Theogony

Luc Ferry’s The Wisdom of Myths, and Homer’s The Iliad are two extraordinary works of literature when it comes to tales of Greek mythology. The first gives a unique account of the birth of the universe following Hesiod's Theogony, starting at chaos and ending with order in the cosmos; while the later incorporates many detailed and unique characters and motifs that all help contribute into shaping the poem into something much more elegant than just a recollection of a war. The two works also…

We are first introduced to Hesiod's Prometheus in his Theogony written presumably around 700 BC. He is the son of Iapetus and Clymene and although he is regarded as a God, Prometheus is a titan whose name means "forethought". Said to be responsible for sculpting mankind from clay Prometheus's debut begins during the war against the Titans and Gods where he takes Zeus's side aiding Zeus in his victory. With all the Titans defeated and punishment commencing Zeus showed favor towards Prometheus who…

Mythology on paper acted as a catalyst to a new way of thinking about the natural world, very differently to the way that Hesiod, writer of “The Theogony” a book of Greek myth with no sense of justification, thought. It affected the minds of Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes to question nature, have an urge to find an explanation of life through “phusis” (402), or nature itself, and put forth a singular material that makes up the world. While Thales was the first and was able to give some form…

potential victory of nature against the encroaching civilizations of mankind; the little-understood nature of the female in contrast to the male” (Felton 103). This idea of civilizing or bringing order to nature is very prevalent in Greek works like Theogony and the Odyssey, creating the dynamic between the civilized versus the barbaric and the hero versus the monster. And because the Greeks “regularly identified women with the wilderness of nature”, it is not surprising to find that a very…

the one who makes, "virginal sweet-talk, lovers' smiles and deceits." Because Aphrodite was born as a result of Gaia's trick with Kronos and the sickle, it is not surprising that she has some deviousness herself. While it is not mentioned in the Theogony, Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus but constantly cheats on him with Ares. So while this could just be a characteristic of the goddess of love, it is likely more of a representation of the Greek ideology that women, especially beautiful women,…

In Hesiod’s Theogony Zeus is not a just God to his people in the way that he punishes everyone for the acts that only one man committed, rather than just punishing a single individual. For example, Zeus is an extremely vengeful God and this is displayed at the Trick at Mecone as well as in the creation of Pandora. At the Trick at Mecone when Prometheus deceives Zeus by placing a pile of ox beef disguised in intestines and a pile of bones disguised in shiny fat for Zeus to choose from so the…

Civilisation, the stories told in Hesiod’s Theogony, explore the idea of social hierarchy and status in ancient Greek times, reflecting the central structure of religious practice. In particular, the Theogony, meaning genealogy of birth of the gods, can be seen as very patriarchal, with the gods as family, being ruled by a father, to then have the fathers overthrown by their sons. (Hornblower and Antony, 2004, 337) The main theme presented in the Theogony is world order, established by the…

Myths of creation are no different, whether they come from a monotheistic priestly source like that of Genesis or from a polytheistic source like Hesiod’s Theogony. Many similarities can be drawn between different myths all pointing or leading to the same conclusion. For instance, in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis and of Prometheus in the Theogony. Both stories feature a significantly clever and tricky character who act as a challenge or agent of change for a direct or indirect character…

In Hesiod’s Theogony, the primordial goddess Gaia is created through the spontaneous generation and is the anthropomorphized maternal figure of all existence. Despite being such an early god, and possessing the necessary metis to be an authoritative goddess, Gaia is fundamentally weak as displayed both by her unwillingness to participate in her crafty plans, and her inability to control the happenings of the world she creates. In the Theogony, it is clear that Gaia existed solely for the means…

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…