Lane Cervantes Response 3 1 Hamilton believes that the first 104 lines of the poem represent the proem of the Theogony In this part of the poem Hesiod gives readers insight into the background of the gods and goddesses by way of the Muses songs This serves as an introduction to the main part of the poem 2 The program of Hesiod s Theogony begins at line 116 However it is not apparent where this section ends It takes up quite a large part of the poem though It generally is seen as a genealogical outline by critics It discusses the story of Gaia Earth and Uranus Sky and the birth of their children It then proceeds to explain the story of Kronos and the Titans 3 There are a number of digressions and they fall into different categories The first are non narrative digressions These tend to involve Zeus s distribution of honors These serve the purpose of diverting attention from the usual distribution of the honors The second digression category is the narrative digression These are chronologically and genealogically separate from the rest of the poem 4 Hesiod glorifies Zeus in a number of ways For example he deliberately modifies the traditional story of Prometheus in order to give praise to Zeus He also modifies the story of the Titanomachy in order to give Zeus a more prominent role
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