Chaos

Hesiod's poem Theogonia ("On the Origin of the Gods" or also "The Birth of the Gods") describes the origin of Chaos as follows: "In truth at first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation 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. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bore starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long hills, graceful haunts of the goddess Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills."

First, then, was Chaos (the abyss, the unstructured abyss, the antithesis and forerunner of the cosmos). Then was born the Earth (Gaia) and in it the Underworld Abyss (Tartarus), and then Love (Eros). Next, out of Chaos is born Darkness (Erebos) and Night (Nyx). Then out of the Earth (Gaia) are born Heaven (Uranos) and the Sea (Pontos). Night (Nyx) and Darkness (Erebos) give birth to Light (Aithér) and Day (Hémerá).

In this way, the human world and its structure - temporal (Day and Night) and spatial (Earth and Heaven) - gradually emerges from Chaos.