Chaos (cosmogony)

In the study of how the universe began, Chaos means a space or time that is not part of the ordered world we know. It comes from ancient Greek ideas, where "chaos" (χάος) describes something unknown, strange, and full of mystery. People in old stories thought this place might be home to unusual or powerful beings.

In early Greek beliefs about how everything started, Chaos was thought to be the very first thing that existed before anything else. It was the beginning point from which the whole universe, called the cosmos, came to be. This idea helps us understand how people long ago imagined the world before it had order and structure.

Etymology

The Greek word kháos (χάος) means things like 'emptiness', 'vast void', 'chasm', or 'abyss'. It is connected to verbs that mean 'gape' or 'be wide open', and is related to the English word 'yawn'.

Sometimes, chaos was also thought to mean space, air, the deep abyss, or endless darkness. One early thinker, Pherecydes of Syros, saw chaos as formless water.

Greco-Roman tradition

Hesiod and the pre-Socratics used the Greek word for Chaos to talk about how the world began, or cosmogony. In Hesiod’s stories, Chaos was described as either a big open space above the Earth or a deep space below it. Some early thinkers thought Chaos was the true start of everything.

In early Greece, Hesiod said that Chaos was the very first thing to exist. After Chaos came other important things like Gaia (Earth), Tartarus, and Eros. From Chaos came Erebus and Nyx. Chaos was not just an idea but also thought of as a faraway, dark place under the Earth.

Later, in Classical Greece, Aristophanes told a story where Chaos, Night, Erebus, and Tartarus existed first. From Night came Eros, and together with Chaos, Eros created the birds. Plato talked about chaos as a shapeless space where the building blocks of the world moved around in no order. Aristotle thought about Chaos as something real that exists on its own, not just empty space.

In Roman stories, Ovid described Chaos as a big, mixed-up pile where all parts of the world were jumbled together without shape. Other Roman writers said that Chaos came from Mist and together they created Night, Day, Darkness, and Aether.

Old Testament studies

Further information: Chaoskampf

In the study of old holy books, many people have talked about how the idea of chaos in old stories from places like Babylon is similar to the story of creation in the book of Genesis. One important word in Genesis is "abyss" or "tohu wa-bohu", which describes the world before it was created. It talks about how God started making things from a messy, watery place that had no shape or light.

Some scholars think this isn’t really the same as the chaos in Babylonian stories. They say the words in Genesis don’t actually mean chaos, and that in Babylonian stories, the whole world is chaotic, but in Genesis, it’s mostly just the Earth that is described this way. Different old translations use different words to talk about these ideas.

Gnosticism

According to the Gnostic On the Origin of the World, Chaos was not the very first thing to exist. When the nature of the immortal aeons was complete, Sophia wanted something like the light which first existed to appear. Her wish showed up as a huge, hard-to-understand shape that covered the heavenly world. This made the darkness inside smaller, but a shadow appeared outside, leading to the creation of Chaos. From Chaos, all gods, including the Demiurge, were born.

Hermeticism and alchemy

Further information: Prima materia

In ancient times, people combined ideas from Greek stories and the Bible. They used these ideas in a special way of thinking called alchemy and magic from the Renaissance period.

Some early Greek thinkers believed that a cosmic egg was the basic material used in alchemy. They thought the first step in making a very important substance, called the philosopher's stone, was linked to chaos. Because of stories from the Bible about God creating the world, chaos was also connected to the element of water.

A writer named Ramon Llull wrote a book called Liber Chaos, where he said chaos was the first form of matter made by God. A Swiss alchemist named Paracelsus used the word "chaos" to mean a mix of all elements. He said Earth was like chaos for special spirits called gnomes. Another alchemist, Heinrich Khunrath, wrote a book also called Chaos. In this book, he talked about how all things came from a first chaos.

The word "gas" in chemistry was created by a Dutch chemist named Jan Baptist van Helmont. He based it on the idea of chaos from Paracelsus. The letter "g" in "gas" comes from how the Dutch say that letter.

Hawaiian tradition

In Hawaiian folklore, there are three important gods called the "Ku-Kaua-Kahi," also known as the "Fundamental Supreme Unity." These gods were believed to have existed before and during a time called Chaos, which in Hawaiian means "from the time of night, darkness, Chaos." They broke through the darkness, called Po, and brought light into the world. After that, they made three heavens for living spaces, along with the Earth, Sun, Moon, stars, and helpful spirits.

Modern usage

The word chaos is now used in the study of old stories and religions to describe the very first state before anything was made. This state can be thought of as dark waters or a dark emptiness from which a new order comes. It is also seen as a mix of opposites, like heaven and earth, which a creator separates to start the world.

Later, people began using "chaos" to mean total disorder or confusion, starting in old English writings. From this idea, scientists later developed the term to describe very complicated systems that change in unpredictable ways.