Aether (mythology)

Aether
Primordial god of the upper sky
Aether in battle with a lion-headed Giant
Personal information
Parents	Erebus and Nyx (Hesiod) or Chronos and Ananke (Orphic Hymns) or Chaos (Ovid, Hyginus)
Siblings	Hemera, Hypnos, Thanatos, Eris (Hesiod), Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, Apate, Nemesis, Eleos, the Keres, Hecate, Alecto (variant accounts), Megaera (variant accounts), Tisiphone (variant accounts), Lyssa, Dolos, Momus, Moros, Oizys
Consort	Hemera
Children	Gaia, Thalassa, Uranus, Aergia, Pontus, Tartarus

Part of a series on
Ancient Greek religion
show Origins Ancient Greek Religion Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean religion and Mycenaean deities Minoan Civilization Classical Greece Hellenistic Greece
show Sacred Places Sacred Islands Delos Ithaca Naxos Kythira Samothrace Crete Sacred Mountains Mount Lykaion Mount Ida (Turkey) Mount Ida (Crete) Mount Olympus Mount Kyllini Mount Othrys Sanctuaries Aornum Delphi Didyma Dion Dodona Eleusis Olympia Other Cave of Zeus Troy
show Deities Olympians Aphrodite Apollo Ares Artemis Athena Demeter Dionysus Hephaestus Hera Hermes Hestia Poseidon Zeus Primordial deities Achlys Aether Aion Ananke Chaos Chronos Erebus Eros Fates Atropos Clotho Lachesis Gaia Hemera Nyx Ourea Phanes Pontus Thalassa Tartarus Uranus Lesser deities Alpheus Amphitrite Asclepius Bia Circe Cybele Deimos Eileithyia Enyo Eos Eris Harmonia Hebe Hecate Helios Heracles Iris Kratos Leto Metis Momus Nemesis Nike Pan Persephone Phobos Proteus Scamander Selene Thanatos Thetis Triton Zelus
show Concepts Worldview Greek Mythology Orphic Egg Underworld and Afterlife Miasma Daimon Greek Heroic Age Divine and Reality Apeiron Monism Polytheism Pantheism Form of the Good Theory of forms Mind Anamnesis Ataraxia Apatheia Episteme Epoché Katalepsis Logos Nous Phronesis Soul Anima mundi Metempsychosis Henosis Plato's theory of soul Ethics Arete Hubris Xenia Ethic of Reciprocity Delphic maxims Adiaphora Eudaimonia Kathekon Oikeiôsis Mysteries Eleusinian Mysteries Orphism Dionysian Mysteries
show Practices Worship Agalma Dithyramb Paean Orgion Hiera Orgas Hero Cult Oracle and Pythia Sacrifices and Offerings Holokaustos Libation Votive offering Animal Sacrifice Temples and holy sites Temple Temenos Meditation and Charity Eusebeia Meditation Euergetism Rites of passage Amphidromia Marriage Funeral Rites Festivals Thesmophoria Dionysia Daphnephoria Anthesteria Arrephoria Kronia Genesia Elaphebolia Pyanopsia Khalkeia Haloa Thargelia Three Monthly Festivals Deipnon Noumenia Agathodaemon Religious Games Panathenaia Herakleia Panhellenic Games Olympic Games Nemean Games Pythian Games Isthmian Games
show Hellenistic philosophy Stoicism Platonism Cynicism Epicureanism Peripatetic Pythagoreanism Pyrrhonism Sophism
show Philosophers Ancient Hesiod Homer Leucippus Democritus Diogenes of Apollonia Pythagoras Hippasus Philolaus Archytas Thales of Miletus Anaximenes of Miletus Parmenides Melissus of Samos Anaxagoras Empedocles Anaximander Prodicus Classical Socrates Antisthenes Diogenes Aristippus Euclid of Megara Stilpo Aristotle Aristoxenus Theophrastus Strato of Lampsacus Plato Speusippus Xenocrates Hellenistic and Roman Arcesilaus Carneades Epicurus Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger) Plutarch Pyrrho Aenesidemus Agrippa the Skeptic Timon of Phlius Sextus Empiricus Cicero Plotinus Julian (emperor) Zeno of Citium Aratus Aristo of Chios Cleanthes Chrysippus Panaetius Posidonius Marcus Aurelius Epictetus Arrian
show Texts Argonautica Bibliotheca Corpus Hermeticum Delphic maxims Dionysiaca Epic Cycle Homeric Hymns Iliad Odyssey Orphic Hymns Theogony Works and Days
show Other Topics Pilgrimage Sites Calendar Greek mythology Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism Julian restoration Modern Restoration
Religion portal  Ancient Greece portal
v t

