Aether was the primordial god and personification of the bright upper air in Greek mythology.
The Greeks distinguished Aether from the ordinary atmosphere near the earth. Aether represented the pure, luminous region above the lower air, a divine expanse associated with brightness and the upper sky. The name itself is linked to a Greek word meaning “brightness” or “glow.”
In Hesiod’s Theogony, Aether was born from Erebus, the personification of darkness, and Nyx, the personification of night. His sister was Hemera, the goddess or personification of day. This genealogy creates a symbolic contrast: darkness and night give rise to the clear upper sky and daylight.
Aether is easily confused with Uranus. Uranus personified the visible sky as a cosmic being and became the father of the Titans, while Aether belonged to the earlier generation of primordial forces. Orphic traditions give Aether a different genealogy, making him a child of Chronos, or Time.