Ouranos, also written Uranus, was the Greek sky god and the husband of Gaia.
In Hesiod’s Theogony, Gaia brings forth “starry Ouranos” to cover her on every side and provide a dwelling place for the gods. Ouranos is therefore both the personification of the sky and one of the primordial deities—the first cosmic generation that appears before the Titans and Olympians.
Gaia and Ouranos become parents of the twelve Titans, including Oceanus, Rhea, Iapetus, and Cronus. They also have the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. Ouranos fears and detests some of his children, hiding them within Gaia, which causes her great pain and leads her to plot against him.
Cronus eventually attacks Ouranos with an adamantine sickle, allowing the Titans to overthrow him. The severed genitals falling into the sea are associated in Hesiod’s account with the later birth of Aphrodite. Ouranos is not Zeus: Zeus is a much later Olympian sky and thunder god. “Uranus” is the common Latinized spelling; “Ouranos” more closely reflects the Greek form.