Uranus

The Primordial God of the Sky

Uranus, or Ouranos in Greek, was one of the oldest gods in Greek mythology and represented the starry sky itself. He came from Gaia, the Earth, and together they became parents to a very powerful and very strange family. Their children included the twelve Titans, three Cyclopes and three Hundred-Handers. The Cyclopes had one eye each, while the Hundred-Handers had fifty heads and one hundred arms each. Imagine trying to organise that family photograph!

Unfortunately, Uranus was not a kind father to all of his children. He feared or hated some of them and forced them into a hidden place inside Gaia. Because Gaia was the Earth itself, this caused her terrible pain. She eventually made a powerful sickle and asked her Titan children to help. Cronus agreed. He attacked Uranus and removed him from power, becoming the new ruler. The full ancient story is quite gruesome, but the important part is that a son overthrows his father and takes his place.

This becomes a huge pattern in Greek mythology. Cronus later hears that one of his own children will overthrow him, so he tries to stop it by swallowing them. Zeus survives and eventually overthrows Cronus anyway. Basically, nobody in this family seems very good at learning from what happened to the previous generation! Uranus’s defeat also led to the birth of several strange beings in Hesiod’s story, including the Giants and, most famously, Aphrodite, who appeared from foam on the sea. Uranus does not have loads of later adventures because he remains the sky itself rather than becoming an Olympian-style character. Thousands of years later, the planet Uranus was named after him. So although he lost his position as ruler very early in the story, his name is now attached to an entire planet in our Solar System.

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