URANUS (gr. Ouranós “heaven”)
in Greek mythology the eldest of gods, personification of sky, husband of ➚ Gaia, father of the ➚ Nymphs, ➚ Titans, ➚ Titanesses, ➚ Cyclopes, ➚ Horae, ➚ Hecatoncheires and Pontus (“Sea”) [1,2]. He condemned his eldest offspring to stay in ➚ Tartarus, thus arousing Gaia’s anger. She prompted ➚ Cronus – the youngest of the Titans – to stand against his father. Cronus castrated him with a stone sickle (hárpē); in later versions the perpetrator used a curved iron sword [3] (compare with TELCHINES). From the drops of Uranus blood the following beings were born: ➚ Gigantes, ➚ Erinyes, ➚ Meliades and ➚ Aphrodite [4]. In the Orphic tradition Uranus was considered the demon all-father [5].
References
[1] H e s., Theog., 126 ff.; [2] A p d., I, 11 ff.; [3] A p d., I, 1, 4; [4] H e s., Theog., 182 ff.; [5] Orph.h. IV, 1 ff.
D u m é z i l, Ouranos-Váruna. Étude de mythologie comparée indo-européenne, Paris 1934; W. S t a u d a c h e r, Die Trennung von Himmel und Erde. Ein vorgriechischer Schöpfungsmythus bei Hesiod und der Orphikern, Tübingen 1942.
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