Chaos then created night and the first born of Gaea was Uranus (god of the heavens). The god Eros was necessary to draw Chaos and Gaea together so that they would produce offspring. Out of this god arose Gaea (earth), Tartarus (underworld) and Eros (love). It was as follows: The god Chaos (gaping void) was the foundation of all creation. A combination of the account put together by the Greek Poet Hesiod in the 8th century BC and an account written by the mythographer (compiler of myths) Apollodrous would have been recognized by most ancient Greeks. It is difficult to trace the ancestry of the ancient Greek gods since there are several creation myths. The most significant difference between the Greek gods and humans was that the gods were immortal and human beings were not. They exhibited all the emotions of human beings and frequently intervened in human history. The ancient Greek gods normally took on human form and lived in a society similar to human society. Many city-states erected temples to their particular gods, and these gods were honored in festivals and animal sacrifices.

Generally, a Greek city-state would devote itself to a particular god or a set of gods, and depending on the location of the city-state, the characteristics of the gods could vary widely. Furthermore, the ancient Greeks did not believe in absolute truth as practiced by modern faiths such as Christianity and Judaism. The religion of the ancient Greeks did not have a single source of written scripture such as the Bible or the Qur'an. The Greek gods were created by man to explain the world around them, act as a means of exploration, provide legitimacy and authority to ancient Greek aristocracy, and provide entertainment for the masses. Greek Gods - The Religious & Social Background There are many similarities between the mythology of these ancient Middle Eastern cultures and the ancient Greeks. Remarkably, there is evidence that the beginnings of Greek mythology can be traced back to the ancient Middle Eastern cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia. In addition, many scholars believe that the myths were heavily influenced by the Mycenaean culture that existed in Greece between 17 BC.

Our formal knowledge of the ancient Greek gods can be traced back to the writings of Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey (8th century BC). Greek gods are an integral part of Greek mythology.

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