Chaos

Chaos signified, in the ancient cosmogonies, that vacant infinite space out of which sprang all things that exist. Some poets make it the single original source of all; others mention along with it Gæa, Tartaros, and Eros. By some also only the rough outlines of heaven and earth were supposed to have proceeded from Chaos, while the organisation and perfecting of all things was the work of Eros. Still later cosmogonists, such as Ovid, represent it as that confused, shapeless mass out of which the universe was formed into a kosmos, or harmonious order. Hesiod makes Chaos the mother of Erebos and Nox. In Gen. i. 1-2, after God created heaven and earth, the earth was yet 'waste and void (tōhū va-bōhū), and darkness was upon the face of the deep' (tēhōm, the Chaldee tūmat). See ADAM AND EVE.