Hesiod

Theogony and Works and days

Hesiod Theogony and Works and days

• Five [-and-a-half] things:• Author: Hesiod• Title Theogony and Works & Days• Date Late 8th century bc• Location Greece: specifically Ascra• Language Greek

• [textual tradition/edition]Major manuscripts (codices): 10th-16th century; papyri exist

from 2nd c bc (again, scraps from an Oxyrynchus trash heap or mummy bandage) to the 6th century. Hesiod has been preserved for us as the three major poems (the two you're reading plus the Shield of Heracles) as well as other poems (only fragments survive: the ehoie, the megalai ehoie, hymns n stuff). The ehoie, or Catalog of women, was a continuation of the Theogony in 5 books: a catalog of genealogy of heroes descended from gods and the mortal women they coupled with (hence the title and ehoie formula).

Hesiod Theogony and Works and days

• Major literary concerns:• Question of epic: a different kind of writing (didactic /

catalogic)• Mythology versus history again: when do these things happen?• Nostalgia• Male v. female• City v. country• Creation of man• Cycle of infanticide / cannibalism / castration• The muse: telling lies and the truth

Hesiod Theogony and Works and days

Hesiod• Ca. 700 B.C.

Boeotian poet• Theogony “Birth of the

Gods”First literary account of genesis among the Greeks

• Theogony vs. Cosmogony• Works and Days

Creation Story• GENESIS, HESIOD AND OVID

– HEAVEN AND EARTH --> FIRST RECOGNIZABLE ELEMENTS TO COME FROM CHAOS OR THE ABYSS.

• HESIOD– NO CREATOR

• OVID (METAMORPHOSES. 1.1-75):– CHAOS: UNFORMED MASS OF ELEMENTS IN STRIFE BROUGHT

TO ORDER BY A GOD OR SOME HIGHER DIVINE NATURE.• GENESIS, OVID

– GOD CREATES THE HEAVEN AND EARTH FIRST.– GENESIS ADDS MORAL JUDGMENTS OF THINGS AS GOOD OR

BAD.

Hesiod’s genealogyFirst Elements

N ig h t(F e m in in e G e n d e r)

E re b us"U n b rok e n D arkn e ss

o f T a rta ru s"

G e"E a rth"

T a rta rus"U n d e rw o rld "

E ro s"U rg e to p ro c re a te"

C h a os"E m p tin e ss"

"Y a w n ing V o id "

Night and Eros

Ge’s Children

NIGHT=EREBUS (DAY AND AETHER "RADIANCE")

"And there was evening and there was morning, the first day" (Genesis 1.5)

Ge (Ouranos, Mountains, Sea)Parthenogenesis: "virgin birth"

Ge=OuranosHieros Gamos:"sacred marriage" a Sky god and earth goddess

Ge and Ouranos

• 3 Cyclopes• Hecatonchires “hundred-

handers”• 12 Titans

The 12 Titans

OceanusHyperion

Iapetus Coeus (“one who

perceives”)Crius

Theia ("divine")

Phoebe ("brilliant")Tethys ("nourisher")

Themis 3 FatesMnemosyne "memory”

Cronus or SaturnRhea

The Titans

Oceanus =Tethys"nourisher"

3,000 Oceanids

The Titans

Hyperion =Theia ("divine")

Helios (sun)PhaethonSelene (moon)EndymionEos (aurora) DawnTithonus

Helios and his Golden cup

• Greek perception of the universe

The TitansIapetus = Theia ("divine")

Prometheus

Coeus = Phoebe ("brilliant")Leto (mother of Apollo an Artemis)

CriusThemis (Justice) Mother of the 3 FatesMnemosyne "memory” : 9 MusesCronusRhea

Greek Succession Story

• Ouranos (Ge)• Cronus (Rhea)• Zeus

Castration of Uranus

Ge and OuranosCronus

The Mutilation of Uranus by Cronus. Georgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, c. 1560

The birth of Aphrodite

• Aphros “foam born”Aetiological myth

• Cythera• Cyprus• Zeus +Dione

Cronus and Rhea

Cronus devouring his children by Rubens, 1636 Cronus devouring his children,

by Goya. 1823 Madrid, Prado Museum.

The birth of Zeus

• Zeus, Crete, Mt. Dicte• Kuretes, goat Amalthea

and Melissa ‘bee”)

The birth of Athena

• Zeus = Metis "wisdom"

• Zeus gives birth to Athena

Themes of the Succession story

• Ge gives birth (asexually)• Ge is replaced by a line of male descendants• Females plot with their sons• Zeus gives birth to Athena• Zeus imposes order on a chaotic world and

maintains it by virtue of his superior physical and mental power.

