Apollodorus, Library, book 1, chapter 1, section 1 Apollodorus, Library Sir James George Frazer, Ed. ("Agamemnon", "Hom. Od. 9.1", "denarius") All Search Options [view abbreviations] Home Collections/Texts Perseus Catalog Research Grants Open Source About Help Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position: text: text Librarytext Epitome book: book 1book 2book 3 chapter: chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9 section: section 1section 2section 3section 4section 5section 6section 7 This text is part of: Greek and Roman Materials View text chunked by: text : book : chapter : section volume : page Table of Contents: text Librarybook 1chapter 1section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 chapter 2section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 chapter 3section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 chapter 4section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 chapter 5section 1 section 2 section 3 chapter 6section 1 section 2 section 3 chapter 7section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 section 9 section 10 chapter 8section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 chapter 9section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 section 9 section 10 section 11 section 12 section 13 section 14 section 15 section 16 section 17 section 18 section 19 section 20 section 21 section 22 section 23 section 24 section 25 section 26 section 27 section 28 book 2chapter 1section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 chapter 2section 1 section 2 chapter 3section 1 section 2 chapter 4section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 section 9 section 10 section 11 section 12 chapter 5section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 section 9 section 10 section 11 section 12 chapter 6section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 chapter 7section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 chapter 8section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 book 3chapter 1section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 chapter 2section 1 section 2 chapter 3section 1 section 2 chapter 4section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 chapter 5section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 section 9 chapter 6section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 chapter 7section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 chapter 8section 1 section 2 chapter 9section 1 section 2 chapter 10section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 section 9 chapter 11section 1 section 2 chapter 12section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 chapter 13section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 chapter 14section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 chapter 15section 1 section 2 section 3 section 4 section 5 section 6 section 7 section 8 chapter 16section 1 section 2 text Epitome Current location in this text. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work. Full search options are on the right side and top of the page. Sky was the first who ruled over the whole world.1 And having wedded Earth, he begat first the Hundred-handed, as they are named: Briareus, Gyes, Cottus, who were unsurpassed in size and might, each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads.2 1 According to Hesiod (Hes. Th. 126ff.), Sky （Uranus） was a son of Earth （Gaia）, but afterwards lay with his own mother and had by her Cronus, the giants, the Cyclopes, and so forth. As to the marriage of Sky and Earth, see the fragment of Eur. Chrys., quoted by Sextus Empiricus, Bekker p. 751 (Nauck TGF(2), p. 633, Leipsig, 1889); Lucretius i.250ff., ii.991ff.; Verg. G. 2.325ff. The myth of such a marriage is widespread among the lower races. See E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture （London, 1873）, i.321ff., ii.370ff. For example, the Ewe people of Togo-land, in West Africa, think that the Earth is the wife of the Sky, and that their marriage takes place in the rainy season, when the rain causes the seeds to sprout and bear fruit. These fruits they regard as the children of Mother Earth, who in their opinion is the mother also of men and of gods, see J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme （Berlin, 1906）, pp. 464, 548. In the regions of the Senegal and the Niger it is believed that the Sky-god and the Earth-goddess are the parents of the principal spirits who dispense life and death, weal and woe, among mankind. See Maurice Delafosse, Haut-Sénégal-Niger (Paris, 1912), iii.173ff. Similarly the Manggerai, a people of West Flores, in the Indian Archipelago, personify Sky and Earth as husband and wife; the consummation of their marriage is manifested in the rain, which fertilizes Mother Earth, so that she gives birth to her children, the produce of the fields and the fruits of the trees. The sky is called langÄ«t; it is the male power: the earth is called alang; it is the female power. Together they form a divine couple, called MoerÄ« Kraèng. See H. B. Stapel, “Het Manggeraische Volk （West Flores）,â€� Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-Landen Volkenkunde, lvi. （Batavia and the Hague, 1914）, p. 163. 2 Compare Hes. Th. 147ff. Instead of Gyes, some MSS. of Hesiod read Gyges, and this form of the name is supported by the Scholiast on Plat. Laws 7, 795c. Compare Ovid, Fasti iv.593; Hor. Carm. 2.17.14, iii.4.69, with the commentators. Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes. The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text. Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system. show Browse Bar   load focus Greek (Sir James George Frazer) hide Places (automatically extracted) View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document. Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency Click on a place to search for it in this document. Senegal (Senegal) (1) Niger (Niger) (1) Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text. hide References (4 total) Cross-references to this page (4): Harper's, Aegaeon Smith's Bio, Aegaeon Smith's Bio, Gaea Smith's Bio, Gyges hide Search Searching in English. More search options Limit Search to:  Library (this document) hide Display Preferences Greek Display: Unicode (precombined) Unicode (combining diacriticals) Beta Code SPIonic SGreek GreekKeys Latin transliteration Arabic Display: Unicode Buckwalter transliteration View by Default: Original Language Translation Browse Bar: Show by default Hide by default