640 likes | 924 Views
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. Hesiod Theogony and Works and days.
E N D
Hesiod Theogonyand Works and days
Hesiod Theogonyand 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
Hesiod Theogony and Works and days • [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 megalaiehoie, 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 • 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.
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=Ouranos HierosGamos:"sacred marriage" a Sky god and earth goddess
Ge and Ouranos • 3 Cyclopes • Hecatonchires “hundred-handers” • 12 Titans
The 12 Titans Oceanus Hyperion Iapetus Coeus (“one who perceives”) Crius Theia ("divine") • Phoebe ("brilliant") • Tethys ("nourisher") • Themis 3 Fates • Mnemosyne "memory” • Cronus or Saturn • Rhea
The Titans Oceanus =Tethys"nourisher" 3,000 Oceanids
The Titans Hyperion =Theia ("divine") Helios (sun) Phaethon Selene (moon) Endymion Eos (aurora) Dawn Tithonus
Helios and his Golden cup • Greek perception of the universe
The Titans Iapetus = Theia ("divine") Prometheus Coeus = Phoebe ("brilliant") Leto (mother of Apollo an Artemis) Crius Themis (Justice) Mother of the 3 Fates Mnemosyne "memory” : 9 Muses Cronus Rhea
Greek Succession Story • Ouranos (Ge) • Cronus (Rhea) • Zeus
Castration of Uranus Ge and Ouranos Cronus The Mutilation of Uranus by Cronus. GeorgioVasari 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
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
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
Zeus' Divine Love Affairs • Zeus and Metis (power and wisdom) • Zeus and Thetis (Peleus) Achilles • Zeus and Themis Fates Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos) • Zeus= Mnemosyne (9 Muses)
Zeus’ mortal lovers Zeus and Io Hermes, Argus, Argeiphontes Epaphus of Argos
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, Typhon Prometheus • 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'