Hesiod

The Boeotian School

• Epic poetry:– Development (- 10th c. BC)– Maturity (9th c. BC.)– Decline (8th c. BC on)

• Ionian School– Immitative heroic sagas

• Boeotian School– More pragmatic subjects

Legacy

• Works and Days:– Socio-economic treatise– Prometheus and Pandora

• Theogony:– Origins of the world from Chaos– Origins of the gods

• Homeric Hymns:– Songs of praise to individual gods

Theogony

• Chaos• Gaia (Earth)• Eros (Love)• Tartarus (A place beneath Hades)

– It takes nine days to fall from Earth to Tartarus (Theog. 721-23).

Creation from the VoidChaos

Aether (Atmosphere) Hemere (Day)

ErebusA dark place between Earth and Hades

Nux (Night)

Creation from the Void

Gaia (Earth)

Uranus (Heaven) Pontus (Sea)

The Titans:Oceanus, Coeus, Cruis, Hyperion, Iapetus,Theia, Rhea,Themis, Mnemosune, Phoebe, Tethys, Cronus

The Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes, Arges

The First Battle• Heaven was hated by his children• Cronus castrated Heaven and the

blood of Heaven produced:

Erinyes Giants Nymphs

Aphrodite = Eros

DesireCronus then becomes King of the gods and traps his brothers inside Earth

Humans

• Mortals:– Created by the gods when Cronus

reigned– A golden race– Never had to work– Never fought– Everyone died peacefully of old age

Chaos

ErebusA dark place between Earth and Hades

Nux (Night)

Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Blame, Woe, Hesperides, Destinies, Deceit, Friendship, Age, Strife

The Avenging Fates Nemesis

Cronus = Rhea

Heaven = Earth

Hestia HadesHera Demeter Poseidon Zeus

Cronus, fearing his children, swallowed the first five.

Rhea appealed to Heaven and Earth and they protected Zeus and hid him on Crete

Zeus

• Defeated Cronus• Freed his own siblings• Freed the Titans, brothers of Cronus

– As a reward, they gave Zeus the thunder and lightning

– Zeus divided the spheres amongst his brothers:

– Zeus, Heaven: Hades, Underworld: Poseidon, the Sea.

Gaia (Earth)

Uranus (Heaven)

Atlas Menoetius Prometheus Epimetheus

Iapetus (Titan) = Clymene

Oceanus = Tethys

Themis

Titans and Mortals

• Zeus defeated the Titans– Titanomachy– Imprisoned the Titans in Tartarus

• The Silver Race– The Olympian gods made a new race of

mortals.– Silver race were foolish and ungrateful– Zeus destroyed them

Metis = Zeus = Themis

Eurynome = Zeus = Demeter

Charitas Algaea Euphrosune ThaleiaCharity Pain Good Sprit Plenty

Persephone

Athena

Ocean = Tethys

Eunomia Dike EireneOrder Justice Peace

The Hours

Birth of the Muses• Mnemosune (memory) = Zeus

– Clio History– Euterpe Song– Thaleia Comedy– Melpomene Tragedy– Terpsichore Dance– Erato Love Poetry– Polyhymnia Hymns– Urania Astronomy– Calliope Epic Poetry

Jacques Stella ca. 1640

Hebe Ares Eileithyia

Zeus = Hera

Hephaestus

Other Children of Zeus:• Apollo and Artemis by Leto• Hermes by Maia• Dionysus by Semele (a mortal)• Heracles by Alcmena• Eris (competitive spirit) by Nux• The Bronze Mortals

– Violent men who annihilated themselves

The Heroes

• Zeus created a fourth race:• “righteous god-like race”• Some died at Thebes• Some died at Troy• The rest live on the Islands of the

Blessed ruled by Cronos

Fatalism

• The Five Ages– Golden Age– Silver Age– Bronze Age– Age of Heroes– Iron Age:

Mutability of Fortune

• “When presumptuous arrogance swells above mortal measure, Zeus will punish it” (Euipides Heraclidae 387-8).

• The Sun will not overstep his bounds, otherwise the Erinyes, the ministers of Diké, will find him out (Heraclitus i .22.94).

Or Succession Theory?

• When the Iron Age collapses, is it followed by another Golden Age?