Rank the following mythological gods

kingkronos

New Member
1. Chaos ( the fist deity)
2. Gaia (mother earth)
3. Zeus ( god of sky)
4. Kronos ( god of time)
5. Typhon (god of monsters)
6. Ouranos (father sky)
7. Nyx (goddess of night/darkness)
 

Caburus

Active Member
Personal opinion. Really each god is just as important as the others within their mythological history, or as irrelevant as any other to my personal life.
 

Alejandro

Active Member
Word :)

Alright then, I'll be boring and just line them up by age: eldest to youngest (although, were Chaos and Typhon really gods as such?)>>
Chaos, Nyx, Gaia, Ouranos, Kronos, Zeus, Typhon
 

kingkronos

New Member
Gaia
Nyx
Zeus
Typhon
Kronos
Ouranos
Chaos
Not a bad list, but I think Zeus can even be the first( even though he's not on my list). This is because Gaia tried to defeat him several times but she couldn't (typhon,Gigantes). And Zeus respected Nyx more than feared her. Also it is stated that when typhon came, Nyx herself ran away in her own way ofcourse, while Zeus stood still. And in the titanomachy it is stated when Zeus no longer held his might at bay, heat ceized Chaos, meaning that Zeus affected Chaos himself. Thats got to show his immense power.
 

Nadai

Active Member
1. Chaos ( the fist deity)
2. Gaia (mother earth)
3. Zeus ( god of sky)
4. Kronos ( god of time)
5. Typhon (god of monsters)
6. Ouranos (father sky)
7. Nyx (goddess of night/darkness)
Gaia(because she's mother earth)
Chaos(because he was the first god)
Cronus(he was ruler of the Golden Age which was awesome for mankind)
Ouranos
Nyx
Zeus(he sucks in my opinion and screwed over mankind after he raped and butchered us)
Typhon(monsters aren't good to anyone really)
...But I think we're leaving out one very important god, Eros. Without the god of desire none of the others would have existed. If he were on the list I would rank him second to Gaia.
 

kingkronos

New Member
Gaia(because she's mother earth)
Chaos(because he was the first god)
Cronus(he was ruler of the Golden Age which was awesome for mankind)
Ouranos
Nyx
Zeus(he sucks in my opinion and screwed over mankind after he raped and butchered us)
Typhon(monsters aren't good to anyone really)
...But I think we're leaving out one very important god, Eros. Without the god of desire none of the others would have existed. If he were on the list I would rank him second to Gaia.
i am gonna tell you the description of typhon:

his head brushed the stars, his mere look frightened even the mighty gods, he had 100 heads each resembling different creatures, it is stated that he had UNNUMBERED HANDS and only ONE OF THESE HANDS grasped constellations easily imagine what UNNUMBERED could do. he also rose the sea to the heavens, his roar shaked olympus itself and his battle with zeus shaked the entire universe. it is also stated that he was going to rebuilt the universe
 

Nadai

Active Member
i am gonna tell you the description of typhon:

his head brushed the stars, his mere look frightened even the mighty gods, he had 100 heads each resembling different creatures, it is stated that he had UNNUMBERED HANDS and only ONE OF THESE HANDS grasped constellations easily imagine what UNNUMBERED could do. he also rose the sea to the heavens, his roar shaked olympus itself and his battle with zeus shaked the entire universe. it is also stated that he was going to rebuilt the universe

Thanks
Still at the bottom of my list, though. I'd suppose that if this list were based on strength and power and not on personal opinion I'd elevate him a row or two, but I don't much care for him personally. A guy like that couldn't have been helpful to anyone and as far as him reshaping the universe...well Zeus tried the same thing and look where that got everyone:oops: Typhon never really did anyone any good.
Gaia will always top my list.
 

Alejandro

Active Member
The Egyptian writer Nonnos, in his Dionysiaka, quotes Typhon himself saying that he has two hundred hands, and in the midst of some very colourful and somewhat poetic threats which he levels against Zeus and all the Olympians, he criticises Zeus for having only one pair of hands, whereas he will need many more, bigger, better and badder thunderbolts when he overthrows this nephew of his. Also he will have to have all of heaven rebuilt, since its current infrastructure cannot contain his sheer frame. Just before he says this there's all sorts of stuff he has to say about what he'll do to most of the Twelve Olympians: each of the goddesses, it seems, will be married, whether they like it or not, to Titans, giants, or to himself. He is especially fond of emphasising how each virgin goddess, even the constellation Virgo itself(!), will be violated. Each god will be enslaved, and best/worst of all: Zeus will replace the Titan Atlas as the western pillar of the Sky.

