God/Goddess of chaos?

[lynnlynn97]

I was just wondering if anyone new of a God or goddess that's mainly about chaos. I must confess I have read some of R.A.Salvatore's books, and have felt strongly about Lolth. But she is fiction, and is evil. Does anyone know of a deity who is like her but not evil? I'd be very grateful if anyone can give me some information on this thanks!

[YanaKhan]

I can only think of Eris, but there must be more.

[Siona]

The Egyptian Set has a lot of ties to chaos. Apep is an Egyptian entity who is sort of chaos personified, but he is considered to be evil. Set is sort of like necessary chaos, where Apep is just pure destruction with no thought behind it.

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

Lolth, is that based on Lilith?

There's also the Babylonian Tiamat, though she is more from chaos.

[autumn swan]

Does anyone know of a deity who is like her but not evil?

Every king or queen of chaos who is good at their job will be called evil by some persons sooner or later. Just saying, don't jugde too fast and take off those black-and-white glasses. :wink2:

A find chaos god is Loki from the Norse pantheon. But Odin can be chaotic, too, I guess every trickster fits your need for chaos. Other trickster gods are: Merlin, Cojote, Hermes/Mercury... I found a nice article on them here.

[HopefulChild]

Shingay Han, son of Erlik, First creation of Tengri.

Loki is a good one. Pretty recent.

Typhon is another god of chaos though really more an elemental titan.

Zoroaster posited that Chaos was in fact what people generally refer to as "evil". It is the embodiment of events beyond our control that do not seemingly benefit "us". As Zoroastrianism grew the original context of Chaos was replaced by the totem of "evil".
So the original correlation to "Bounteous Spirit" or Spenta Mainyu, was the antithesis Angra Mainyu, "Fragmented Spirit".

Chaos gods are often seen as angry, or spiteful. I myself have experienced an agent of chaos, and I was utterly convinced that this "thing" was in fact "evil"...The longer I contemplate that experience the more I understand that my perception of evil, came directly from my ignorance of the greater schema and the role that chaos plays in existence.

To go back further than Zoroaster is to get more directly into Apep. Apep IS Chaos. This is Formal Egyptian, Post Ubaid, post Sumer, Post Babylon.
Apep was seen as the greatest enemy of Ra and was called, "Lord of Chaos". Now it may surprise you to find out that Apep was never given a human body like the majority of the Pantheon of Egypt. Apep was always...a giant snake.
Apep had a wife. The Goddess of Child brith. TaWeRet. She was considered a protective and aggressive Goddess who carried out her husbands duties during the day (but more relaxed than he did) since he could only come out at night, and at night she watched over those in her care. She had the head of a crocodile and the body of a woman. Quite fetching! lol.

Before Apep were the Gods of Sumeria and Babylon. Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. Represented respectively by Ninhursag (earth), Enlil (wind), Enki (water), and Anu (fire/heavens).

What gets left aside sometimes is Nammu (Engur) who was the Goddess of the primeval sea, from which Anu, and Ninhursag (heaven and earth) were born. Nammu (Engur) was called "The Great Chaos", from which order (heaven and earth) was Born.
Nammu eventually moved up in the ranks of Pantheons and earned respect and became what we now call Tiamat...and all the while, considered a great and terrible Serpent/Dragon.

Even in the proto-cultures there is a theme that Chaos is embodied by serpents, large and small, and the from chaos came order and peace.

Apep and TaWeRet would be a good pair. They are linked, and work together, and had a solid following for thousands of years and a host pantheon that worked along side them.

Best of luck with your search.

[SnowCat]

Loki is the one that comes to my mind.

Snow

[breaddd]

The chaos gods that I'm most familiar with are Set and Loki.

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

I was looking it up the other day and there is some obscure personification of primordial chaos in Greek called "Khaos" and Aether is also among that.

[CleverlyDisguised]

Loki (Norse/Jotun), Eris (Greek), Tiamat (Sumerian), Set (Egyptian), Apophis (also known as Apep; Egyptian) Eshu (also known as Echú, Exú, Èșù-Elegba, Legba, Leba, Exú de Quimbanda, Exú de Candomblé, Lubaniba; Haitian/African/Latin/Latin American/Cuban), these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head

[Star_Priestess]

I was looking it up the other day and there is some obscure personification of primordial chaos in Greek called "Khaos" and Aether is also among that.

This is true. Chaos is considered to be a deity in their own right (whether male or female has been debated) and is considered to be the primordial waters or space that brings forth Gaia, Eros, etc, depending on which source you hold true. The word "chaos" wasn't used as a synonym as destruction until the 19th century.

Chaos or destruction deities are often depicted as rather mean-spirited, but they are necessary and aren't actually evil. They're just thought of bad because people forget about the renewal of life that they help bring about with the destruction that they cause. After all, when farmers clear the land, they need to destroy forests to help create plots for crops. If you want to follow a deity of destruction, go for it, but don't forget about the creativity and life they bring.