Theogony
The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed. It is written in the epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1,022 lines. It is one of the most important sources for the understanding of early Greek cosmology.
Description
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. It is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony. The initial state of the universe is chaos, a dark indefinite void considered a divine primordial condition from which everything else appeared. Theogonies are a part of Greek mythology which embodies the desire to articulate reality as a whole, to describe the entire universe and its coming into being. This universalizing impulse was fundamental to the first later projects of speculative theorizing.Further, in the "Kings and Singers" passage 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, which are the visible signs of kingship. It is not that this claim 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.
File:Muses sarcophagus Louvre MR880.jpg|thumb|upright=1.9|right|The nine muses on a Roman sarcophagus —Louvre, Paris
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 — the often sung, descriptive works with which an ancient Greek rhapsode would begin his 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 formulated the myths he knew — and to remember that the traditions evolved further since that time.
The written form of the Theogony was established in the 6th century BC. Even some conservative editors have concluded that the Typhon episode is an interpolation.
Hesiod was probably influenced by some Near-Eastern traditions, such as the Babylonian Dynasty of Dunnum, which were mixed with local traditions, but they are more likely to be lingering traces from the Mycenaean tradition than the result of oriental contacts in Hesiod's own time.
The decipherment of Hittite mythical texts, notably the Kingship in Heaven text first presented in 1946, with its castration mytheme, offers in the figure of Kumarbi an Anatolian parallel to Hesiod's Uranus–Cronus conflict.
The succession myth
One of the principal components of the Theogony is the presentation of what is called the "succession myth", which tells how Cronus overthrew Uranus, and how in turn Zeus overthrew Cronus and his fellow Titans, and how Zeus was eventually established as the final and permanent ruler of the cosmos.Uranus initially produced eighteen children with his mother Gaia : the twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes, and the three Hecatoncheires, but hating them, he hid them away somewhere inside Gaia. Angry and in distress, Gaia fashioned a sickle made of adamant and urged her children to punish their father. Only her son Cronus, the youngest Titan, was willing to do so. So Gaia hid Cronus in "ambush" and gave him the adamantine sickle, and when Uranus came to lie with Gaia, Cronus reached out and castrated his father. This enabled the Titans to be born and Cronus to assume supreme command of the cosmos.
Cronus, having now taken over control of the cosmos from Uranus, wanted to ensure that he maintained control. Uranus and Gaia had prophesied to Cronus that one of Cronus' own children would overthrow him, so when Cronus married Rhea, he made sure to swallow each of the children she birthed: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus, to Rhea's great sorrow. However, when Rhea was pregnant with Zeus, Rhea begged her parents Gaia and Uranus to help her save Zeus. So they sent Rhea to Lyctus on Crete to bear Zeus, and Gaia took the newborn Zeus to raise, hiding him deep in a cave beneath Mount Aigaion. Meanwhile, Rhea gave Cronus a huge stone wrapped in baby's clothes which he swallowed thinking that it was another of Rhea's children.
File:Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem - The Fall of the Titans - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|300px|The Fall of the Titans by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem
Zeus, now grown, forced Cronus to disgorge his other five children. Zeus then released his uncles the Cyclopes who then provide Zeus with his great weapon, the thunderbolt, which had been hidden by Gaia. A great war was begun, the Titanomachy, between the new gods, Zeus and his siblings, and the old gods, Cronus and the Titans, for control of the cosmos. In the tenth year of that war, following Gaia's counsel, Zeus released the Hundred-Handers, who joined the war against the Titans, helping Zeus to gain the upper hand. Zeus then cast the fury of his thunderbolt at the Titans, defeating them and throwing them into Tartarus, thus ending the Titanomachy.
A final threat to Zeus' power was to come in the form of the monster Typhon, son of Gaia and Tartarus. Zeus with his thunderbolt was quickly victorious, and Typhon was also imprisoned in Tartarus.
Zeus, by Gaia's advice, was elected king of the gods, and he distributed various honors among the gods. Zeus then married his first wife Metis, but when he learned that Metis was fated to produce a son which might overthrow his rule, by the advice of Gaia and Uranus, Zeus swallowed Metis. And so Zeus managed to end the cycle of succession and secure his eternal rule over the cosmos.
