Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...

, Aether, Æther, Aither, or Ether (; grc, Αἰθήρ (Brightness) ) is the personification of the bright upper sky. According to

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

, he was the son of Erebus (Darkness) and

Nyx Nyx (; , , "Night") is the Greek goddess and personification of night. A shadowy figure, Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation and mothered other personified deities, such as Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death), with Erebus (Darknes ...

(Night), and the brother of Hemera (Day). In Orphic cosmogony Aether was the offspring of Chronus (Time), and the brother of Chaos and Erebus.

Genealogy

According to

's ''

Theogony The ''Theogony'' (, , , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contain ...

'', which contained the "standard" Greek genealogy of the gods, Aether was the offspring of Erebus and

, and the brother of Hemera. However, other early sources give other genealogies. According to one, the union of Erebus and Nyx resulted in Aether,

Eros In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the e ...

, and Metis (rather than Aether and Hemera), while according to another, Aether and Nyx were the parents of Eros (in Hesiod, the fourth god to come into existence after Chaos,

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthe ...

(Earth), and

Tartarus In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; grc, , }) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's ''Gorgias'' (), souls are judg ...

). Others tell us that

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of Cronu ...

(Sky) (in Hesiod, the son of

) was Aether's son, and that "everything came from" Aether. In Orphic cosmogony Aether was the offspring of Chronus (Time), the first primordial deity, and the brother of Chaos and Erebus. And made from (or placed in) Aether was the cosmic egg, from which hatched Phanes/Protogonus, so Aether was sometimes said to be his father. The '' Orphic Argonautica'' gives a theogony that begins with Chaos and Chronus, and has Chronus producing Aether and Eros. Aether also played a role in Roman genealogies of the gods.

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the est ...

says that Aether and

Dies Dies may refer to: * Dies (deity), the Roman counterpart of the Greek goddess Hemera, the personification of day, daughter of Nox (Night) and Erebus (Darkness). * Albert Christoph Dies (1755–1822), German painter, composer, and biographer * Jos ...

(Day) were the parents of Caelus (Sky), and reports that according to the "so called theologians" Aether was the father of one of the "three Jupiters". According to

Hyginus Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Gramma ...

's (possibly confused) genealogy, Nox (Night), Dies, Erebus, and Aether were the offspring of Chaos and Caligo (Mist), and Aether and Dies were the parents of Terra (Earth), Caelus (Sky) and Mare (Sea), and Aether and Terra were the parents of:

Sources

Early

For the ancient Greeks, the word aether (unpersonified), referred to the upper atmosphere, a material element of the cosmos. For example Homer has Sleep climb: However, Aether (personified) figured prominently in early Greek cosmogony. In

's ''

'', Chaos was the first being after which came

(Earth),

, and

, then from Chaos came Erebus (Darkness) and

(Night), and from Erebus and Nyx came Aether and Hemera (Day): Aether perhaps also figured in the lost epic poem the ''

Titanomachy In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy (; grc, , , Titan battle) was a ten-year series of battles fought in Ancient Thessaly, consisting of most of the Titans (the older generation of gods, based on Mount Othrys) fighting against the Olympians (t ...

'' (late seventh century BC?). Two ancient sources report statements about Aether, which they attribute to the "author of the ''Titanomachy''". The ''Homeric Parsings'' (from Methodius), reports that Uranus was Aether's son, while

Philodemus Philodemus of Gadara ( grc-gre, Φιλόδημος ὁ Γαδαρεύς, ''Philodēmos'', "love of the people"; c. 110 – prob. c. 40 or 35 BC) was an Arabic Epicurean philosopher and poet. He studied under Zeno of Sidon in Athens, before movi ...

, in his ''De Pietate'' (''On Piety''), reports that "everything came from Aither". Aether also appears in genealogies attributed to the sixth-century BC logographer and mythographer

Acusilaus Acusilaus, Acusilas, or Akousilaos ( grc-gre, Ἀκουσίλαος) of Argos, son of Cabas or Scabras, was a Greek logographer and mythographer who lived in the latter half of the 6th century BC but whose work survives only in fragments and su ...

