Creation in Hesiod s Theogony Author Hesiod Culture Greek Summary lines 1 115 Hesiod invokes the muses to inspire him Invocation to Muses Creation Myth Line 116 Hesiod begins his Theogony Four primal first gods Chaos chasm empty space Gaia earth Tartaros empty pit prison under Gaia Eros Sex Chaos produces Erebos later Hades and Night through parthenogenesis Erebos and Night produce Air and Day Night is parent of Day through the first sexual reproduction Gaia creates Ouranos binatural Sky Mountains and Sea through parthenogenesis Gaia and Ouranos produce 3 sets of children together Titans 12 including Okeanos binatural Ocean Kronos and Rhea Cyclopes 3 thunderbolts master craftsman and Hundred handers 3 monstrous gods with 50 heads and 100 arms Succession Myth Father is overthrown by son to become king of gods Ouranos to Kronos to Zeus Zeus ends the cycle Theogony is the story of how Zeus becomes and stays king o Ouranos and Kronos Ouranos Sky is king of the gods he became king as soon as he was born parthenogenically from Gaia and didn t depose anyone Gaia and Ouranos produce the Titans but Ouranos doesn t want them to be born so he stuffs them back inside Gaia earth Gaia wants revenge she asks her children inside of her which wants to take revenge on Ouranos Kronos says he will and lies in wait A sickle of adamant is produced from Gaia Since Ouranos is the sky he has to come down when he wants to sleep with Gaia Kronos jumps out of Gaia and castrates Ouranos with a sickle separation of earth and sky explanation for why earth and sky are split Kronos throws Ouranos genitals behind his back Drops of blood from Ouranos genitals fall on the earth Gaia The Erinyes Furies spirits of blood vengeance Giants earth born often enemies of the gods violent due to being born from an act of violence and Meliae Ash tree nymphs ash trees are used for spears spears and Meliae are associated with an act of bloodshed are born from Ouranos blood and Gaia Ouranos genitals sail through the air and finally land in the sea Aphrodite aphros foam false etymology is born from sea foam surrounding Ouranos genitals but other sources say Zeus Dione Aphrodite Kronos and Zeus Kronos became king of the gods as soon as he castrated his father Ouranos Kronos and his sister earth goddess Rhea produce the older Olympians Zeus Poseidon Hades Hera Demeter Hestia Kronos hears a prophecy from Gaia Ouranos that Kronos will be overthrown by his son Kronos doesn t want his children to be born so he swallows them whole as Rhea gives birth to 5 6 of them Poseidon Hades Hera Demeter Hestia not Zeus Gaia tells Rhea to give Kronos a stone so he thinks it s Zeus and swallows it and then to hide Zeus on Crete Zeus goes up big and strong on Crete and makes Kronos regurgitate the stone and his children Now Zeus is the first born instead of last his siblings had to be reborn from Kronos The stone is placed at Delphi center of the world sacred to Apollo and becomes sacred stone omphalos navel Zeus throws Kronos into Tartaros bc in Greek mythology gods are immortal and don t die Zeus frees the Cyclopes from Tartaros they were thrown there by Ouranos The Cyclopes are Zeus uncles and produce his thunderbolts Zeus is king of the gods and a serial adulterer Kumarbi Cycle Succession Myths in Theogony o o SIMILARITIES 1 The castration of the sky Anu Ouranos 2 Stone biting swallowing Kumarbi bites a stone Kronos swallows a stone 3 The stone was in place of a storm god Tessub Zeus 4 The storm god is triumphant and becomes king These similarities could be from a shared mythic tradition in Anatolia Hesiod s father is from Cyme in Anatolia so Hesiod could have heard the basic stories orally Kumarbi Cycle has one earlier generation of gods before sky god Kumarbi Alalu Anu sky Kumarbi Tessub storm Theogony Ouranos sky Kronos Zeus storm Threats to Zeus Rule in Theogony o Titanomachy battle with Titans with Olympians Zeus vs Titans Battle lasts 10 years Olympians had Mt Olympus physical mountain where gods live you can go as well as heaven up in the sky somewhere Titans had Mt Othrys Gaia Zeus grandmother advises Zeus to free the Hundred handers Zeus uncles apparently imprisoned by Ouranos from Tartaros Zeus thunderbolts and winds plus the Hundred handers throw boulders are able to defeat the Titans Zeus throws the Titans into Tartaros and Threat 1 to Zeus is averted o o Metis cleverness binatural early mate of Zeus Metis becomes pregnant and Zeus hears a prophecy that his son by Metis will overthrow his father So Zeus swallows Metis whole he has cleverness inside of him so he is clever smart No son is born from Metis but a daughter Athena craftiness military strategy is born from Zeus head Since no son is born from Metis threat 2 averted Typhoios Typhoeus Typhon born from Gaia Tartaros Typhoios is a 100 headed fire breathing dragon god sounds hissing bull lion puppies born from earth Zeus lightning vs Typhoios fire Typhoios is defeated and thrown into Tartaros combat myth storm god vs dragon like monster cf Tiamat Yam Leviathan Rahab Battle of order vs chaos In Greece serpents associated with earth can be positive Typhoios was born from Gaia has no connection to water Unlike in the Anicent Near East serpents associated with primordial waters sea Tessub vs Ullikummi Ullikummi s connection to the sea he sits on Ubelurri s shoulder and Ubelurri is under the sea bed Library was a Greek mythological handbook Apollodorus version of Zeus vs Typhon written in prose It is pesudo Apollodorus attributed to him but can t have actually been written by him bc it was written before he was born In Zeus vs Typhon Typhon is born from Ge Gaia and Tartaros and is 100 headed fire breathing dragon Typhon flees from and is wounded by Zeus using thunderbolts sickle Typhon turns the tables and attacks Zeus grabs the sickle from him and uses it to strip Zeus hands and feet of sinews which he deposits in a cave guarded by Delphine dragoness Hermes gets Zeus his sinews back and his power is restored Zeus attacks Typon with his thunderbolts When he defeats Typhon Zeus pushes Mt Aitna on top of him Mt Aitna is volcanic because of the thunderbolts Zeus used to defeat Typhon This is like the second version of the Illuyanka myths the storm god is defeated by serpentine monster Illuyanka and stripped of heart and eyes but gets it back Terms Hesiod o Author of Theogony o Greek poet Father was from Kyme so Hesiod has Anatolian connections o o Myths could have come from Anatolia
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