1. Myths of Creation
Hesiod, Theogony

2. Kyme to Boeotia

3. Biography Dates: c. 750- c. 650 BCE His father: His brother Perses:
Could predate Homer (M.L. West)
His father:
From Kyme, (coast of Asia Minor)
Merchant seaman
Immigrated to Askra, near Mt. Helikon in Boeotia
His brother Perses:
Quarreled with Hesiod over the patrimony
This may be a literary convention
Hesiod:
Claims he was a shepherd
Claims he was inspired by the Muses
Won a prize at Chalkis in Euboea for performing his poem

4. Writings Theogony: Works and Days:
A type of creation myth
Works and Days:
Didactic work on different aspects of Archaic life
Both are poems in dactylic hexameter
Produced at the moment when writing reappears
The mindset, analogues, and sources are Eastern
They belong to the Orientalizing period

5. Eastern Creation Myths
Enuma Elish – Babylonian creation myth
Written in Akkadian c. 1000
Is actually Sumerian and goes back much earlier
Myth of Kumarbi (succession myth)
Hittite from 1200
Origin is Hurrian (2nd millennium)
Theogony is the Hellenized version of these myths

6. Theogony Digressive Unifying Theme Divisions
Groups of divinities are alike
Divinities have children like themselves
Divinities living in the same place are alike
Groups of monsters, personified characters, elements

7. General Characteristics
Outlook more “primitive” than Homer
Primacy of material universe
Gods are secondary
Heaven vs Tartaros in equal struggle
Respect for Order; Fear of reversion to Chaos
Society of Gods:
Divided powers
Hereditary monarchy
Man is subject to:
Material universe
Will of the Gods
Forces of Tartaros
Justice of Zeus: Man will be punished for transgressing it

8. Structure 1-115: Invocation of the Muses
: First Beings: Chaos, Gaia / Ge (Earth), Eros
Progeny of Chaos: Erebos, Night (and offspring)
Progeny of Gaia: Ouranos (Heaven): begins lineage of Zeus
Birth of Mountains
Pontos, Okeanos
Titans – Kronos is the last one
Cyclopes:
Hecatonchires (100-handed monsters): Kottos, Briareos, Gyges
: Castration of Ouranos by Kronos
Erinyes, Giants, Meliae
Birth of Aphrodite
: More progeny, especially monsters
: Hymn to Hekate

9. Structure, cont. 453-506: First Olympian generation
Overthrow of Kronos
From here on, the poem is dominated by Zeus
: Zeus’s first challenger
Prometheus
: Titanomachy
Description of Tartaros
: Zeus’s battle with Typhoeus
: Progeny of Zeus, Olympians, immortals
Genealogies of heroes

10. Structure Four divine generations
Gaia, Ouranos, Kronos, Zeus
Other primary and secondary branches
Transition to anthropomorphic gods, made in man’s image
Anthropomorphic gods of cult: Zeus, Apollo, Hera, Artemis, Titans
Teratomorphic creatures: Echidna, Chimaira, etc.
Elements of nature: Sky, Sea, Night, Mountains
Personified Powers: Death, Sleep, Strife, Victory

11. Structure The movement of the poem: From Physical to Anthropomorphic
From Earth to Sky
From Female to Male
From Chaos to Order
From Lawlessness to Justice
From Savagery to Civilization

12. Ge, Poseidon, Polybotes
Attic red-figure cup by Aristophanes, BCE. Berlin, Antikenmuseen

13. Birth of Aphrodite: the Ludovisi Throne
c Museo Nazionale, Roma

14. Selene visits Endymion
Sarcophagus of Parian Marble, c. 20 CE, from Roman Gaul. Paris, Musée du Louvre.

15. Oidipous and the Sphinx
Attic red-figure kylix, Gregorian Etruscan Museum, the Vatican

16. Gorgon
Temple of Artemis at Corfu, W. Pediment, BCE.

17. Hypnos, Thanatos, Hermes, Sarpedon
Attic Red-figure Calyx-Krater, by Euphronios, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art

18. Herakles and Kerberus
Attic Bilingual Amphora, Musée du Louvre, Paris

19. Herakles and Iolaos fight the Hydra
Attic Red-figure vase, BCE. Palermo, Regional Archaeological Museum

20. Pegasos, Bellerophon, Khimaira
Laconian Black-figure kylix, BCE. Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum

21. Sources Hesiod, Theogony; Works and Days, trans. M. L. West
Oswyn Murray, Early Greece
T. H. Carpenter, Art and Myth in Ancient Greece
Walter Burkert, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
Jean-Pierre Vernant, The Origins of Greek Thought
M. L. West, The West Face of Helicon
Z. Philip Ambrose, Classics, UVM. “Ambrose Collection.”
Alan Segal, Religion, Columbia Univ. Image of Teshub