Chaos

, a rude and shapele ma of matter, and confused a emblage of inactive elements, which, as the poets suppose, pre-existed the formation of the world, and from which the universe was formed by the hand and power of a superior being. This doctrine was first established by Hesiod, from whom the succeeding poets have copied it; and it is probable that it was obscurely drawn from the account of Moses, by being copied from the annals of San chon i a thon, whose age is fixed antecedent to the siege of Troy. Chaos was deemed by some as one of the oldest of the gods, and invoked as one of the infernal deities. Virgil , Æneid , bk. 4 , li. 510 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 1 , fable 1.