The Primordial Deities of Ancient Greece Were the Gods and Goddesses Who Were Almost Always There. Some of Them WERE Always There! The Primordial Deities Were Called the “Protogenoi” of Ancient Greek Mythology.

Gaea was the first of Ancient Greece’s gods and goddesses. She was a primordial deity.

Gaea emerged from Chaos, which was another primordial deity–presumably more primordial than Gaea. Chaos was a type of emptiness,

Eros, the god of Love, was an Ancient Greek Primordial Deity. Early accounts say that Chaos was the father of Eros. Later accounts say that Eros was the child of Ares and Aphrodite, who was the goddess of beauty and sexual desire. The Roman god counterpart to Eros was Cupid. The Roman goddess counterpart to Aphrodite was Venus.
Aphrodite was born out of the cast-off sperm of Uranus. The beautiful Aphrodite was married to the ugly and brutish Hephaestus, who was the god of blacksmiths. But Aphrodite was unfaithful to her husband. In Homer’s book the Odyssey, Aphrodite had an affair with Ares.

Ares was one of the 12 Olympian gods. His father was Zeus, the supreme god of the Olympians, His mother was Hera. Hera was the great Queen of the Olympians, but she was Zeus’s sixth wife.

Gaea was alone and she pulled her mate from somewhere within herself. Uranus was a Primordial Deity. He was both the husband and firstborn of Gaea,

This couple gave birth to all of the Titan gods and goddesses.

Earth was the lower portion of the world, and Uranus was the sky dome above her.

Oceanus was the Great River or Ocean Stream that encircled the earth and the sky.

Image Credit: The Golden Age by James Baldwin, 1827.

Although Oceanus was a great aquatic source, there was another aquatic primordial deity.

Poseidon was the primordial god of the seas and water.

Achelous was the Primordial River god of Fresh Water. The Achelous is a river in Greece.

It is interesting that thousands of years before Christ was born, the Ancient Greeks were able to distinguish Darkness from Night.

The Night was another of the primordial deities.

Again, it is interesting that the Ancient Greeks were able to distinguish varying degrees of Light. While an elemental source of light was a primordial deity.

But some sources say that the same Aether was the primordial deity of the air. I think that she was both.

The Sun, Moon, and Stars were not primordial deities. They came along later.

Oddly, Hemera’s parents were Erebus or Darkness and Nyx or Night.

Tartarus was the primordial region of the underworld. Hades ruled over one region of the underworld, but he was not a primordial god.

The primordial gods or “Protogenoi” of Greek mythology were the most basic components of the universe which emerged fully-formed at creation. They included Earth, Air, Sea, Sky, Fresh Water, Underworld, Darkness, Night, Light, Day, Procreation and Time.