Uranus
Publié le 22/02/2012
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(Ouranos; Heaven) Greek The personification
of heaven and the starlit sky. Uranus was
the son of Gaia (Earth) and with her the father of
the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires.
Uranus did not care for his offspring and banished
them to the underworld. Gaia, mourning for her
children, bade her son Cronus to wound and mutilate
Uranus. This Cronus did, with a flint sickle made
by Gaia. From the spilled blood of Uranus sprang
the Furies, the Gigantes (Giants), and the goddess
Aphrodite. Uranus, defeated and wounded, left the
Earth to the Titans. Before he died, he prophesied
that Cronus, in his turn, would be overthrown by
one of his sons. His prophecy came true when Zeus
deposed Cronus.
The Greek poet Hesiod tells the story of Uranus.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun in the
solar system. The English astronomer Sir William
Herschel discovered the gas giant in 1781. Uranus
was the first planet to receive the name of a Greek
god. Uranus has five moons, none of which is named
after a Greek or Roman deity or hero, unlike the
moons of other planets.