Uranus

• the father of Saturn (pure Lat. Caelus), Lact. 1, 11, § 61; 1, 13, § 15.

(Οὐρανός). Sometimes called a son and sometimes the husband of Gaea (Earth). By Gaea, Uranus became the father of Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Thia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyné, Phoebe, Tethys, Cronos; of the Cyclopes —Brontes, Steropes, Arges; and of the Hecatoncheires—Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes. According to Cicero, Uranus was also the father of Mercury by Dia and of Venus by Hemera (Cic. N. D. iii. 22, 55-58). Uranus hated his children, and immediately after their birth he confined them in Tartarus, in consequence of which he was castrated and dethroned by Cronos at the instigation of Gaea. 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 Aphrodité (Hes. Th. 126- 193; Apollod. i. 1).