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Explore the mythic origins from Chaos to the birth of Aphrodite, including the Titans, Cyclops, and various monsters in Greek mythology. Learn about the intriguing tales of creation and divine beings in the ancient world.
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Chapter Four, Lecture One Myths of Creation Up to the Birth of Aphrodite; Monsters and Sea Deities
“Sing all this to me, Muses, you who dwell on Olympus: from the beginning tell me, which of the gods first came to be.”Hesiod, Theogony (114–5)
The Children of Chaos • Hesiod, Theogony 116-125 • Chaos < Chasm • Gaea, Tartarus • Mythic geography • Olympus/Topmost • Earth/Middle • Tartarus/Bottommost
The Children of Chaos • Eros • Force of sexual attraction • Nyx and Erebus • Features of Chaos? • Nyx • Moerae • Nemesis • Eerbus – Nyx • Aether (Radiance) • Hemera (day)
The Children of Chaos • Is Gaea the mother of all things? • Homeric Myth to Gaea
The Children of Gaea: The Titans and their Cousins • Many beings from the earth • Most important the • Titans • Cyclopes • Heacatonchires
The Titans • Gaea = > Uranus, Mountains, Pontus • Gaea + Uranus
The Titans • Uranos and Gaea in eternal sexual embrace • C.f. Egyptian Nut and Geb
The Titans Thereafter Gaea was bedded with Uranus, lord of heaven, and bore deep-swirling (1)Oceanus, (2)Coeus, (3)Crius, (4)Hyperion, (5)Iapetus, (6)Theia and (7)Rhea, (8)Themis, (9)Mnemnosynê, (10)Phoebê, and fair-featured (11)Tethys. Last of all she gave birth to (12)Cronus, that scheming intriguer, cleverest child of her brood, who hated his lecherous father. Hesiod, Theogony (126–38)
The Titans • Titans six male, six female • Most Titans hardly more than names • Take no role in subsequent Greek myth
The Titans • Oceanus – Tethys • Homer’s alternate cosmology makes them the primordial parents of all the gods • Ancient geography • Oceanus rims the world • Sky is a dome over it • The Oceanids
The Titans • Phoebê = “brilliant,” “shinning” • Themis = “settled law” • Occupied Delphi before Apollo • Zeus + Themis => Mnemosynê • Iapetus = Jepheth (?) • Cronus + Rhea • Parents or grandparents of the Olympians
Cyclops, Hecatonchires • Also children of Gaea and Uranus • Cyclops • Not the Cyclops of Homer (Polyphemos) • Blacksmiths for the gods • Brontes (“Thunderer”), Steropes (“flasher”), Arges (“brightener”)
Cyclops, Hecatonchires • Hecatonchires (“hundred-handers”) • Also fifty heads • Cottus, Briareus, Gyes
Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Hyperion (“he who goes above”) • Father of Helius, another sun god • Selenê (moon) • Eos (dawn) • Homeric Hymn to Helius • The Story of Phaëthon in Ovid 1.750-
Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Clymenê • The hasty promise • Etiology: why the Ethiopians are black • Eridanus (Po) river • Heliades = > poplar trees and golden amber • Phaethon’s fall in art
Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Selenê and Endymion • Endymion placed in eternal sleep • Eos • Tithonus • Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 5
Cronus Against Uranus • Uranus stuffing newly born Titans back into Gaea • Cronus, the youngest, castrates Uranus with a sickle • Blood from the severed genitals becomes the Erinyes
The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters and Sea Deities • Aphrodite springs up from the “foam” at Cythera • Birth of Aphrodite in modern art • Monsters • Altered Egyptian and Mesopotamian archetypes: • Harpies, Sirens, Sphinx
The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters and Sea Deities • Combined human and animal parts • Gorgons, Geryon, Cerberus, Chimera • Natural animals, but with special powers • Ceto, Graeae, Nemaean Lion, Nereus (the Nereids – Thetis)
Next Zeus’s battles | Near Eastern Creation Myths