. According to the

Neoplatonist Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some i ...

Damascius Damascius (; grc-gre, Δαμάσκιος, 458 – after 538), known as "the last of the Athenian Neoplatonists," was the last scholarch of the neoplatonic Athenian school. He was one of the neoplatonic philosophers who left Athens after law ...

(c. early sixth century), Acusilaus said that Aether was, along with

and Metis, the offspring Erebus and

. However, a scholion to

Theocritus Theocritus (; grc-gre, Θεόκριτος, ''Theokritos''; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry. Life Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from h ...

reports that, according to Acusilaus, Aether and

were the parents of Eros.

Orphic

Aether played a significant role in Orphic cosmogony. There are a large number of ancient texts which have been called "Orphic", a few are extant, such as the ''

Orphic Hymns Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Ja ...

'', but most are not. Several important Orphic texts, which exist now only in fragments, have been called theogonies, since they contained material, similar to Hesiod's ''Theogony'', which described the origin of the gods. At least three of these, the so called "Derveni Theogony", the "Hieronyman Theogony", and the "Rhapsodic Theogony" or Rhapsodies, contained references to Aether the personification as well as aether the material element.

Derveni Theogony

The oldest of these theogonies, the Derveni Theogony, is a text which is extensively quoted in the Derveni papyrus (fourth century BC), One of these quotes contains a reference to aether the material element: Also possibly from the Derveni Theogony is the idea, from a fragment of Chrysippus (preserved in

, ''De Pietate'' (''On Piety'')), that "everywhere is aither, which itself is both father and son".

Hieronyman Theogony

The early 6th-century

, in his ''De principiis'' (''On First Principles'') comments on an Orphic text, which he describes as "under the names of Hieronymus and Hellanicus, if indeed this is not the same". This text is called the "Hieronyman Theogony" (second century BC). Damascius says that the Hieronyman Theogony had "serpent Time" as the father of three offspring, "moist Aether", "limitless Chaos" and "misty Erebos".

Rhapsodic Theogony

Also in his ''De principiis'',

briefly summarizes the "standard Orphic theology" as found in another text, which he refers to as "these Orphic ''Rhapsodies'' currently circulating". According to Damascius, the Rhapsodies (first century BC/AD?), began with Chronus from which came two offspring, Aether and Chaos: The 5th-century Greek

Proclus Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor ( grc-gre, Πρόκλος ὁ Διάδοχος, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophe ...

, in his ''Commentary on Plato's Republic'', quotes the following verses from the Rhapsodies: Here Chasm is another name for Chaos. In another passage from the ''De principiis'', Damascius quotes other verses from the Rhapsodies: While Proclus, in his ''Commentary on Plato's Timaeus'', describes the Orphic cosmic egg as "born from Aither and Chaos", and calls Phanes the "son of Aither". Proclus also says that, when Phanes hatched from the cosmic egg, Aether and Chasm were split. Aether, the material element is also mentioned twice in a thirty-two line hymn-like passage to Zeus which was apparently part of the Rhapsodies in which various parts of the physical cosmos are associated with parts of Zeus' body. Line 8 lists things contained in Zeus' body: while line 17 says: Also possibly drawn from the Rhapsodies is an account of the creation of the world attributed to "Orpheus" by the sixth century AD chronographer

John Malalas John Malalas ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Malálas''; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch (now Antakya, Turkey). Life Malalas was of Syrian descent, and he was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later ...

: Another Orphic verse fragment, also possibly from the Rhapsodies, is quoted in the '' Etymologicum Magnums entry on the name Phanes:

''Hymn to Aether''

The ''

'' (3rd century AD?) are a collection of eighty-seven poems addressed to various deities or abstractions.Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. x; Meisner
p. 4
The fifth ''

Orphic Hymn Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to ...

'' was addressed to Aether:

Notes

References

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Gree ...

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Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the reti ...

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Fabulae Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Grammat ...

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Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...

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