Garden of the Gods众神花园

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In the beginning, there was only chaos, the primodial abyss. Then came Gaia, the Earth Goddess, and Eros, the force of love. There was darkness and out of darkness came light. Then Gaia created the mountains and the sea. And then the Earth gave birth to the starry heaven, Uranus, who created twelve terrible titans, the parents of the gods.
When Zeus grew up, he returned to battle his titan father and liberate his brother and sister gods. Chronos had swallowed all those deities to prevent them usurping his power. But Zeus forced the cruel titan to set them free. And then he and his siblings went to battle against all the other titans—one generation pitted against another. In the end, the liberated gods defeated the titans and drove them deep into an abyss. Ever since, this ancient world flourished under the divine shadow of Mount Olympus. This divine force acted upon every living thing. This was the garden of the gods.
This is how life on Earth was created, according to the ancient Greeks. Gods infused in nature were the way the Greeks made sense of their world—a whole dynasty of extraordinary characters residing on Mount Olympus—led by Zeus.
According to myth, Hades also imprisoned his wife, Persephone, in the underworld’s eternal darkness. Persephone’s mother was Demeter, the goddess of fertility, who took a furious revenge for the loss of her child. She turned the world into a place of everlasting winter. Until her child was returned, shi decided the garden of the gods become entombed as well—in ice. Now Zeus had to act. He had to find a compromise with his brother, Hades. They struck a deal. Persephone would be allowed to return to the world for eight months each year, and, for that time, Demeter would call off her fertility strike. In this way, the seasons were created. As soon as Persephone returns above ground, the cold grip of winter is removed; rivers run free again and flowers carpet the land. Once again, the garden of the gods becomes a land of plenty.
Nature and civilization have always been entwined in the garden of the gods. The ancient Greeks revered the power of nature; with myth, they made sense of it and they infused it in their religion, their stories, their history. They created a vivid world of gods, titans and heroes. But all of this was inspired by the wonder and beauty of Greece’s natural world; by its unique richness and variety. In nature, the Greeks discovered something divine, for this had already been a garden, before the gods.
宇宙初开，只有混沌和原始深渊，然后大地女神盖亚和爱神厄洛斯出现了。到处都是一片黑暗，黑暗之中产生了光。然后盖亚创造了山岳和海洋，土地诞生了星空，乌拉诺斯创造了12个可怕的泰坦，他们是众神父母。
宙斯长大后回去对抗父亲——泰坦神克罗诺斯，并救出兄姐众神，此前克罗诺斯吞下了自己的孩子以防他们篡夺其权力。不过宙斯逼这位残忍的泰坦神释放他们，然后他和兄姐与所有其他的泰坦神决战。这是两代神的战争。最终，被释放的神打败了泰坦众神并将它们赶紧深渊。自此这古老世界在诸神的奥林匹斯山神圣的护荫下日趋繁盛。这股神圣力量影响着所有生物。这就是众神花园。
据古希腊人说，地球上的生命就是这样创造而成的。众神和大自然融合是古希腊人解释世界的方法——一大群超凡的神居住在奥林匹斯山，宙斯为众神之王。
神话中哈德斯也将妻子普西芬尼囚禁在冥界的永恒黑暗里。普西芬尼的母亲是农业女神得墨忒尔，他因孩子被囚而进行疯狂的报复。她将世界变成永恒的冬天。在她的孩子被归还以前，她决定用冰把众神花园埋葬。现在宙斯要行动了，他要和兄弟哈德斯寻求一个妥协的办法。他们达成协议，普西芬尼每年能回到人间呆八个月，那段时间得墨忒尔会暂时罢休，大地便生生不息，这样就形成了四季。只要普西芬尼回到地上，寒冬就会消失，河流再次流动，花朵开遍大地。众神花园再次成为丰饶之地。
自然和文明在众神花园总是互不相离的。古希腊人敬畏自然的力量，他们以神话解释这种力量并将它融入其宗教、故事和历史中。他们创造了一个有着神、泰坦和英雄的栩栩如生的世界，但这所有的一切都是受到希腊自然界的奇妙和美丽、富饶以及多样性启发的。希腊人发现，在神出现以前，大自然中神圣的万物原本就是一个花园。
Tip:
卡俄斯（Chaos）是原始的神，他通过单性繁殖生有大地女神盖亚（Gaia）、天神乌拉诺斯（Uranus）以及其他的神。天神乌拉诺斯和地神盖亚成为第一代众神之王和众神之后，他们生下十二个泰坦神。六男六女。男泰坦神克罗诺斯（Chronos，河流之神）和女泰坦神瑞亚（Rhea，最早的光明女神）结婚成为第二代众神之王和众神之后，他们生下三女三男。