But hey, if we're crediting Kronos with having ruled over the Golden Age of humankind (though in the mythology this is actually, technically, a significantly distinct [and now-extinct] race of people from those who've existed from the Age of Heroes to the present day), then wouldn't Typhon therefore be doing a functionally good thing by releasing Kronos and the imprisoned Titans and giants from Tartaros? Sure, he proposes an extreme amount of violence as the means for achieving this, but it's the same sort of brutality we read/hear about in war(s) in general, including the battles in which Zeus removed his father from the throne millennia before. It's funny and interesting looking at the language that Typhon uses in his rap battle against Zeus: If you eliminated all the cosmic violence being threatened, it really does sound like a political rally, with a candidate vying for a certain position preaching about the reforms he's going to implement once he acquires the power he's seeking in that office, a lot of these reforms being based on their marked distinction from the manner in which the current administration/régime is handling the same things.

Gaia will always top my list.
Speaking of politics and power, it's further interesting, then, that Gaia is directly to connected to everyone in this list in terms of just those things. Chaos was her father (or mother, depending on which gender is assigned to this entity), who was dethroned by Gaia's sister Nyx. Gaia then took over from Nyx's children Aither and Hemera and ruled together with her son-husband Ouranos. Then Gaia helped Kronos to overthrow Ouranos, helped Zeus to supplant Kronos, and was now hoping for Typhon to depose Zeus! Typhon fails, however, so we don't know if he would have been the man who finally met her expectations in a ruler.


Despite all the bile between Zeus and his father and uncles, he does eventually, in the Iron Age, release Kronos and the other ancient Titans from Tartaros, at which time he crowns his old man king of Elysium. So maybe there was a less violent way in which Typhon's desire to release his [half-]brothers from the Abyss could be achieved after all. Maybe Zeus and Gaia came to an understanding about this(?).
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
1. Chaos (because nothing else could exist without him -- he was the first, original divinity.)
2. Ouranos and Gaia (as the sky and earth respectfully, without either of whom, nothing could thrive.)
3. Kronos (time keeps things moving, and keeps us moving, and without time, everything would be lost.)
4. Zeus (not because he is god of the sky, but rather because he is the one who overthrew Kronos, and made things what they are; and, with the help of his numerous illicit love affairs, fathered a number of the other important gods and goddesses, and so could not have existed without him.)
5. Nyx (where would we be without nighttime? Who knows!?)
6. Typhon (he is at the bottom because no world needs monsters. Honestly, we would all be better off without!)
 

kingkronos

New Member
1. Chaos (because nothing else could exist without him -- he was the first, original divinity.)
2. Ouranos and Gaia (as the sky and earth respectfully, without either of whom, nothing could thrive.)
3. Kronos (time keeps things moving, and keeps us moving, and without time, everything would be lost.)
4. Zeus (not because he is god of the sky, but rather because he is the one who overthrew Kronos, and made things what they are; and, with the help of his numerous illicit love affairs, fathered a number of the other important gods and goddesses, and so could not have existed without him.)
5. Nyx (where would we be without nighttime? Who knows!?)
6. Typhon (he is at the bottom because no world needs monsters. Honestly, we would all be better off without!)
Something I want to note: It is stated that at the end of the titanomachy when Zeus no longer held back his might, he showed his true potential and that is when Heat ceized Chaos. Now it is been debated many times how can Chaos even be affected. But never mind just telling you the facts.
Also I would put Gaia more powerful than Ouranos since she created him. And also Zeus defeated her at the end of the battle with typhon. And Zeus also defeated Kronos.
 

Caburus

Active Member
The Goddess that all the immortals dreaded was Styx (she was the river in Hades, one of the deciding factors in the fight against the Titans, and the greatest witness a God could call upon), so maybe she belongs in the list.
 

