Ge is the Earth.
Khaos was the first Immortal to come into existence and he was soon followed by Ge, Tartaros, and Eros. Tartaros is the Pit and Eros is the god of love. Ge became the foundation of all the Immortal and mortal generations to follow. Ge, Tartaros, and Eros were not necessarily the children of Khaos but rather came into existence as a result of the presence of Khaos. Of the primal Immortals, Ge is by far the most prolific and nurturing.
Ge's first creation was a son she named Ouranos (Heaven). Ge gave birth to Ouranos to cover herself on all sides and to be her equal in all ways. Ouranos proved to be a difficult son ... he was devious and sometimes dangerous. Ouranos had absolute dominion over the heavens but he became too concerned with the affairs of Ge and much to her disapproval, tried to dominate her as well.
Ge then brought forth Ourea (the Mountains), Pontos (the Sea), and the Cyclopes (the Orb-Eyed). Ouranos, Ourea, Pontos, and the Cyclopes were all born to Ge without consort—she brought them into existence without the aid of a father. As her first consort, Ge chose Ouranos. She became pregnant with three gigantic boys who would be named Briareos, Kottos, and Gyes. Ouranos feared the boys ... he kept pushing them back inside Ge's womb and refused to allow them to be born. Ouranos was worried that the three monstrous boys would be more powerful than himself and usurp his power.
With Ouranos as the father, Ge became pregnant again but this time Ouranos allowed the children to emerge from Ge's womb ... thus the Titans were born. Ouranos named these children Titans because they quickly demonstrated their complete lack of restraint ... the name Titans literally means Stretchers or Strainers ... they stretched and strained the limits of propriety and indulged themselves to the point of self-destruction. The Titans not only brought about their own demise they were also responsible for the demotion of Ouranos.
The problem with the unborn brothers Briareos, Kottos, and Gyes was becoming a serious problem for Ge. Each time the boys would attempt to emerge from Ge's womb, Ouranos would force them back inside. Ge suffered greatly and finally in desperation, devised a treacherous plan to punish Ouranos. She created the element flint and formed a sickle ... she then gathered her male children and explained to them that Ouranos could not continue with his brutal behavior. All but one of her sons refused to help because they feared Ouranos ... only devious, devising Kronos was willing to stand against his father. Kronos reasoned that Ouranos was the first to act shamefully and anyone who stood against him would be absolved of any blame.
Ge rejoiced when Kronos promised to help her ... she gave Kronos the flint sickle with its jagged edge and hid him in a secret place so he could surprise Ouranos. As night fell, Ouranos came to Ge ... Kronos took the sickle in his left hand and struck at his father ... Ouranos was caught unawares and could not protect himself from the cruel flint ... his male members were cut off and the drops of blood were absorbed by Ge. As the seasons passed, Ouranos's blood gave life to Erinys (the Punisher), the Giants and the Meliae (Nymphs of the Ash Tree). The remaining flesh fell into the sea and from the foam and water a maiden was created ... this maiden became the goddess of love, Aphrodite.
With Ouranos out of the way, Briareos, Kottos, and Gyes were finally allowed to be born ... all three were truly gigantic ... each of the brothers had fifty heads and fifty arms sprouting from his massive shoulders. Although Kronos had helped his mother greatly, he soon became overbearing and devious just like his father, Ouranos. When Kronos saw Briareos, Kottos, and Gyes he became afraid of their strength and beauty ... before they could become too powerful, he imprisoned the three brothers under the earth and would not let them see the light of day.
Kronos was the most self-indulgent of all the Titans. His outrageous behavior towards Briareos, Kottos, and Gyes was nothing compared to his contemptible treatment of his own children. When Kronos married his Titan sister Rhea, Ge told him that he would be stripped of his authority by one of his children. In a vain attempt to avoid his destiny, Kronos swallowed each of his children as they were born. When Rhea gave birth to her sixth child, she substituted a stone in place of the infant. Kronos swallowed the stone without knowing he had been tricked.
Ge assisted Rhea in hiding the child from Kronos. The child was named Zeus and just as Ge predicted, he was destined to overthrow the power and authority of Kronos. When Zeus grew to manhood, he returned to confront his father. Zeus kicked Kronos in the stomach with such violence, the swallowed children were disgorged.
The children Kronos swallowed were destined to be quite different from the Titans in stature and temperament. When they emerged from Kronos's vast being, the five children were fully grown gods and goddesses—Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Histia.
