Uranus

The Winged Uranus (“Heaven”) from the Zeus Altar of Pergamon.

Ouranos is the Greek name of the sky, latinized as Uranus. In Greek mythology he is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth. They were ancestors of most of the Greek gods. His equivalent in Roman mythology was Caelus (sometimes Titan) ("sky"). He may have originally been the same Indo-European god as the Hindu Varuna.

Uranus imprisoned Gaia's youngest children in Tartarus (her bowels). The one-hundred armed giants (Hecatonchires) and the one-eyed giants, the Cyclopes caused pain to Gaia. She shaped a flint sickle and asked her sons Cronus and his brothers to castrate Uranus. Only Cronus was willing, he ambushed his father and severed his testicles, throwing them into the sea. From his blood on the Earth came forth the Gigantes, Erinyes and Meliae. From the testicles in the sea came forth Aphrodite. For this, Uranus called his sons Titanes Theoi, or "Straining Gods" for their fearful deed. After Uranus was deposed, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes in Tartarus.

Cape Drepanon "sickle" not far from the Rio-Antirio Bridge in Greece is the place where Cronus threw the sickle with which he castrated Uranus. Pausanias: Next to it a cape juts out into the sea, and of it is told a story how Cronus threw into the sea here the sickle with which he mutilated his father Uranus. For this reason they call the cape Drepanum. Beyond the high road are the ruins of Rhypes. Aegium is about thirty stades distant from Rhypes.

The Mutiliation of Uranus by Saturn, Vasari and Christofano 16th century

Consorts/Children

No mother
(Aphrodite, Erinyes: Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone, Gigantes: Alcyoneus, Athos ,Clytias, Enceladus, Echion, Meliae )

Gaia (Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes, Arges , Hecatonchires: Briareus , Cottus , Gyes , Titans: Coeus ,Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Mnemosyne ,Oceanus, Phoebe, Rhea, Tethys, Theia , Themis)

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third largest


Mythology Images

Retrieved partly from "http://en.wikipedia.org "
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License