Theogony

Goya's distressing image of Cronus devouring his children.

Theogony (Greek: Θεογονία, theogonia = the birth of God(s)) is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 B.C.E. The title of the work is a compound word derived from Greek terms for "god" (theoi) and "seed" (gonia, which in this case is used as a synonym for "genesis" or "origin").

Although the text is often used as a sourcebook for Greek mythology, the Theogony is both more and less than that. Indeed, it is necessary to interpret the Theogony not as the definitive source of Greek mythology, but rather as a snapshot of a dynamic tradition as crystallized by Hesiod's encyclopedic and synthetic vision. This historical proviso should not be read as a critique of the poet, but merely an acknowledgment that the mytho-religious imagination of the Hellenes was simply too broad to be compelling captured in a single work, regardless of its merits.

Overview

Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized into an overarching narrative that details their origins and rise to power. In many cultures, these accounts provide a means for societies to justify and reaffirm their native cultural, social and political traditions—as exemplified in the affirmation of Babylonian kingship in the Enuma Elish, of pharaonic rulership in many Ancient Egyptian creation accounts, and of the Indian caste system in the Purusha Sukta. Conversely, the Theogony of Hesiod endorses no particular human institution, instead simply affirming the kingship of the god Zeus over all the other gods and the whole of the cosmos.

In formal terms, the text consists of a hymn invoking Zeus and the Muses, where this paean (delivered in the opening and closing chapters) provides a framing device for the body of the text. This topical and structural feature is paralleled in the much shorter Homeric Hymn to the Muses, which implies that the Theogony developed from the Hellenic tradition of oral poetry, as recited by the rhapsodes (Hellenic bards).

Contents

Introduction

As mentioned above, the creation account contained in the Theogony is framed by a prayer to Zeus and the Muses begins. Specifically, the text begins with a hymnic dedication to the sovereignty of Zeus, which is explicitly attested to in the song of his daughters, the Muses:

Come thou, let us begin with the Muses who gladden the great spirit of their father Zeus in Olympus with their songs, telling of things that are and that shall be and that were aforetime with consenting voice. ... Then, next, the goddesses sing of Zeus, the father of gods and men, as they begin and end their strain, how much he is the most excellent among the gods and supreme in power. And again, they chant the race of men and strong giants, and gladden the heart of Zeus within Olympus, — the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder.

This device is also used to explain the author's seemingly boundless knowledge of things beyond the mortal ken by suggesting that he was instructed in divine lineages at the hands of the Muses: "And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses said to me — the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis."

Later in this section, in the oft-debated "Kings and Singers" passage (80-103), Hesiod is depicted appropriating the authority usually reserved for sacred kings when he declares that the Muses have bestowed two gifts onto him: a scepter and an authoritative voice. While these implements are both fairly obvious symbols of kingship, it seems likely that the purpose of this gesture was not literally meant to depict Hesiod (the poet) in a kingly role. Instead, it appears that the purpose was to imply that the authority of kingship now belonged to the poetic voice—a necessary concession, given the gravity of the poem's contents.

Genesis and the First Generation

After the speaker declares that he has received the blessings of the Muses and thanks them for giving him inspiration, he begins by describing the miraculous generation of Chaos, the first existent entity. Soon after, Eros (sexual union), Gaia (Earth), and Tartarus also sprang into existence: "Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them." Soon after, Chaos spawned both Erebos (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). It should be noted that at this point, all existent deities had simply emerged through either parthenogenesis or spontaneous generation. Conversely, the later generations of gods would depend upon Eros, the personification of sexuality, for their existence. The first of these sexually engendered deities were Aither (Brightness) and Hemera (Day), both of whom were children of Erebos and Nyx. From Gaia came Ouranos (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea):

And Earth first bare starry Heaven [Ouranos], equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos Kronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.

As noted above, the union of Ouranos and Gaia created a generation of monstrous offspring, including the twelve Titans: Okeanos, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, and Kronos; the three Kyklopes (Cyclops): Brontes, Steropes, and Arges; and the three Hecatonchires (literally, "hundred-handers"): Kottos, Briareos, and Gyges.

