Uranus, sometimes written Ouranos, meaning "sky" or "heaven", was the primal Greek god personifying the sky and one of the Greek primordial deities. Uranus or Father Sky, was the son and husband of Gaia, the primordial Mother Earth. His symbols were the Wheel and the Stars.
Uranus was conceived by Gaia alone, but other sources cite that Aether, the god of the upper sky as his father. Uranus and Gaia were the parents of the first generation of Titans, and the ancestors of most of the Greek gods. Uranus came every night to cover the earth and mate with Gaia. Together, they gave birth to the twelve titans, the three one-hundred-handed giants named the Hekatonkheires, and the one-eyed giants the Cyclopes.
Uranus didn’t like the children they give birth to. He considered them threats to his power. His Titan children however, were quite beautiful and they pleased him. But he was so disgusts by the sight of his other children. Legend also has it that he hated Hecatoncheires so much, that he even tried to push them back into Gaia’s womb, which caused her terrible pain. So except the titans, he locked his other children in Tartarus, which lies deep within Earth.
Gaia was heartbroken by this act. She shaped a great flint-bladed sickle and asked her sons to cut off Uranus’s testicles. Only Cronus, youngest and most ambitious of the Titans, was willing to do it.
He ambushed his father and cut them off, and casted the severed testicles into the sea. From the blood that spilled from Uranus onto the Earth came forth the Giants, the Erinyes (the avenging Furies), the Meliae (the ash-tree nymphs), and, according to some, the Telchines. From the genitals in the sea came forth Aphrodite.
After taking the throne, Cronus did not release Gaia’s children as promised. Uranus and Gaia then prophesied that Cronus is destined to be overthrown by one of his children, just as he did to his father. Cronus tried to avoid this fate by devouring his children, until Zeus.
After Uranus’s downfall, the Sky came no more to cover the Earth at night, but held to its place, and Gaia bore no more children.
The planet Uranus took its name after the Greek god. It was first named Georgium Sidus which means the Georgian Star by William Herschel who discovered it. He named it after his monarch George 3rd .
The name Uranus later became accepted, as suggested by astronomer Johann Bode. The planets discovered by then, are named after gods.
Mars, Venus, mercury are names of gods. And they are the children of the roman god Jupiter. In greek Jupiter is called Zeus. Jupiter, or in greek Zeus is the son of Saturn. Saturn is called Cronus in Greek. And Cronus is the son of Uranus. Hence in this logic the planet after Saturn is named Uranus.
Uranus is not much known as the gods of Olympus. He does not appear among the usual themes of Greek painted pottery. But he is a god who played an important role in Greek mythology.
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