In Greek mythology, Aether (/ˈiːθər/; Ancient Greek: Αἰθήρ, romanized: Aithḗr, pronounced [ai̯tʰɛ̌ːr]) is one of the primordial deities. Aether is the personification of the "upper sky".^[1] He embodies the pure upper air that the gods breathe, as opposed to the normal air (Ancient Greek: ἀήρ, Latin: aer) breathed by mortals. Like Tartarus and Erebus, Aether may have had shrines in ancient Greece, but he had no temples and is unlikely to have had a cult.

Mythology[]

Hesiod[]

In Hesiod's Theogony, Aether (Light), was the son of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night), and the brother of Hemera (Day).^[2]

Hyginus[]

The Roman mythographer Hyginus, says Aether was the son of Chaos and Caligo (Darkness).^[3] According to Jan Bremmer,^[4]

"Hyginus ... started his Fabulae with a strange hodgepodge of Greek and Roman cosmogonies and early genealogies. It begins as follows: Ex Caligine Chaos. Ex Chao et Caligine Nox Dies Erebus Aether (Praefatio 1). His genealogy looks like a derivation from Hesiod, but it starts with the un-Hesiodic and un-Roman Caligo, ‘Darkness’. Darkness probably did occur in a cosmogonic poem of Alcman, but it seems only fair to say that it was not prominent in Greek cosmogonies."

Hyginus says further that the children of Aether and Day were Earth, Heaven, and Sea, while the children of Aether and Earth were "Grief, Deceit, Wrath, Lamentation, Falsehood, Oath, Vengeance, Intemperance, Altercation, Forgetfulness, Sloth, Fear, Pride, Incest, Combat, Ocean, Themis, Tartarus, Pontus; and the Titans, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Polus, Saturn, Ops, Moneta, Dione; and three Furies – namely, Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone."^[3]

Orphic Hymns[]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Jacob Bryant's Orphic Egg (1774)

Aristophanes states that Aether was the son of Erebus. However, Damascius says that Aether, Erebus and Chaos were siblings, and the offspring of Chronos (Father Time). According to Epiphanius, the world began as a cosmic egg, encircled by Time and Inevitability (most likely Chronos and Ananke) in serpent fashion. Together they constricted the egg, squeezing its matter with great force, until the world divided into two hemispheres. After that, the atoms sorted themselves out. The lighter and finer ones floated above and became the Bright Air (Aether and/or Uranus) and the rarefied Wind (Chaos), while the heavier and denser atoms sank and became the Earth (Gaia) and the Ocean (Pontos and/or Oceanus). See also Plato's Myth of Er.

The fifth Orphic hymn to Aether describes the substance as "the high-reigning, ever indestructible power of Zeus," "the best element," and "the life-spark of all creatures."^[5] Though attributed to the legendary poet Orpheus who lived before the time of Homer, the likely composition of the hymns in the 6th-4th centuries BCE make them contemporary with natural philosophers, such as Empedocles, who theorized the material forces of nature as identical with the gods and superior to the anthropomorphic divinities of Homeric religion.

See also[]

• Anshar

Notes[]

References[]

• Bremmer, Jan N. (2008). Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible and the Ancient Near East. Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture. Brill. ISBN 9789004164734. LCCN 2008005742.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 9780631201021.
• Hammond, N. G. L., and H. H. Scullard (editors), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press. (1992).
• Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Aether"