WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.770 Creation 1: The Very Beginning 00:00:05.770 --> 00:00:09.630 In the very beginning there was sky and earth. 00:00:09.630 --> 00:00:12.090 Sky was called Uranus, 00:00:12.090 --> 00:00:14.470 earth was called Gaia. 00:00:14.470 --> 00:00:16.130 They were lovers. 00:00:16.130 --> 00:00:19.170 They lay clasped in one another’s arms. 00:00:19.170 --> 00:00:22.240 Sky pressed tightly against earth, 00:00:22.240 --> 00:00:24.640 earth holding sky. 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:28.600 Not even a leaf could have passed between them. 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:31.770 Earth had given birth to many children 00:00:31.770 --> 00:00:37.390 but she was held so tightly by sky that there was nowhere for her children to go. 00:00:37.390 --> 00:00:40.350 They couldn’t stand to their full height. 00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:45.330 They had to crouch in cracks and crevices in their mother’s body. 00:00:45.330 --> 00:00:48.290 The children of earth were Titans, 00:00:48.290 --> 00:00:51.030 strange grey beings, 00:00:51.030 --> 00:00:57.000 their skin craggy and furrowed like rock that has been worn away by the weather. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:02.680 They longed to be able to stand, to step, to stride across the earth. 00:01:02.680 --> 00:01:08.560 But they were trapped by the weight of their father pressing down on them. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:12.020 One of the grey Titans was called Cronus. 00:01:12.020 --> 00:01:15.850 He knew that he had to separate his parents. 00:01:15.850 --> 00:01:23.020 He found a hard stone and shaped it into a sickle with a blade as sharp as thought. 00:01:23.020 --> 00:01:25.640 He crept between his mother’s legs. 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:31.060 He reached up and sliced into the groin and belly of his father. 00:01:31.060 --> 00:01:35.920 With a terrible cry of pain the sky broke away from the earth. 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:40.340 He rose up and up and up until he was high above the earth. 00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:43.530 He found the place he still inhabits today – 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.510 far, far above our heads. 00:01:46.510 --> 00:01:48.090 And as he rose up, 00:01:48.090 --> 00:01:53.100 his gaping wound poured blood down upon the body of the earth; 00:01:53.100 --> 00:01:57.930 it rained and splattered down onto the ground. 00:01:57.870 --> 00:02:03.250 Wherever the blood of sky landed upon the earth, life appeared: 00:02:03.250 --> 00:02:05.410 trees and plants, 00:02:05.410 --> 00:02:08.500 bright-winged insects and feathered birds, 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:11.220 scaled fishes and furred animals. 00:02:11.220 --> 00:02:18.850 The whole lovely, green, living world that we know today came into being at that moment. 00:02:18.850 --> 00:02:23.980 And the grey Titans came running out from their cracks and crevices. 00:02:23.980 --> 00:02:26.820 They stretched, they shouted with joy, 00:02:26.820 --> 00:02:28.610 they stamped their great feet, 00:02:28.610 --> 00:02:30.660 they danced with delight. 00:02:30.660 --> 00:02:33.420 All the Titans danced. 00:02:33.420 --> 00:02:36.690 All the Titans danced except for one. 00:02:36.690 --> 00:02:39.380 One of them had other plans. 00:02:39.380 --> 00:02:43.630 His name was Prometheus, which means ‘forethought’. 00:02:43.630 --> 00:02:46.970 While his brother Cronus had been shaping his sickle, 00:02:46.970 --> 00:02:52.300 Prometheus had been fashioning three stone jars. 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:54.510 Now, as the rest of them danced, 00:02:54.510 --> 00:02:57.560 he carried the jars out into the light. 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:04.500 He set them on the ground and began to scoop up handfuls of the blood-soaked soil. 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:10.460 He filled the jars with the flesh of his mother and the spilled blood of his father. 00:03:10.460 --> 00:03:15.220 He packed the jars tight and fitted lids onto them. 00:03:15.220 --> 00:03:17.880 Then he buried the jars. 00:03:17.880 --> 00:03:20.190 He buried them in the earth. 00:03:20.190 --> 00:03:23.840 He buried them deep in the body of his mother. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:27.810 This would be a secret between him and her. 