Theogony

Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins of the gods of ancient Greek religion.

Descriptions

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 30-3), 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 to see the Theogony not as the definitive source of Greek mythology, but rather as a snapshot of a dynamic tradition that happened to crystallize when Hesiod set the myths he knew down to writing - and to remember that the traditions have continued evolving since that time.

It is believed that Greek mythologies may have been influenced by Near Eastern Theogonies, the two most frequently cited examples of which are Akkadian-Babylonian creation epic, the "Enuma Elish," and the Hurrian-Hittite "Kingship in Heaven" (with a sequel, the "Song of Ullikummi").

First Generation

After the speaker declares that he has received the blessings of the Muses, and thanks them for giving him inspiration, he explains that spontaneously Chaos first came into existence. Gaia (Earth), the more orderly and safe foundation that would serve as a home for the gods and mortals, came afterwards. Tartaros (both a place below the earth as well as a deity) and Eros (Desire) also came into existence from nothing. Eros serves an important role in sexual reproduction, before which children had to be produced parthenogenically. From Chaos came Erebos (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). However, Erebos and Nyx reproduced to make Aither (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). From Gaia came Ouranos (Sky, also seen as Uranus), Ourea (Mountains), and Pontos (Sea).

Ouranos mated with Gaia to create twelve Titans, Okeanos, Koios, Kreios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe, Tethys, and Kronos; three Kyklopes (Cyclopses), Brontes, Steropes, and Arges; and three Hundred-Handeds, Kottos, Briareos, and Gyges.

Second Generation

Because Ouranos knows 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, with a sickle from Gaia, cut off his father's genitals, castrating him. The blood from Ouranos splattered onto the earth producing Erinyes (the Furies), Giants, and Meliad nymphs. Kronos takes the severed testicles and throw them into the ocean, around which foams developed and they transformed into the goddess of Love, Aphrodite.

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

From Eris, following her mother's footstep, came Ponos (Hardship), Hysminai (Battles), Neikea (Quarrels), Phonoi (Murders), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Machai (Wars), Pseudea (Lies), Amphillogiai (Disputes), Limos (Starvation), Androktasiai (Manslaughters), Ate (Ruin), Dysnomia (Anarchy), Algea (Pains), Horkos (Oaths), and Logoi (Stories).

After Ouranos has 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 Elektra, a sister of Doris, to produce Iris (Rainbow) and two Harpies (a type of bird-woman).

Phorkys and Keto, two siblings, marry each other and produce Graia, Gorgons, Echidna, and Serpent. Medousa, a Gorgon, produce two children with Poseidon, the winged-horse Pegasos and warrior Chysaor, at the instant of her decapitation by Perseus. Chrysaor marries Kallirhoe, another daughter of Okeanos, to make three-headed Geryoneus.

Gaia also mates with Tartaros to produce Typhoeus, whom Echidna marries to produce Orthos, Kerberos, Hydra, and Chimaira. From Orthos and either Chimaira or Echinda were born the Sphinx and the Nemeian 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 Zephyos, Boreas, Notos, Eosphoros, and the Stars. From Pallas and Styx (another Okeanid) came Zelos (Envy), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Power), 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, Menoitios, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.

Third and final generation

Kronos, having taken control of the cosmos, wanted to ensure that he maintained power. When he married Rhea, he made sure to swallow each of the children given birth: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Zeus. However, Rhea asks 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 child.

After Zeus has grown up, he forces Kronos to disgorge his siblings and thereafter waged a great war for control of the cosmos. The war lasted ten years, with the Olympian gods and Prometheus on one side, and the Titans and the Giants on the other. Eventually Zeus releases the Hundred-Handeds to shake the earth, allowing him to gain the upper hands, 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 as the other Titans. However, he would later steal fire from the Olympian gods to give to mortals, along with other knowledge, thus angering Zeus. Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a column and inflicts on him a long-winged eagle that would feed on his liver. Every day, the liver would be regenerated to be fed on again. 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 marry her off to Peleus, who together would give birth to Achilleus. In the wedding, Eris, who resented not being invited, would roll a golden apple for the most beautiful goddesses. Paris would choose Aphrodite over Athena and Hera to get the most beautiful woman at the time, 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 would release miseries of diseases and deaths into the world by opening a box from Zeus, but she closed the box before Hope was released. It would not be until Prometheus came and opened the box to free Hope.

Zeus marries seven wives. The first is Okeanid Metis, whom he swallowed to avoid getting a son that, like as what happened with Kronos and Ouranos, would overthrow him. He later would give birth from the head to Athena, which would anger Hera enough for her to produce her own son parthenogenically, Hephaistos, the crippled god of crafts and smithery. The second wife is aunt Themis, who bears the three Horae (Hours) – Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice), Eirene (Peace) and the three Moirae (Fates) – Klotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Allotter), Atropos (Unbending). Zeus then married third wife Eurynome, who bears the three Charites (Graces). The fourth wife is sister Demeter, who bears Persephone. Persephone would later marry Hades. The fifth wife of Zeus is another aunt, Mnemosyne, from whom came "the nine" Muses – Kleio, Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichora, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania, 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, 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 Alkemene, the mother of Heracles, who marries Hebe.

Poseidon marries Amphitrite and produce Triton. Ares and Aphrodite would marry to make Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Rout), and Harmonia, who would later marry Kadmos to make Ino, Semele (the mother of Dionysus and daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, who is daughter of Ares and Aphrodite; see above), Agaue, Polydoros, and Autonoe. Helios and Perseis make Kirke (Circe). Kirke would with Odysseus give birth to Agrios, Latinos, and Telegonos, who would kill his father while raiding Ithaca. Atlas' daughter Kalypso would with Odysseus give birth to Nausithoos and Nausinoos.

Ancient Greek poems | Greek mythology | Indo-European mythology

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Descriptions

First Generation

Second Generation

Third and final generation