Comparing Hesiod And Homer's Cosmogony

The works of Hesiod and Homer served as some of the earliest theories of cosmology and cosmogony. After Xenophanes of Colophon understood their interpretation of the kosmos, he rejects many of their ideas and asserts his claim that God is anthropomorphic and does not interfere with human life. In this paper, I will examine the differences between the views of Hesiod and Homer and those of Xenophanes.
To begin, both Hesiod and Homer establish a cosmology and cosmogony centered around the idea that the Gods both created and currently control the kosmos. In Hesiod’s, Theogony, he addresses the origins of the world and asserts that it began when to Gaia and Ouranos gave birth to the Titans. Through the rise of Kronos, Zeus, and countless other Greek Gods, the world was shaped into how it came to be. Homer further develops an opinion on the Gods in his work, The Illiad. He claims that the Gods resemble …show more content…
One of his main arguments about society is that true knowledge is impossible for anyone to achieve. He argues: “the clear and certain truth no man has seen, nor will there be anyone who knows about the Gods” (Text 24). According to his reasoning, humans can only have abstract beliefs about the way the world is because there is no independent way to establish truth. This idea immediately conflicts with his other arguments because if humans are unable to know absolute truth; how is he able to make assertions about God and divinity? Although some may argue that progress towards true knowledge is still possible through competing theories on rational grounds, many of the claims which Xenophanes makes only have two possible outcomes. For example, one can either argue that God resembles a human or that he does not. Because of this, the argument cannot be made that one can progressively work towards an absolute