Genealogy Of The Gods In Hesiod's Theogony

Completion of Theogony, brought one of the most important pieces of literature to have survived from Ancient Greece. This is the most important text when considering genealogy of the gods, how the earth came about, as well as other important aspects for the Greeks during this time. Theogony, written by Hesiod, and can be dated to around 700 BCE is one of the oldest pieces of literature to date. This one of the few pieces he wrote, as around this time, a seldom amount of writing occurred as only scribes, or writers knew how to write correctly. This work gives majority of the myths, origins, while including all the names of even the less worshipped gods. Theogony starts with an invocation to the Muses, addressing them, telling of their story …show more content…
It is important to note that the Muses gave Hesiod inspiration, as in line 94 “Such is the Muses’ sacred gift to man” (Lombarado,Lamberton, 1993). Muses are the daughters of Zeus and the personification of Memory, they brought music, literature, and joy to the gods in Olympos. There are a total of nine Muses, also referred to as nymphs, who are embody different aspects of art, such as literature, or sculpture. For Hesiod, Kalliope was the most important as stated in line 80. The Muses are also significant for providing the world with song along with musical instruments as in line 95-96 “Though it is singers and lyre players that come from the Muses… (Lombarado,Lamberton, 1993). Not only bringing song, music, and dance to the world, a role of the Muses was to tell of the deeds of men who are no longer living, the stories of the great immortal gods, and bestow upon the world limitless amount of knowledge to help man tell of the glory of the immortals. This is where the relationship between and the Muses originates and soon propagates into