Nadai

Active Member
The Goddess that all the immortals dreaded was Styx (she was the river in Hades, one of the deciding factors in the fight against the Titans, and the greatest witness a God could call upon), so maybe she belongs in the list.
True. She also had the power to take a god's power away from them. When the gods swore an oath they would swear it on the river Styx. If they were to break that vow then they would have to drink from the river thus losing their godhood and becoming mortal which was basically a death sentence because if a god were to lose their godhood and be sent to earth they could potentially be torn apart by the very humans who had once worshipped them.
 

kingkronos

New Member
True. She also had the power to take a god's power away from them. When the gods swore an oath they would swear it on the river Styx. If they were to break that vow then they would have to drink from the river thus losing their godhood and becoming mortal which was basically a death sentence because if a god were to lose their godhood and be sent to earth they could potentially be torn apart by the very humans who had once worshipped them.
Interesting. Has that ever happened in greek mythology? Has anyone lost his/her godhood?
 

Caburus

Active Member
It sounds like a bit of an exagerration, maybe used as a plot-line for some film or graphic novel?
According to mythology, if a deity swore falsely on the waters of Styx, he or she would fall down as if dead for a year, and be denied ambrosia and nectar to eat. After being in this coma for a year the god or goddess would then be excluded from Olympus for nine years, and be denied access to assemblies and festivals. But in the tenth year they were allowed back to Olympus and to be reinstated in all their activities again. No permanant loss of immortality; not even a suggestion that they loose any powers.
 

Nadai

Active Member
Interesting. Has that ever happened in greek mythology? Has anyone lost his/her godhood?
Not that I can remember, but had any god broken a vow sworn on the Styx there was always that risk.
In the story of Phaethon, Apollo swears on the river Styx that he will give his son whatever favor he asks. Unfortunately his son asks to lead the sun chariot. Apollo wanted to refuse because he knew what fate would await his son, but because he'd sworn on the Styx and so had no choice but to grant his son's request. In the end poor Phaethon was struck down by Zeus after destroying a good bit of the earth.
There is another myth concerning Bacchus in which the god agrees to become the lover of Polymnus in exchange for safe passage into Hades. Unfortunately Polymnus dies before Bacchus can make good on his oath and so, forced to keep his promise, Bacchus fashions a penis and hangs it with grape vines and sits with it at the edge of Polymnus' tomb in order to please his shade.
 

Nadai

Active Member
According to mythology, if a deity swore falsely on the waters of Styx, he or she would fall down as if dead for a year, and be denied ambrosia and nectar to eat. After being in this coma for a year the god or goddess would then be excluded from Olympus for nine years, and be denied access to assemblies and festivals. But in the tenth year they were allowed back to Olympus and to be reinstated in all their activities again. No permanant loss of immortality; not even a suggestion that they loose any powers.
Yes Hesiod said as much, but I've heard both myths (and no not from a movie or comic, but in school). There are sometimes several stories surrounding the same myth so perhaps it's possible that they're both true and just happen to be the interpritations of two different scholars.
 

Caburus

Active Member
But it sounds like a plot line they should use for a movie - a divine anti-hero who looses his powers through his own fault, then has to struggle as a mortal but still has all the knowledge, insights and contacts of his immortal past, which allows him to see what is really going on, but has to find 'normal' ways to deal with it all.:)
The only one in Greek mythology who lost his godhead that I can think of is Chiron the centaur, who was accidentally shot by Herakles with a poisoned arrow, and then gave up his immortality inorder to escape the incurable pain (and is said to have either given his immortality to Herakles, or swapped it for the release of Prometheus).
You could also include Polydeuces, twin brother of Castor, and sons of Leda who were born when she slept with her husband Tyndareus and the god Zeus on the same night. Although they were twins, Castor was mortal (son of Tyndareus) and Polydeuces was immortal (son of Zeus), and when Castor died, Polydeuces gave him half his immortality so that the twins lived one day on Olympus and the next day in Hades.
But both of these willingly relinquished their immortality. I don't know of any god/dess who lost it as a punishment. Maybe the nearest is Poseidon and Apollo being forced to serve King Laomedon of Troy for a year, because they tried to depose Zeus.
 
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