Aether: Let There Be Light

Right, I know Aether was not supposed to have anthromorphic form.
But would it hurt if I draw him like this?

(Aether is the first male divinity that I am writing about in this blog. I used to believe in the 'ladies first' policy, but then again it can be quite boring and exhausting. And so, I'm starting with him.)

ORPHIC HYMN IV: TO FIRE [AETHER] 

The Fumigation from Saffron. 

O Ever untam'd Fire [Aither],who reign'st on highin Jove's [Zeus'] dominions ruler of the sky;The glorious sun with dazzling lustre bright,and moon and stars from thee derive their light;All taming pow'r, ætherial shining fire,whose vivid blasts the heat of life inspire:The world's best element, light-bearing pow'r,with starry radiance shining, splendid flow'r,O hear my suppliant pray'r,and may thy frame be ever innocent, serene, and tame.

-From Theoi.com

I just have to say that Aether was one of creation's alpha males. Although not figuring actively in later mythology, he was still remembered by many as an important primeval deity. Thankfully, details about him didn't just go into the ether. (Oops, bad pun!)

Bright and breezy

Aether was said to be the eldest son of the primeval deities Erebus and Nyx. Whereas his parents represented darkness and night, this dude was all about LIGHT. Basically, he was the Protogenos (primeval god) of a few things:

• the substance of heavenly light;
• the upper air/atmosphere; and
• the space.

You get the idea. (Source)

Aether was a very bright lad. Even on the clearest day we only see the merest trace of his splendor as it filters down to us. There are a couple of witty articles describing the sort of job that Aether does. According to God Checker:

He looks after the air the Gods breathe. Not the polluted old rubbish we have to put up with down on Earth; this is the Supergrade 5 Godstar variety. Very invigorating.

I found an equally snappy (although rather insensible) rationale for this on Gods Laid Bare (nice domain title, BTW):

Aether was the son of Nyx and Erebos, but thought they were stinky and polluted his clean smelling part of the cosmos, so he turfed them out and they took their chaos causing with them... at least until nightfall.

Aether was one of the three "airs". The middle air was Aer or Chaos, a colorless mist which enveloped the mortal world. The lower air was Erebus, the mists of darkness, which enveloped the dark places beneath the earth and the realm of the dead. The third was the upper air of aether, the mist of light, home of the gods of heaven. It enveloped the mountain peaks, clouds, stars, sun and moon. The stars themselves were said to be formed from the concentrated fires of aether.

The sky's NOT the limit

Aside from just being the guardian of the upper sky, Aether was also given several notable functions.

Robert Fludd's Anima Mundi (Source: click here)

In high 'Spirit'. Sita, in her blog A Witchy Life, suggests that Aether was also a deity about purity and life. Not necessarily human life, but godly life (as humans can't breathe Aether). She must have gotten the idea from the Orphic Hymns, which calls Aether the SOUL OF THE WORLD from which all life emanates. (Do I smell some Paulo Coelho in here?)

This 'Soul' was referred to by different school of thoughts as the Anima Mundi.

As the god of pure air and the supposed soul of the world from which all life springs, he seems like a fairly nice deity.

The 'perfect' guy. In addition to his being the Universal Soul, Aether was also said to be the embodiment of the fifth element, QUINTESSENCE. You must be familiar with this word if you know this girl:

Will Vandom from W.I.T.C.H. Credits for the pic here.

(Yes, I have a knack for pretty magical girls.)

For the benefit of everyone, I got the definition of quintessence from The Free Dictionary (Thank God! Some things are still free):

quin·tes·sence  (kwn-tsns) n. 

1. The pure, highly concentrated essence of a thing.
2. The purest or most typical instance: the quintessence of evil.
3. In ancient and medieval philosophy, the fifth and highest essence after the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, thought to be the substance of the heavenly bodies and latent in all things.

To Aristotle, Aether was a shining substance of utter purity, the quintessence. (Remember me saying that the Protogenoi were persons and places/substances at the same time? Read here.)

According to Helium, he WAS the substance that the Greek gods breathed, as all mortals breathe air, and it was also the pure element of which the gods were made, as fire was the essence of the salamanders, air the essence of the sylphs, water of the undines, and earth the essence of the gnomes. (Remember 

Attempts to discover traces of the aether on Earth were carried out by Michelson and Morley in a famous experiment of 1887. Did they find any? Nope. This non-result led directly to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, but dashed their hopes of selling bottled aether to the physics community. (Source)

If you're interested in discussions about the scientific aether, you may want to visit Encyclopedia Nomadica here.

Aether and Hemera: Match made in heaven

Hemera must have sung this to Aether many times:

Aether was married to his sister Hemera. Together, they embodied the substance of Light just as their parents (Erebus and Nyx) did for Darkness. Being workmates and all, the two grew really fond of each other:

Aether is said to be illuminated with the heavenly light that is so bright that traces of it can filter down to the earth when the skies are clear. He floats high up above AER which is the God of the air in the lower atmosphere. It is said that during the night Nyx will pull the curtains of gloom tightly around the earth to allow the darkness of Erebus to move up and across the earth. Then in the morning when the darkness begins to fade, Aether sister Hemera will carry the gloomy mist away on a soothing breeze so the glow of all his beauty and radiance can be seen by the earth again.

Aether had by her sister a daughter named Thalassa (the Sea). Also, rumors say that he had a secret affair with Gaea and had a couple of illegitimate children. But that was long ago so we can't know for sure.

The end of Aether?

*****WARNING: Look. I don't really know whatever happened to Aether after everything (maybe nothing). I just made the following story up in order to give conclusion to Aether's awesome life. Remember, not intended for academic purposes.*****

There was this one time when Aether got 'blinded' by his own light. He grew tired of his work as an all-good god that he finally decided to retire. He discussed the matter with his wife (whom I think agreed only half-heartedly). After settling into an agreement, he passed down all his powers to his favorite niece, the Titan princess Theia. Theia thereafter became nicknamed Aithre, or the Lady of the Clear Blue Sky.

Theia inherited his uncles powers.
Lucky girl.

Being a Protogenos and all, Aether could not just vanish after his Essence has been given. Eventually, he became the very air that surrounded the clouds, mountain peaks, sun, moon and the stars.

However, Theia proved to be an unstable goddess because she, too, had vanished during the Titanomachy. Aether's Essence was left un-owned until Zeus came to retrieve it. After that, according to one source, Aether became the:

high reigning, ever-indestructible power of Zeus

Greekgods.info also said that Aether served as a defensive brass wall for Zeus in his battle to take over the cosmos from the Titans and that it blocked Tartarus from entering the cosmos during this time. This could have been a factor that helped this new generation of Gods beat the Titans and take control of the universe. From then on, Zeus became known as the Lord of the Aether.

Well at least, the primeval god's power had been put to good use.