Chaos

"This is the edge of the earliest darkness, which was my mother. Below lies the realm of Chaos, my father. Here, you are closer to nothingness than any mortal has ever been. Can you not feel it?"

- Akhlys to Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase

Chaos, also known as Khaos, is the first primordial deity. (Another word for "the Gap"). Besides being a deity, Chaos is also a shapeless void below even the depths of Tartarus, the realm embodied by his son of the same name. Once one enters Chaos, he or she becomes nothing, dissolved by the void. From Chaos emerged the Protogenoi (in some myths, with Aether).

Beginning of Creation
Chaos was the initial state of the universe before creation; a gloomy, soupy mist containing all the matter in the cosmos. Eventually, some of it collected to form the Earth (Gaea), the Sky (Ouranos), the Seas (Pontus), and the Infernal Pit (Tartarus). Later, Night (Nyx) would also be born from Chaos in union with Darkness (Erebos).

Hera's Punishment
After beginning an Olympian riot against her husband Zeus, Hera and the other gods were punished for their rebellion. While Apollo and Poseidon were temporarily stripped of their godly powers, Hera was given the worst punishment of all: she was chained right above the terrifying abyss of Chaos. Every day, Zeus would visit his wife with the Master Bolt and threaten to let her tumble into the void. Hephaestus could hear the wails of his mother all the way from Mount Olympus, which infuriated him, as he could not bear to hear her suffering such a harsh punishment. As a result, he finally set her free. Hera tearfully embraced him, and promised to never to call Hephaestus ugly ever again.

The House of Hades
While in Tartarus, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase confronted Akhlys at the "verge of final death, where Night meets the void below Tartarus." Annabeth reacted with surprise that anything was below Tartarus. Akhlys explained that even Tartarus had to rise from somewhere. She showed the two demigods that below them they would see her mother, the earliest darkness, and her father, Chaos. Later, while confronting Nyx and her children, Percy and Annabeth leapt through the Mansion of Night, risking tumbling into Chaos - which would have meant a true death, as their very souls would be destroyed. They managed to make it past both Chaos and the River Acheron into the heart of Tartarus, the current home of the Doors of Death.

Abilities
As the first of the Protogenoi, Chaos is immortal and existed even before the world began. He is also the creator of the other Protogenoi and thus the creator of the universe, since the other Protogenoi are the parts of the universe itself. Chaos is believed to be one of the few things able to truly kill an immortal (possibly by permanently absorbing their divine essence), as Zeus held Hera over Chaos after her rebellion in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, threatening to drop her into the void. Due to his position as the embodiment of the Void and the first being to exist, being the father of the Primordial Gods, he is perhaps the most powerful entity in the entire series, with unmeasurable levels of power far greater than that of any being in existence, even that of any of his Protogenoi children.


 * Supreme Power: As the Protogenos of the Void/Nothingness his power is truly immesurable and supreme. As he is the most powerful of the Protogenoi, he is thus the most powerful being in Greek Mythology and his power far surpasses that of any Olympian, Giant, Titan, and even the other Protogenoi. Chaos’s power is believed to be so great that it is able to truly kill immortals and even erase souls from existence.

Children

 * Gaea (Earth)
 * Nyx (Night)
 * Tartarus (Abyss)
 * Ouranos (Heavens)
 * Akhlys (Misery, Poison)
 * Erebos (Darkness)
 * Chaos Slytherin (Immortality)

Trivia

 * Chaos only appears in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods.
 * Some myths name Chaos as the creator of Eros. However, in most myths and Riordan's series, Eros is considered to be the son of Aphrodite and Ares.
 * In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, after her unsuccessful Olympian riot, Hera is chained by Zeus right above the Void of Chaos. However, she is later rescued by her son Hephaestus.
 * In some myths Akhlys is listed as a primordial goddess born even before Chaos, rather than his daughter.
 * However, this does not appear to be the case in Rick Riordan's books, since Akhlys refers to herself as a daughter of Chaos.
 * Some myths also list Akhlys as a presumed daughter of Nyx, being one of the Keres.
 * In The Kane Chronicles, Isfet is also referred to as Chaos and Carter and Sadie Kane travel to the edge of the Sea of Chaos to find Apophis' sheut. When Sadie later mentions the Realm of Chaos to Annabeth Chase, she wonders if there is a connection between the Greek Chaos and the Egyptian Chaos and has great respect for Sadie given her own experiences with Chaos.