Momigliano, "Georges Dumezil and the Trifunctional Approach to Roman Civilization", History and Theory, 1984; a link between Uranus and Varuna was suggested as early as 1824 by Albrecht Weber, Modern investigations on ancient India: A lecture delivered in Berlin March 4, 1824, 1857.] Another of Dumézil's theories is that the Iranian supreme God
Ahura Mazda is a development of the
Indo-Iranians *vouruna-*mitra.
[Georges Dumézil, Mitra Varuna: Essai sur deux représentations indo-européenes de la souveraineté (Paris: Gallimard, 1948). English translation: Mitra-Varuna: an Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty, trans. Derek Coltman (New York: Zone Books, 1988).] Therefore, this divinity has also the qualities of
Mitra, which is the god of the falling rain.
[According to Dumézil, Varuna is the god of "masses of water", while falling rain is rather related to Mitra.]
Uranus is connected with the night sky, and Varuna is the god of the sky and the celestial ocean, which is connected with the Milky Way.
Georges Dumézil made a cautious case for the identity of Uranus and Vedic Varuna at the earliest Indo-European cultural level.
Cultural context of flint
The detail of the sickle's being flint rather than bronze or even iron was retained by Greek mythographers (though neglected by Roman ones).
Knapping as cutting edges were set in wooden or bone sickles in the late Neolithic, before the onset of the
Bronze Age. Such sickles may have survived latest in ritual contexts where metal was taboo, but the detail, which was retained by classical Greeks, suggests the antiquity of the
mytheme.
Planet Uranus
The ancient Greeks and Romans knew of only five "wandering stars" ( ): Mercury,
Venus,
Mars,
Jupiter, and
Saturn. Following the discovery of a sixth planet in 1781 using a telescope, there was long-term disagreement regarding its name. Its discoverer
William Herschel named it Georgium Sidus (The Georgian Star) after his monarch
George III. This was the name preferred by English astronomers, but others such as the French preferred "Herschel". Finally, the name
Uranus became accepted in the mid-19th century, as suggested by astronomer Johann Bode as the logical addition to the existing planets' names, since Mars (
Ares in Greek), Venus (
Aphrodite in Greek), and Mercury (
Hermes in Greek) were the children of Jupiter, Jupiter (
Zeus in Greek) the son of Saturn, and Saturn (
Cronus in Greek) the son of Uranus. What is anomalous is that, while the others take Roman names,
Uranus is a name derived from Greek in contrast to the Roman
Caelus.
Notes
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Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, edited and translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library No. 1, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
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Walter Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, translated by Walter Burkert, Margaret E. Pinder, Harvard University Press, 1995. .
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Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). .
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Callimachus, Musaeus, Aetia, Iambi, Hecale and Other Fragments, Hero and Leander, edited and translated by C. A. Trypanis, T. Gelzer, Cedric H. Whitman, Loeb Classical Library No. 421, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1973. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
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Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume I: Sappho and Alcaeus, Loeb Classical Library No. 142, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1990. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
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Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume II: Anacreon, Anacreontea, Choral Lyric from Olympus to Alcman, edited and translated by David A. Campbell, Loeb Classical Library No. 143, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1988. Online version at Harvard University Press.
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Cicero, De Natura Deorum in Cicero: On the Nature of the Gods. Academics, translated by H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library No. 268, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, first published 1933, revised 1951. . Online version at Harvard University Press. Internet Archive.
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Fowler, R. L. (2000), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. .
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Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. .
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Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
-
Robert Graves, revised edition, 1960. The Greek Myths.
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Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, .
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Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books.
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Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Honan, Mary McMahon, Guide to the Pergamon Museum, De Gruyter, 1904. . Online version at De Gruyter.
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Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae : Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. .
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Simon Hornblower, Lykophron, Alexandra: Greek Text, Translation, Commentary, and Introduction. Oxford University Press. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom. 2015.
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Kerényi, Carl, The Gods of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1951.
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Otto Kern. Orphicorum Fragmenta, Berlin, 1922. Internet Archive.
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Lycophron, Alexandra (or Cassandra) in Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive.
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Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Lane Fox, Robin, Travelling Heroes: In the Epic Age of Homer, Vintage Books, 2010. .
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Meisner, Dwayne A., Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods, Oxford University Press, 2018. . Google Books.
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Most, G.W., Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
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Plato, Timaeus in Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Uranus"
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Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790–1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
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West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. .
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West, M. L. (1983), The Orphic Poems, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1983. .
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West, M. L. (1988), Hesiod: Theogony and Works and Days, Oxford University Press. .
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West, M. L. (1997), The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth, Oxford University Press. .
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West, M. L. (2003), Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, edited and translated by Martin L. West, Loeb Classical Library No. 497, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2003. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
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West, M. L. (2007), Indo-European Poetry and Myth, OUP Oxford, 2007. . Google Books.
External links
