Greek gods - creators
Gaia
(also called Ge)
In Greek mythology, Gaia (Ge) is the goddess of the earth or the earth itself. In ancient Greek cosmology, the earth was considered to be a flat disc, surrounded by the heavens on one side and Tartarus on the other.
Hesiod's poem Theogonia ("On the Origin of the Gods" or also "The Birth of the Gods") describes the origin of Gaia 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 ..."
First, then, was Chaos. 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).
Gaia became the wife of Uranos when he took over the world and they produced twelve offspring (Titans). She subsequently gave birth to the Cyclopes and the Hekatoncheires.
Uranos hated his offspring, so much so that he cast the Hekatoncheires into the bowels of the earth (Tartarus). Gaia then asked the Titans to remove Uranos from power. Only Kronos, who cut Uranus to pieces with an iron sickle, dared to do so. From Uranus' blood, Gaia gave birth to the Giants. Another myth claims that Kronos threw Uranus' organs into the sea, where they mixed with sea foam to create Aphrodite.
Later, when history repeated itself and Kronos was overthrown by his own son Zeus, Gaia pitted the Giants against him, whom she endowed with magical plant invulnerability. Zeus summoned his earthly son Heracles to his aid, who overcame the Giants and overthrew them in deep Tartarus. The defeat of Kronos marked the end of the age of the Titans.