CELUS (Heaven), in Pagan Mythology, the son of Æther and Dies, or Air and Day. According to Hesiod, he married Terra or the Earth, on whom he begat Aurea or the Mountains, the Ocean, &c. But having at length imprisoned the Cyclops, who were also his children, his wife, offended at this proceeding, incited her son Saturn
to revenge the injury done to his brothers; and by her Coemptio-
assistance the latter bound and castrated Cælus, when
the blood which flowed from the wound produced the
three furies, the giants, and the wood-nymphs; while the
genital parts being thrown into the sea, impregnated the
waters, and formed the goddess Venus. This deity was
called by the Greeks Uranus.