What makes theogony unique

Gaea and Uranus, however, warned him that Metis would have powerful children — including a son who would overthrow him. Zeus tricked Metis into taking on a form small enough to swallow, and he quickly inhaled her. Their children included the Horae or Hours, a trio of goddesses that controlled the seasons. Zeus also married Eurynome, another daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and they had three daughters who were collectively called the Graces.

Their names were Thaleia, Euphrosyne, and Aglea, and they were known for their great beauty. Zeus took his sister Demeter as his fourth wife, and they had a daughter named Persephone , who eventually got married to Hades. Zeus then married Leto, daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. They had twin children, Apollo and Artemis. Both youngsters were known for their good looks and prowess at archery. At one point, Hera had a son all by herself.

His name was Hephaestus , and he was the greatest craftsmen of the gods. He was also lame. Poseidon took Amphitrite as his wife, and they had a son called Triton. Poseidon and his family lived in a golden palace under the sea. Harmony married Cadmus, the first Greek hero, and they had a daughter named Semele. Zeus was not a faithful husband by any stretch of the imagination.

He had many lovers and had many children by those lovers. Maia, the daughter of the Titan Atlas , became the mother of Hermes , the herald of the gods. Zeus also took Semele as a lover, and they had a son named Dionysius ; both became gods in their own right. Zeus and Alcmena were the parents of the mighty Heracles. Hephaestus married one of the Graces, Algaea. Dionysius married Ariadne, the mortal daughter of Minos; Zeus made her immortal.

Heracles eventually married Hebe. The sun-god Helios married Persis, a daughter of Oceanus, and they had two children, Circe and Aeetes. The latter was a king, and he married another daughter of Oceanus called Idyia, and they had a daughter named Medea.

The last few verse describe the descendants of various goddesses, starting with Demeter who had a son, Plutus, by the mortal hero Iasion. If a researcher were to study Greek or Roman myths dating from different times, they would notice changes in both the myths and the different characters. Other, later poets claimed she was the daughter of Uranus and Hemera or Cronus and Euonyme.

The Fates, for example, are first said to be daughters of Nyx and are then later said to be daughters of Zeus.

Such contradictions are less common than they might appear at first glance. Many of the gods and goddesses had sobriquets or epithets. Aphrodite, for example, first rose from the sea foam near the island Cythera, so she is sometimes called Cythera herself. The Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian Bible also contained passages that were long lists of names.

The genealogies also establish the roles of specific characters; they mention if someone is a king or hero, for example. That points to very different standards of beauty than we have today. Hesiod is less interested in how humans came to be than in their role as worshippers of the gods. If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

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The poet declares that it is he, where we might have expected some king instead, upon whom the Muses have bestowed the two gifts of a scepter and an authoritative voice Hesiod, Theogony , which are the visible signs of kingship. It is not that this gesture is meant to make Hesiod a king. Rather, the point is that the authority of kingship now belongs to the poetic voice, the voice that is declaiming the Theogony. After the classical period, when divinely-appointed kingship is brought into Greece once more, it will come in from outside, from Macedonia and imported from the royal traditions of Persia.

Although it is often used as a sourcebook for Greek mythology, the Theogony is both more and less than that. Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins of the gods of Greek mythology.

Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. In many cultures, narratives about the cosmos and about the gods that shaped it are a way for society to reaffirm its native cultural traditions.

Specifically, theogonies tend to affirm kingship as the natural embodiment of society. What makes the Theogony of Hesiod unique is that it affirms no historical royal line. Such a gesture would have cited the Theogony in one time and one place. Rather, the Theogony affirms the kingship of the god Zeus himself over all the other gods and over the whole cosmos.

Further, Hesiod appropriates to himself the authority usually reserved to sacred kingship. The poet declares that it is he, where we might have expected some king instead, upon whom the Muses have bestowed the two gifts of a scepter and an authoritative voice Hesiod, Theogony , which are the visible signs of kingship.

It is not that this gesture is meant to make Hesiod a king. Rather, the point is that the authority of kingship now belongs to the poetic voice, the voice that is declaiming the Theogony. After the classical period, when divinely-appointed kingship is brought into Greece once more, it will come in from outside, from Macedonia and imported from the royal traditions of Persia.

Although it is often used as a sourcebook for Greek mythology, the Theogony is both more and less than that. In formal terms it is a hymn invoking Zeus and the Muses: parallel passages between it and the much shorter Homeric Hymn to the Muses make it clear that the Theogony developed out of a tradition of hymnic preludes with which ancient Greek rhapsodes would begin their performance at poetic competitions.

It is necessary, therefore, to see the Theogony not as a sort of Bible of Greek mythology, but rather as kind of snapshot of a dynamic and often contradictory tradition as it happened to crystallize at one particular place and time - and to remember that the tradition kept evolving all the way up to the time of Nonnus. Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis- holder and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegis -holder bright-eyed Athene , and Phoebus Apollo , and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis and quick-glancing 1 Aphrodite , and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair Dione , Leto , Iapetus , and Cronos the crafty counsellor, Eos and great Helius and bright Selene , Earth too, and great Oceanus , and dark Night , and the holy race of all the other deathless ones that are for ever.

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:.

But why all this about oak or stone? Unwearying flows the sweet sound from their lips, and the house of their father Zeus the loud-thunderer is glad at the lily-like voice of the goddesses as it spread abroad, and the peaks of snowy Olympus resound, and the homes of the immortals.