Second Generation

Because Ouranos foresaw that one of his children would overthrow him, he tried to imprison each of the children in Gaia, which greatly discomforted her. She asked her children to punish their father. Only Kronos was willing to do so. During Ouranos' attempt to mate with Gaia as he does every night, Kronos castrated his father with a sickle from Gaia: "Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him." The blood from Ouranos splattered onto the earth producing Erinyes (the Furies), Giants, and Meliai. Kronos takes the severed testicles and throws them into the Sea (Thalassa), around which foams developed and they transformed into the goddess of Love, Aphrodite (which is why in some myths, Aphrodite was daughter of Ouranos and the goddess Thalassa).

Meanwhile, Nyx, though she mated with Erebos, produced children parthenogenically: Moros (Doom), Oneiroi (Dreams), Ker and the Keres (Destinies), Eris (Discord), Momos (Blame), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), Thanatos (Death), Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Retribution), Hesperides (Daughters of Night), Hypnos (Sleep), Oizys (Hardship), and Apate (Deceit).

From Eris, following her mother's footstep, came Ponos (Pain), Hysmine (Battles), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Phonoi (Murders), Lethe (Oblivion), Makhai (Fight), Pseudologos (Lies), Amphilogia (Disputes), Limos (Famine), Androktasia (Manslaughters), Ate (Ruin), Dysnomia (Anarchy and Disobedience), the Algea (Illness), Horkos (Oaths), and Logoi (Stories).

After Ouranos had been castrated, Gaia mated with Pontos to create a descendent line consisting of sea deities, sea nymphs, and hybrid monsters. One child of Gaia and Pontos is Nereus (Old Man of the Sea), who marries Doris, a daughter of Okeanos and Tethys, to produce the Nereids, the fifty nymphs of the sea. Another child of Gaia and Pontos is Thaumas, who marries Electra, a sister of Doris, to produce Iris (Rainbow) and three Harpies.

Phorkys and Keto, two siblings, marry each other and produce the Graiae, the Gorgons, Echidna, and Ophion. Medusa, one of the Gorgons, produced two children with Poseidon, the winged-horse Pegasus and giant Chrysaor, at the instant of her decapitation by Perseus. Chrysaor marries Callirhoe, another daughter of Okeanos, to make three-headed Geryon.

Gaia also mates with Tartaros to produce Typhoeus, whom Echidna marries to produce Orthos, Kerberos, Hydra, and Chimera. From Orthos and either Chimera or Echidna were born the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion.

In the family of the Titans, Okeanos and Tethys marry to make three thousand rivers and three thousand Okeanid Nymphs. Theia and Hyperion marry to bear Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon), and Eos (Dawn). Kreios and Eurybia marry to bear Astraios, Pallas, and Perses. Eos and Astraios would later marry to produce Zephyros, Boreas, Notos, Eosphoros, Hesperos, Phosphoros and the Stars (foremost of which Phaenon, Phaethon, Pyroeis, Stilbon, those of the Zodiac and those three acknowledged before). From Pallas and Styx (another Okeanid) came Zelos (Zeal), Nike (Victory), Cratos (Strength), and Bia (Force). Koios and Phoibe marry to make Leto, Asteria (who later marries Perses to produce Hekate). Iapetos marries Klymene (an Okeanid Nymph) to sire Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.

Third and Final Generation

Kronos, having taken control of the Cosmos, wanted to ensure that he maintained power. He asked the advice of the Delphi Oracle, who told him a son would overthrow him. When he married Rhea, he made sure to swallow each of the children she birthed: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus (in that order). However, Rhea asked Gaia and Ouranos for help in saving Zeus by sending Rhea to Crete to nurture Zeus and giving Kronos a huge stone to swallow thinking that it was another of Rhea's children. Rhea then sets Zeus on a tree that sat on a ledge (between sky, earth and sea, making him invisible) with the Curetes constantly clanging their swords on their shield to keep Kronos from hearing the infant Zeus's crying.

After Zeus had grown up, he consults Metis, who concocts a potion which forces Kronos to disgorge his siblings and thereafter waged a great war on the Titans for control of the Cosmos. The war lasted ten years, with the Olympian gods, Cyclopes, Prometheus and Epimetheus, the children of Pallas on one side, and the Titans and the Giants on the other (with only Oceanos as a neutral force). Eventually Zeus releases the Hundred-Handed ones to shake the earth, allowing him to gain the upper hand, cast the fury of his thunderbolts and throw the Titans into Tartaros. Zeus later must battle Typhoeus, a son of Gaia and Tartaros created because Gaia was angry that the Titans were defeated, and is victorious again.