Zeus summoned all benevolent Immortals of the earth and asked if they would become his allies in the inevitable war against the Titans. Zeus promised that any Immortal who fought for him would be allowed to keep their domains and their powers after the Titans were vanquished. At Ge's advising, Zeus freed Briareos, Kottos, and Gyes so they could fight for him ... they proved to be formidable allies.
The fierce ten-year war with Kronos and the other Titans was called the War of the Titans. After winning the war, the children of Kronos and Rhea made Mount Olympos their home and they became known as the Olympian gods. At the prompting of Ge, the Olympians asked Zeus to reign over them all. Kronos was banished from the face of the earth.
After the War of the Titans, Ge became the consort of Tartaros ... he was of the same generation as Ge and manifested himself as the Pit. Like Ge, Tartaros was one of the four original Immortals after Khaos. Ge and Tartaros had a son named Typhoeus ... he was a formidable creature in the form of a dragon-god. He had one hundred heads like snakes ... each head had flickering tongues and breath of fire ... the voices of the different heads each created a different sound—one head spoke in a voice that the Olympian gods could understand, another made the hissing sound of a snake, another was like the roar of a lion, another was like a furious bull, and another made whelping noises.
Zeus saw the threat Typhoeus posed to himself and the other Immortals and quickly moved to subdue him ... the battle began. The combination of thunderbolts from Zeus and fire belching from Typhoeus caused the earth to tremble and the sea to boil. Zeus finally burned the hundred heads from Typhoeus's necks and cast him under the earth into the darkness of Tartaros. Molten rock and vile winds spewed from the earth where Typhoeus was buried and the damp and boisterous winds were born. Some authors (Pindar and Tzetzes) say that Typhoeus was buried under Mount Etna on the island of Sicily but the poet Homer said the location was in Kilikia, in what would now be the southern portion of modern Turkey.
Orion was the most renowned hunter of all time. He was the son of Poseidon (lord of the sea) and Euryale, the daughter of King Minos of the island of Krete. Poseidon gave Orion the power to walk on water as if it were land and this, no doubt, added to his hunting abilities and contributed to his unbearable arrogance.
When Orion went to the island of Khios he became drunk and offended a young woman named Merope, the daughter of Oenopion. Outraged at such crass behavior, Oenopion blinded Orion and the disabled hunter was forced to flee Khios and take refuge on the island of Lemnos.
The god Hephaistos saw Orion's plight and gave him a servant named Kedalion to act as his guide. Helios (Sun), who sees all, pitied Orion and healed him of his blindness. Orion learned nothing from his punishment and immediately resumed his prideful and self-indulgent way of life.
Orion met the goddesses Artemis and Leto on the island of Krete. Artemis, as goddess of the hunt, and Orion, as the ultimate hunter, made a formidable team. The exhilaration was too much for Orion—he boasted that he would kill every wild animal on the earth. Hearing this haughty and distressing talk, Ge sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion. Sympathetic to the fallen hero, Artemis and Leto persuaded Zeus to place Orion in the heavens as a constellation.
The second race of mortals on the surface of the earth was called the Silver generation and their epoch was called the Age of Silver.
After the earth covered the Golden race of mortals, the Olympians created a second generation, which was Silver and less noble than the Gold. The Silver race was completely unlike the Golden race in body and spirit. The Silver generation remained as children for one hundred years ... they were simpletons who spent their lives playing childish games. When finally grown, they lived very short and sorrowful lives. They would wrong others and not serve the Immortals or offer sacrifices on the holy altars. When they refused to give honor to the Olympians, Zeus became angry and ended their existence.
The souls of the Silver generation are called blessed spirits of the Underworld and even though they are of a second order compared to the Golden generation, they are worthy of respect and honor.
The Olympians are credited with the creation of the Silver generation mortals, but the poet Hesiod reasoned that since silver was the symbol of Ge, she must therefore be responsible for that particular race of humans. Hesiod's theory is not confirmed by other texts and might be thought of as a theological deduction and not necessarily a fact.
As the foundation of all life on earth, Ge had many children. The following list is abbreviated and essentially chronological:
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Theogony
The Astronomy
The Great Works
Catalogue of Women
Hymn to Pythian Apollon
Hymn to Delian Apollon
Hymn to Ge the Mother of All
The War of the Titans
The Kypria
Epigrams of Homer
Description of Greece by Pausanias
Library of History by Diodorus of Sicily
The Argonautika by Apollonius of Rhodes