• Matriarchy Patriarchy Males take over the female function of giving birth

Prominent Themes

• Conflict• Male vs. female• Generational struggle• Violence

Titanomachy (“battle of the Titans”)

Zeus’ allies Zeus’s enemiesHestia Titans (except

Prometheus)DemeterHeraPoseidon100-handersCyclopes

Atlas

Zeus and the Giants

• Zeus vs. Giants (gegeneis "earth-born")

• Typhon or Typhoeus (Mt. Etna)

Zeus

• Roman: Jupiter or Jove "bright"

• thunderbolt, scepter

Temples of Zeus

Dodona

Olympia

Hera

Zeus and Hera

hieros gamos

Eileithyia (childbirth) Hebe (Youth) Ares

Ares =Aphrodite (Eros)Hephaestus

Eileithyia

Hebe

Ares

• Phobos, "panic" Deimos, "fear"

• Roman Mars• agricultural deity

worshiped by Italian tribes• associated with spring

(regeneration and growth)--March

Hephaestus• God of smiths

Lemnos• Vulcan

god of fire destructive

Velazque Diego Rodriguea de Silvay - Museo del Prado, Madrid

Ganymede and Zeus

Zeus' Divine Love Affairs

• Zeus and Metis (power and wisdom)

• Zeus and Thetis (Peleus) Achilles

• Zeus and ThemisFatesClotho, Lachesis and

Atropos) • Zeus= Mnemosyne

(9 Muses)

Zeus’ mortal lovers

Zeus and Io Hermes, Argus,

Argeiphontes Epaphus of Argos

Europa and DanaeMinos Perseus

Zeus and Leda

Helen and the Dioscuri

Zeus' promiscuity reflects:

• Absolute freedom of males in a patriarchal society

• Wish fulfillment fantasy of inexhaustible virility • Wish to establish descent from Father Sky

Zeus as a new ruler according to Hesiod

• Zeus and Justice Xenios Zeus (philoxenia "hospitality")

• Uses diplomacy and eloquence as opposed to physical violence

• Punishes/represses: Titans, TyphonPrometheus

• Rechannels the power of: Athena, the Cyclopes, the 100-handers

• Fathers new forces of good: Muses, Athena, Justice, Graces

The creation of man• Man created by

Prometheus by mixing earth and water (Ovid, Met. 1. 100-120)

• Zeus (Athena)Prometheus 'forethinker’Epimetheus'after-thinker'

Prometheus, Piero di Cosimo, c. 1515

The Five Ages of Man

1) Age of Gold (Cronus) 2) Age of Silver 3) Age of Bronze 4) Age of Heroes (Homer/Trojan War) 5) Age of Iron (Hesiod)

Prometheus and the Sacrifice Dispute

Hesiod, Works and Days

Hesiod's Prometheus: a trickster

The theft of fireGreek ritual of sacrificeOlympian vs. Chthonian Sacrifice

Sequence of events according to Hesiod (523-536)

• Sacrifice trick • Zeus hides "power of fire" from men. • Prometheus steals fire back. • Zeus has Pandora made, "an evil to balance

the good" (l. 587) of fire. • Prometheus punished (l. 617-620).

Pandora All gifted or all-giver

Prometheus chained by VulcanBaburen, c. 1623

Prometheus’ punishment

Prometheus on Mt. Caucasus

Pandora in Works and Days (lines 60-105)

• Created by Hephaestus• Athena taught her needlework and weaving (63-4); • Aphrodite "shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares

that weary the limbs" (65-6); • Hermes gave her "a shameful mind and deceitful nature" (67-77) and

the power of speech, putting in her "lies and crafty words" (77-80) ; • Persuasion and the Charites (Graces) adorned her with necklaces;• the Horae adorned her with a garland crown (75); • Hermes gave her her name• Pandora brings with her a jar containing "burdensome toil and

sickness that brings death to men, diseases and a myriad other pains.”

Pandora’s box• Pandora and Eve (Helen):

etiological explanation• Hope?

Hesiod Works and days

• OWC ed. – some page notes– 37

• Muses• Zeus• Eris = Strife (diff. kinds) (cf. p. 9)• Singer singer

– 38• Disputes and our dispute• The infants• Prometheus’ trick (cf. p. 19-20)

Hesiod Works and days

• Book notes– 39

• 3 tales of ill: Pandora– 40-42

• And the ages of man– 42-43

• And the theodicy of the hawk and the nightingale– 43

• Dike (straight judgment) and link with xenia

Hesiod Works and days

• Book notes– 44

• Agriculture v. mercantilism– 45-46

• Gods give Right and Sweat– 46-47

• Gods’ gifts and human obligation– 48-50

• An emphasis on agriculture

Hesiod Works and days

• Book notes– 51

• Choice of working or begging– 53

• An emphasis on dress– 55

• Viticulture– 56

• Ships– 58

• More theodicy: punishment and poverty