The Immortals of the Ancient Greek pantheon can be divided into roughly eight classes. The First of these were the or First Born Gods. These were the primeval beings who emerged at the start of creation to form the very fabric of the universe: Earth, Sea, Sky, Night, Day, etc. Although they were divinites, they were purely elemental in form: Gaia was the literal Earth, Pontus the Sea, and Ouranos the Dome of Heaven. However, they were sometimes represented assuming anthroporphic shapes, albeit ones that were indivisible from their native element. Gaia the earth, for example, might manifest herself as a matronly woman half-risen from the ground; and Thalassa the sea might lift her head above the waves in the shape of a sea-formed woman.