Eurynome (Titan Queen)
titanIn the Pelasgian creation myth, Eurynome ruled the universe with Ophion before the rise of the Titans.
The Myth
In the Pelasgian creation myth — one of the oldest Greek cosmogonies — Eurynome was the goddess of all things who rose naked from Chaos and danced upon the waves. Finding nothing solid to rest her feet upon, she separated the sea from the sky. Her dancing stirred the north wind into the serpent Ophion, who coiled around her. She took the form of a dove and laid the Universal Egg, from which tumbled the sun, moon, planets, stars, earth, and all living creatures. Eurynome and Ophion settled on Mount Olympus, but when Ophion claimed to be the creator of the universe, she kicked out his teeth and banished him to the dark caves below the earth. This myth, recorded by Apollonius Rhodius and discussed by Robert Graves, predates the Hesiodic tradition and preserves a matriarchal cosmogony.
Fun Fact
This creation myth features a female supreme deity who predates Zeus by centuries in the Greek religious imagination.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Ophion
titanThe great serpent who ruled the cosmos with Eurynome before the Titans, in the Pelasgian creation...
Eurynome (Titaness)
titanA Titaness who in some traditions ruled Olympus alongside her husband Ophion before being...
Eurynome
nymphAn Oceanid who, in Pelasgian creation myth, was the goddess of all things and danced the world into...
Titan Mnemosyne (Memory)
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Titan War (Titanomachy)
titanThe ten-year war between the Titans and the Olympians that reshaped the cosmos and established...
Mount Othrys
titanThe real mountain in central Greece that mythology designated as the Titans' fortress during their...
Apollo
godGod of light, music, poetry, and prophecy. Apollo embodied the Greek ideal of youthful masculine...
Apollo (Far-Striker)
godThe radiant god of light, prophecy, music, healing, and plague — the most complex deity in the...
Apollo (Light)
godApollo was the most complex Olympian — god of light, music, poetry, prophecy, healing, plague, and...
Apollo Loxias
godAn epithet of Apollo meaning "the Oblique One," referring to the deliberately ambiguous nature of...
Chaos
conceptThe first thing to exist — a vast, formless void from which all of creation emerged. Chaos was not...
Grave Circle A at Mycenae
placeThe royal burial ground at Mycenae where Schliemann discovered the golden death masks, connecting...