Chaos - Gaia -

Chaos (derived from the Ancient Greek Χάος, Chaos) typically refers to a state lacking order or predictability. In ancient Greece, it referred to the initial state of the universe, and, by extension, space, darkness, or an abyss[1] (the antithetical concept was cosmos). In modern English, it is used in classical studies with this original meaning; in mathematics and science to refer to a very specific kind of unpredictability; and informally to mean a state of confusion.[2] In popular culture, the word can occur with all three meanings.

[edit] Chaos in mythology, literature, and religion

Main article: Chaos (mythology)

Hesiod and the Muse, by Gustave Moreau

In Greek myth, Chaos is the original dark void from which everything else appeared. According to Hesiod's Theogony (the origin of the gods), Chaos was the nothingness out of which the first objects of existence appeared. In a similar way, the book of Genesis in the Bible refers to the earliest conditions of the Earth as "without form, and void",[3] while Ovid's Metamorphoses describes the initial state of the Universe as a disorganised mixture of the four elements:

In Greek myth, Chaos (Xάος) or Khaos is the original state of existence from which the first gods appeared. In other words, the dark void of space. It is made from a mixture of what the Ancient Greeks considered the four elements: earth, air, water and fire. For example, when a log is burned, the flames were attributed to the fire in it, the smoke the air in it, the water and grease that come from it were supposed to be the water, and the ashes left over were the earth. In Greek it is Χάος, which is usually pronounced similarly to "house" (Coinè) or "cows" (Attic), but correctly in ancient Greek as ['kha.os]; it means "gaping void", from the verb χαίνω "gape, be wide open, etc", Proto-Indo-European *"ghen-", *"ghn-"; compare English "chasm" and "yawn", Old English geanian = "to gape".

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According to Hesiod's Theogony (the origin of the gods), Chaos was the nothingness out of which the first objects of existence appeared. These first beings, depicted as children of Chaos alone, were Gaia (the Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld), Nyx (the darkness of the night), Erebus (the darkness of the Underworld), and Eros (sexual love). These beings and the first generation of beings produced by them (the Sky, Ouranos, and the Sea, Pontus) constitute, for Hesiod, the fundamental cosmic deities.

[source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_(mythology)]