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:31.210 One day he would return for them. 00:03:31.210 --> 00:03:34.900 And then he ran and joined hands with his brothers and sisters. 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:41.690 He stamped his feet in the joyful circling measure of the Titans’ dance. 00:03:41.690 --> 00:03:45.190 Years and years passed. 00:03:45.190 --> 00:03:50.420 Two of the grey Titans, Cronus and Rhea, had children together. 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:56.400 But their mother, the earth, warned Cronus that his children would be more powerful than he was. 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:00.970 She warned him that one day his children would overthrow him. 00:04:00.970 --> 00:04:05.740 Cronus didn’t want that and so he ate his children. 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:11.170 He swallowed them whole, one after the other. 00:04:11.170 --> 00:04:14.220 The youngest of his children was called Zeus. 00:04:14.220 --> 00:04:16.770 Rhea, his mother, wanted to protect him. 00:04:16.760 --> 00:04:19.730 She hid the baby in a cave 00:04:19.730 --> 00:04:23.470 and then she wrapped soft blankets around a stone. 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:26.620 She put the stone in Zeus’ cradle. 00:04:26.620 --> 00:04:31.520 Cronus seized the stone and swallowed it. 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:34.860 Zeus grew up in secret. 00:04:34.860 --> 00:04:38.630 When he was old enough he appeared in Cronus’ hall. 00:04:38.630 --> 00:04:44.590 Cronus took a liking to the stranger and made him his cup-bearer. 00:04:44.590 --> 00:04:53.740 One day, Zeus made his father a honey-flavoured drink but mixed it with a poison that made Cronus sick. 00:04:53.740 --> 00:04:56.460 First he vomited up the stone; 00:04:56.460 --> 00:04:59.290 then out of his throat came his other children: 00:04:59.290 --> 00:05:00.450 Poseidon, 00:05:00.460 --> 00:05:01.440 Hestia, 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:02.410 Hades, 00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:03.390 Demeter, 00:05:03.390 --> 00:05:04.650 Hera. 00:05:04.650 --> 00:05:11.300 Straightaway Zeus and his brothers seized weapons and waged war on Cronus and the grey Titans. 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:14.540 For years the terrible war raged. 00:05:14.540 --> 00:05:17.020 The stars were torn from their stations; 00:05:17.020 --> 00:05:18.730 mountains were levelled; 00:05:18.730 --> 00:05:24.880 the heat of the earth’s heart spat and spouted its red flames across the world. 00:05:24.880 --> 00:05:32.080 For eons the war raged until at last Zeus was victorious. 00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:38.880 The grey Titans were bound with chains of adamant and hurled down to Tartarus – 00:05:38.880 --> 00:05:42.960 deep, deep, deep beneath the bowels of the earth. 00:05:42.960 --> 00:05:46.550 Only two of the Titans were spared. 00:05:46.550 --> 00:05:49.760 Prometheus, whose name means ‘forethought’, 00:05:49.760 --> 00:05:54.920 and Epimetheus, who had chosen to turn their backs on war. 00:05:54.920 --> 00:06:00.240 They were allowed to continue tilling the soil of their green valley. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:08.160 Zeus and his brothers and sisters and their children built their palaces on the high slopes of Mount Olympus. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:10.480 Now that the Titans had been defeated, 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:14.030 they ruled over the whole universe. 00:06:14.030 --> 00:06:17.350 They began to divide it amongst themselves. 00:06:17.350 --> 00:06:20.320 The three brothers – Zeus, Poseidon and Hades – 00:06:20.320 --> 00:06:22.520 threw lots into a helmet. 00:06:22.520 --> 00:06:26.400 Each closed his eyes and reached inside. 00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:29.160 Zeus plucked out the heavens – 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:32.030 they would be his realm now; 00:06:32.030 --> 00:06:35.960 Poseidon drew out the wide waters of the sea; 00:06:35.960 --> 00:06:39.190 and Hades chose the underworld, 00:06:39.190 --> 00:06:45.710 that land far, far below where one day the dead would go. 00:06:45.710 --> 00:06:49.870 Zeus and his brothers had a name for themselves. 00:06:49.870 --> 00:06:52.290 They called themselves 00:06:52.290 --> 00:06:54.290 ‘gods’.