Chaos
Chaos, according to Bullfinch's Mythology, is the “original confusion in which earth, sea and air were mixed up together. It was personified by the Greeks as the most ancient of the Gods. "
In Mythology, Edith Hamilton writes:
"First there was Chaos, the vast immeasurable abyss,
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild.
At last, but how nobody ever tried to explain, two children were born to this shapeless nothingness. Night was the child of Chaos and so was Erebus, which is the unfathomable depth where death dwells. In the whole universe there was nothing else; all was black, empty, silent, endless. And then…a marvel of marvels:
…Black winged night
Into the bosom of Erebus dark and deep
Laid a wind-borne elf, and as the seasons rolled
Forth sprang Love, the longed-for, shining, with
Wings of gold.
From darkness and from death, Love was born," Hamilton says, "and with it birth, order and beauty began to banish blind confusion. Love created Light with its companion, radiant Day.”
Yin Yang, in other words.