Because Prometheus helped Zeus, he was not sent to Tartaros like the other Titans. However, he later stole fire from the Olympian gods to give to mortals, along with other knowledge, which angered Zeus. Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a column and invokes a long-winged eagle that would feed on his ever-regenerating liver. Prometheus would not be freed until Heracles, a son of Zeus, comes to free him and encourage him to tell Zeus the prophecy of who would overthrow Zeus. (A digression: It would later turn out that Thetis, a nymph that Zeus was chasing, would have a son that would be greater than his father. Zeus promptly married her off to Peleus, who ended up fathering Achilleus. At the wedding, Eris, who resented not being invited, rolled a golden apple inscribed "For the Fairest". The apple rolled between the three loveliest goddesses (Hera, Aphrodite, and Athene). The three goddesses asked Zeus to decide who was loveliest, but he was afraid of what either of them might do if they were not chosen. So he gave the responsibility to the Trojan Prince Paris. He chose Aphrodite over Athena and Hera to get the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, and start the Trojan War. Another trickery Prometheus made was to divide an animal sacrifice, giving meat to humans and bone and skin to the gods. It forms the origin of sacrificing animals to a deity.

Zeus, because of the loss of fire, would later punish the men on earth by making a woman with Hephaistos and Athena, Pandora, who, through her good charms and beauty, would bring about all the miseries of diseases and deaths into the world by opening a box from Zeus, but she closed the box before Elpis (Hope) was released. It would not be until Prometheus came and opened the box to free Elpis (Hope).

Zeus marries seven wives. The first is the Oceanid Metis, whom he swallowed to avoid getting a son that, as what happened with Kronos and Ouranos, would overthrow him, as well as to absorb her wisdom so that she can advise him in the future. He would later "give birth" to Athena from his head, which would anger Hera enough for her to produce her own son parthenogenetically, Typhaon, the part snake,part dragon sea monster. The second wife is Themis, who bears the three Horae (Hours) – Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice), Eirene (Peace) and the three Moirae (Fates) – Klotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Alotter), Atropos (Unturned), as well as Tyche. Zeus then married his third wife Eurynome, who bears the three Charites (Graces). The fourth wife is his sister Demeter, who bears Persephone. Persephone would later marry Hades, and bear Melinoe, Goddess of Ghosts, and Zagreus, God of the Orphic Mysteries, and Macaria, Goddess of the Blessed Afterlife. The fifth wife of Zeus is another aunt, Mnemosyne, from whom came the nine Muses – Kleio, Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsikhore, Erato, Polymnia, Urania, and Kalliope. The sixth wife is Leto, who gives birth to Apollo and Artemis. The seventh and final wife is Hera, who gives birth to Hebe, Ares, Enyo, Hephastios,and Eileithyia. Of course, though Zeus no longer marries, he still has affairs with many other women, such as Semele, who would give birth to Dionysus, and Alkmene, the mother of Heracles, who marries Hebe.

Poseidon marries Amphitrite and produces Triton. Ares and Aphrodite would marry to make Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Cowardice), and Harmonia (Harmony), who would later marry Kadmos to sire Ino (who with her son, Melicertes would become a sea deity) Semele (Mother of Dionysos), Agaue (Mother of Actaeon), Polydorus, and Autonoe (who would later be driven in to perpetual Bacchic Frenzy by her nephew, Dionysos). Helios and Perseis birth Kirke (Circe), who with Poseidon would mother Phaunos, God of the Forest, and with Dionysos mother Comos, God of Revelry and Festivity . And with Odysseus, she would later give birth to Agrius. Atlas' daughter Kalypso would give birth to Odysseus' children Telegonos, Teledamus, Latinus, Nausithoos, and Nausinous.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Brown, Norman O. "Introduction" to Hesiod's Theogony. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1953.
• Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch's Age of Fable or Beauties of Mythology. London: S. W. Tilton, 1894.
• Mondi, Robert. "ΧΑΟΣ and the Hesiodic Cosmogony." Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 92 (1989). 1-41.
• Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth (Second Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. ISBN 0-13-716714-8.

External links

All links retrieved October 25, 2007

• Hesiod, Theogony e-text (in English)
• Hesiod, Theogony e-text in Greek (from Perseus)
• Hesiod, Theogony e-text in English (from Perseus)
• Hesiod, Theogony e-text in English (from sacred-texts.com)

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