U'ranus
（
Οὐρανός), the Latin Caelus, a son of Gaea (Hes.
Theog. 126, &c.; comp. Cic.
De Nat. Deor. 3.17), but is also called the husband of Gaea, and by her the father of Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe Tethys, Cronos, of the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, Arges, and of the Hecatoncheires Cottus, Briareus and Gyes. (Hes.
Theog. 133, &c.)
According to Cicero (
De Nat. Deor. 3.22, 23), he also was the father of Mercury (Hermes) by Dia, and of Venus by Hemera. Uranus hated his children, and immediately after their birth, he confined them in Tartarus, in consequence of which he was unmanned and dethroned by Cronos at the instigation of Gaea. (Hes.
Theog. 180.) Out of the drops of his blood sprang the Gigantes, the Melian nymphs, and according to some, Silenus, and from the foam gathering around his limbs in the sea, sprang Aphrodite (Hes.
Theog. 195 ; Apollod. 1.1;
Serv. ad Aen. 5.801,
ad Virg. Ecl. 6.13).
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