The genealogies
The first gods
The world began with the spontaneous generation of four beings: first arose Chaos ; then came Gaia, "the ever-sure foundation of all"; "dim" Tartarus, in the depths of the Earth; and Eros "fairest among the deathless gods".From Chaos came Erebus and Nyx. And Nyx "from union in love" with Erebus produced Aether and Hemera. From Gaia came Uranus, the Ourea, and Pontus.
Children of Gaia and Uranus
Uranus mated with Gaia, and she gave birth to the twelve Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronus; the Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes and Arges; and the Hecatoncheires : Cottus, Briareos, and Gyges.Children of Gaia and Uranus' blood, and Uranus' genitals
When Cronus castrated Uranus, from Uranus' blood which splattered onto the earth, came the Erinyes, the Giants, and the Meliai. Cronus threw the severed genitals into the sea, around which foam developed and transformed into the goddess Aphrodite.Descendants of Nyx
Meanwhile, Nyx alone produced children: Moros, Ker, Thanatos, Hypnos, Oneiroi, Momus, Oizys, Hesperides, Moirai, Keres, Nemesis, Apate, Philotes, Geras, and Eris.And from Eris alone, came Ponos, Lethe, Limos, Algea, Hysminai, Makhai, Phonoi, Androktasiai, Neikea, Pseudea, Logoi, Amphillogiai, Dysnomia, Ate, and Horkos.
Descendants of Gaia and Pontus
After Uranus's castration, Gaia mated with her son Pontus producing a descendent line consisting primarily of sea deities, sea nymphs, and hybrid monsters. Their first child Nereus married Doris, one of the Oceanid daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and they produced the Nereids, fifty sea nymphs, which included Amphitrite, Thetis, and Psamathe. Their second child Thaumas married Electra, another Oceanid, and their offspring were Iris and the two Harpies: Aello and Ocypete.Gaia and Pontus' third and fourth children, Phorcys and Ceto, married each other and produced the two Graiae: Pemphredo and Enyo, and the three Gorgons: Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Poseidon mated with Medusa and two offspring, the winged horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor, were born when the hero Perseus cut off Medusa's head. Chrysaor married Callirhoe, another Oceanid, and they produced the three-headed Geryon. Next comes the half-nymph half-snake Echidna. The last offspring of Ceto and Phorcys was a serpent who guards the golden apples.
Descendants of Echidna and Typhon
Gaia also mated with Tartarus to produce Typhon, whom Echidna married, producing several monstrous descendants. Their first three offspring were Orthus, Cerberus, and the Hydra. Next comes the Chimera. Finally Orthus produced two offspring: the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion.Descendants of the Titans
The Titans, Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, and Cronus married their sisters Tethys, Theia, Phoebe and Rhea, and Crius married his half-sister Eurybia, the daughter of Gaia and her son, Pontus. From Oceanus and Tethys came the three thousand river gods and three thousand Oceanid nymphs. From Hyperion and Theia came Helios, Selene, and Eos, and from Crius and Eurybia came Astraios, Pallas, and Perses. From Eos and Astraios came the winds: Zephyrus, Boreas and Notos, Eosphoros, and the Stars. From Pallas and the Oceanid Styx came Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia.From Coeus and Phoebe came Leto and Asteria, who married Perses, producing Hekate, and from Cronus and his older sister, Rhea, came Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. The Titan Iapetos married the Oceanid Clymene and produced Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.
Children of Zeus and his seven partners
mated then with seven goddesses, of whom three - Metis, Themis and Hera - are explicitly stated to be married to him. His first wife was the Oceanid Metis, whom he impregnated with Athena, then, on the advice of Gaia and Uranus, swallowed Metis so that no son of his by Metis would overthrow him, as had been foretold. Zeus' second wife was his aunt the Titan Themis, who bore the three Horae : Eunomia, Dikē, Eirene ; and the three Moirai : Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Zeus then had relationship with another Oceanid, Eurynome, who bore the three Charites : Aglaea, whom Hephaestus married, Euphrosyne, and Thalia.Zeus' fourth partner was his sister, Demeter, who bore Persephone. The fifth partner of Zeus was another aunt, the Titan Mnemosyne, from whom came the nine Muses: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Urania, and Calliope. His sixth partner was the Titan Leto, who gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. Zeus' seventh partner and final wife was his sister Hera, the mother by Zeus of Hebe, Ares, and Eileithyia.
Zeus finally "gave birth" himself to Athena, from his head, which angered Hera so much that she produced, by herself, her own son Hephaestus, god of fire and blacksmiths.