Creative Writing: Ancient Greek Mythology

As in many ancient religions the world started out in chaos. From chaos
emerged five deities. Gaea, the earth, was known as the mother of
everything. Tartarus was the abyss or the region below the underworld that
served as a prison for monsters or enemies of the gods. Eros, also known as
cupid, was the deity of love and would shoot humans with one of his arrows
and they would fall in love with the first person they saw. Erebus was the
deity of darkness and shadows. And finally, there was Nix. She was the
personification of the night and would drag her mist cloak across the sky to
block out the sun and was depicted as either a charioteer or a winged
goddess with a crown of dark mist.

Now as many Greek deities do Nix and Erebus had children together.
The first two were Aether, the deity of the heaven and light and
personification of the upper air that only the gods could breathe, and
Hemera, the deity of the day and would disperse Nixs mist to allow the
world to bath in Aethers light. They also had Nemesis, who was the deity of
retribution and revenge and would show her wrath to any human who
showed arrogance before the gods. She was remorseless and often used in
Greek literately works to give the protagonist what was due. Then there was
Hypnos, the deity of sleep who lived in a cave next to his brother Thanatos,
the deity of death who was believed to merciless and indiscriminate and was
outsmarted in some myths. In front of Hypnoss cave were poppies and other
sleep inducing flowers. There was also Geras, the deity of old age who was
considered a virtue because it was thought the more geras one had, the
more fame and excellence they possessed. Then, there was Charon, the
ferrier who brought souls who had received burial rites across the Rivers Styx
and Acheron to the Underworld. He was described as a morose, grisly old
man who later became the image of death. There is also Apate, who is the
deity and spirit of deceit and was open of the evil spirits that was release
when Pandora opened her box. And finally, Nyx and Erebus had Momos, the
deity of satire, mokery, and poets and spirit of evil-spirited blame and unfair
criticism, and his twin sister Oizys, deity of misery and suffering. In Latin
Oizyss name is Miseria which the English word misery is derived from. Now
in addition to these children Nyx had some children on her own. There was
Eris, the deity of chaos, strife, and dischord, Philotes, the deity and spirit of
affection and friendship, Moros, the deity and personification of impending
doom whose will no one could resist, and the Oneiroi, who were the deities
and personifications of dreams and were said to be black winged spirits. Nyx
also had the Keres, who were female malevolent death spirits who hovered
over battlefields searching for dying soliders. The two were said to have
gruesome appearances. And finally, were the Moirai, more commonly known
as the fates. They were the incarnations of destiny and life and were said to
visit a house three days after a child was born to determine its fate. There
was Clothe, who spun the thread of life and therefore decided when a person
was born and killed, Lachesis, who was the one who drew lots and
determined the length of ones life and their destiny by measuring their
thread of life, and Atrops, who was the one who chose how a person died by
cutting their thread of life.

Next quarter I will write about the children of Gaea and Tartarus. IN
that one you will recognize more monsters and deties including the titans.