And they uttering their immortal voice, celebrate in song first of all the reverend race of the gods from the beginning, those whom Earth and wide Heaven begot, and the gods sprung of these, givers of good things.

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. For nine nights did wise Zeus lie with her, entering her holy bed remote from the immortals.

And when a year was passed and the seasons came round as the months waned, and many days were accomplished, she bare nine daughters, all of one mind, whose hearts are set upon song and their spirit free from care, a little way from the topmost peak of snowy Olympus.

There are their bright dancing-places and beautiful homes, and beside them the Graces and Himerus Desire live in delight. And they, uttering through their lips a lovely voice, sing the laws of all and the goodly ways of the immortals, uttering their lovely voice.

Then went they to Olympus, delighting in their sweet voice, with heavenly song, and the dark earth resounded about them as they chanted, and a lovely sound rose up beneath their feet as they went to their father.

And he was reigning in heaven, himself holding the lightning and glowing thunderbolt, when he had overcome by might his father Cronos; and he distributed fairly to the immortals their portions and declared their privileges. All the people look towards him while he settles causes with true judgements: and he, speaking surely, would soon make wise end even of a great quarrel; for therefore are there princes wise in heart, because when the people are being misguided in their assembly, they set right the matter again with ease, persuading them with gentle words.

And when he passes through a gathering, they greet him as a god with gentle reverence, and he is conspicuous amongst the assembled: such is the holy gift of the Muses to men. For it is through the Muses and far-shooting Apollo that there are singers and harpers upon the earth; but princes are of Zeus, and happy is he whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his mouth.

For though a man have sorrow and grief in his newly-troubled soul and live in dread because his heart is distressed, yet, when a singer, the servant of the Muses, chants the glorious deeds of men of old and the blessed gods who inhabit Olympus, at once he forgets his heaviness and remembers not his sorrows at all; but the gifts of the goddesses soon turn him away from these.

Grant lovely song and celebrate the holy race of the deathless gods who are for ever, those that were born of Earth and starry Heaven and gloomy Night and them that briny Sea did rear. Tell how at the first gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods who were born of them, givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth, and how they shared their honours amongst them, and also how at the first they took many-folded Olympus.

These things declare to me from the beginning, ye Muses who dwell in the house of Olympus, and tell me which of them first came to be. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether 5 and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, 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. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire. And they were surnamed Cyclopes Orb-eyed because one orbed eye was set in their foreheads. Strength and might and craft were in their works. From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great forms.

For of all the children that were born of Earth and Heaven, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first. And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Earth so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Earth groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons.

And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear heart:. But great Cronos the wily took courage and answered his dear mother:. 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.

And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bare the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae 8 all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden.

First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet.

Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes 9 because sprang from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods.

This honour she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods, -- the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness.

And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bare the Destinies and ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos 10 , who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty.

Also deadly Night bare Nemesis Indignation to afflict mortal men, and after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted Strife.

And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud Phoreys, being mated with Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia who has a heart of flint within her. These fifty daughters sprang from blameless Nereus, skilled in excellent crafts. With her lay the Dark-haired One 14 in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. Joining with Zeus, they 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 Klymene, 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, and casts the fury of his thunderbolts at the Titans, throwing them 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, Prometheus sought to trick Zeus. Slaughtering a cow, he took the valuable fat and meat, and sewed it inside the cow's stomach. Prometheus then took the bones and hid them with a thin layer of fat. Prometheus asked Zeus' opinion on which offering pile he found more desirable, hoping to trick the god into selecting the less desirable portion.

However, Hesiod relates that Zeus saw through the trick and responded in a fury. Zeus declared that the ash tree would never hold fire, in effect denying the benefit of fire to man. In response, Prometheus sneaks into the gods' chambers and steals a glowing ember with a piece of reed. For this theft, Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a cliff, where an eagle fed on his ever-regenerating liver every day. Prometheus would not be freed until Heracles , a son of Zeus, comes to free him.

Since man had access to fire, Zeus devises woman as a general punishment in trade. Hephaistos and Athena build woman with exquisite detail, and she is considered beautiful by all men and gods it is generally agreed in academic translations that this woman is Pandora. Despite her beauty, Hesiod writes that woman is a bane for mankind, attributing women with laziness and a waste of resources.

Hesiod notes that Zeus' curse, womankind, can only bring man suffering as his wife, and any man who tries to avoid marriage will suffer. Zeus marries seven wives. The first is the Oceanid Metis , whom he swallowed to avoid getting a son that, as 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, or in other versions Hephaistos , god of fire and blacksmiths.

The fourth wife is his sister Demeter , who bears Persephone. The sixth wife is Leto, who gives birth to Apollo and Artemis. Of course, though Zeus no longer marries, he still has affairs with many other women, such as Semele , mother of Dionysus , Danae , mother of Perseus , Leda , mother of Polydeukes and Helen , and Alkmene , the mother of Heracles , who marries Hebe.

Poseidon marries Amphitrite and produces Triton. And with Odysseus , she would later give birth to Agrius. The heritage of Greek mythology already embodied the desire to articulate reality as a whole and this universalizing impulse was fundamendal for the first projects of speculative theorizing.