Chaos
Χάος
(Χάος), the vacant and infinite space which existed according to the ancient cosmogonies previous to the creation of the world (lles. Thmeog. 116), and out of which the gods, men, and all things arose. A different definition of Chaos is given by Ovid (Ov. Met. 1.1, &c.), who describes it as the confused mass containing the elements of all things that were formed out of it. According to Hesiod, Chaos was the mother of Erebos and Nyx. Some of the later poets use the word Chaos in the general sense of the airy realms, of darkness, or the lower world.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.