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GREEK PHILOSOPHY I | CLASS 4: SEP 14, 2015 HESIOD DR. MICHAEL GRIFFIN CLASSICS & PHILOSOPHY S O C R AT E S . A R T S . U B C . C A / 2 1 1 T O D AY • The poets’ world-view, cont’d • Causes: review • Hesiod: Works & Days BUST OF HOMER The Poets’ World-View PA R T I I I : U N D E R S TA N D I N G C A U S E S ( A I T I A ) REVIEW CAUSES • Iliad: The gods are primarily responsible/causal (aitios)? • Early Greek science begins here: gods subsequently naturalized, made predictable and regular • Odyssey: We humans are primarily responsible/causal (aitios) • Early Greek ethics begins here: how to use our freedom? How fragile is our goodness and happiness? • Later Greek literature and philosophy continues to investigate aitia in both ways • NB: Determinism vs Freedom • Or: are these compatible views? (Compatibilism) Homer’s Odyssey (AT 1) • The gods allow us to choose, but caution against the potential harm that may result from our choices. (They neither cause nor prevent the fruits of our acts, but hubris will yield nemesis). • Compare Iliad 3.164: I am not blaming you [Helen] (ou ti moi aitiê essi): to me the gods are blameworthy (theoi…aitioi). Are the gods aitia? • The gods can intervene on behalf of deserving human beings. Humans have a complex reciprocal relationship with the gods that determines their favour. The Poets’ World View PA R T I V : H E S I O D H E S I O D ’ S TA L E • Hesiod: A farmer-poet • Boeotia, Greece, 8th century BCE NB: PRECISE DATES IN 211 & PLACES NOT TESTED • Author of two epic poems HESIOD (PS.-SENECA), ROMAN BRONZE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF NAPLES • Theogony: beginning of the world • Works & Days: advice on human life BOEOTIA IN GREECE H E S I O D ’ S TA L E • Hesiod: A farmer-poet • Boeotia, Greece, 8th century BCE NB: PRECISE DATES IN 211 & PLACES NOT TESTED • Author of two epic poems HESIOD (PS.-SENECA), ROMAN BRONZE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF NAPLES • Theogony: beginning of the world NB: Optional material • Works & Days: advice on human life BOEOTIA IN GREECE The Muses [said]… ’Oh you shepherds of the fields, base and lowly things, little more than bellies, we know how to tell many falsehoods that seem like truths, but we also know, when we so desire, how to utter the absolute truth’. Plucking a branch, to me [the Muses] gave a staff of laurel… and into me they breathed a divine voice, so that I might celebrate both the things that are to be and the things that were before; and they ordered me to honour, in my song, the race of the blessed gods who exist forever, but always to sing of… the Muses, both first and last. –HESIOD, THEOGONY 22-34 T H E F I R S T G E N E R AT I O N Verily, very first of all Chaos came into being, but then wide-bosomed Gaia, secure foundation of all forever, and dark Tartarus in the depth of the broad land, and Eros, the most beautiful of all the immortal gods, who loosens the limbs and overwhelms judgement and wise counsel in the breast of the gods and all humans. From Chaos, Erebus [the gloom of Tartarus] and black Night came into being. –HESIOD, THEOGONY 116-125 T H E F I R S T G E N E R AT I O N –HESIOD, THEOGONY 116-125 From Night were born Aether [the upper atmosphere] and Day (hēmera), whom Night bore when she became pregnant after mingling in love with Erebus. –HESIOD, THEOGONY 116-125 T H E F I R S T G E N E R AT I O N (Day) –HESIOD, THEOGONY 116-125 The World of Hesiod The World of Hesiod Chaos (A space) The World of Hesiod Er ōs Earth (Gaia) Chaos (A space) Tartarus The World of Hesiod Er ōs Earth (Gaia) Chaos (A space) Erebus Tartarus The World of Hesiod Er ōs Earth (Gaia) ht ig N Chaos (A space) Erebus Tartarus The World of Hesiod Aether Er ōs Earth (Gaia) ht ig N Chaos (A space) Erebus Tartarus The World of Hesiod Aether Er Da ōs y Earth (Gaia) ht ig N Chaos (A space) Erebus Tartarus Gaia then brought forth starry Uranus, equal to herself, so that he might surround and cover her completely and be a secure home for the blessed gods forever. And she brought forth the lofty mountain ranges, charming haunts of the divine nymphs who inhabit the hills and dales. Ands he also bore, without the sweet union of love, Pontus, the barren deep, with its raging surf. –HESIOD, THEOGONY 126-32 (MLS 64) The World of Hesiod Aether *** Ouranos Earth (Gaia) Tartarus Er ōs But then Gaia lay with Ouranos and bore the deep-eddying Ocean… –HESIOD, THEOGONY 147-56 The World of Hesiod Works & Days 720-61 Aether *** Ouranos Er ōs 10 days’ fall Earth (Gaia) Ocean 10 days’ fall Tartarus Nut – Reproduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goddess_nut.jpg Map of the cosmos – Egypt Waters (nu) Nut – Reproduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goddess_nut.jpg Sky (nut) Sun-Barque Duat (Underworld) EVENTS WITHIN THIS WORLD • The Titans overthrow the old powers • Ouranos forces his children into Gaia • Gaia and Kronos conspire to overthrow Ouranos • Kronos and Rhea rule as king and queen • The Olympians overthrow the Titans • Kronos devours his children • Zeus, his youngest, is spared by a stratagem • Zeus overthrows Kronos and ensures the reign of justice in the cosmos H E S I O D ’ S TA L E • Hesiod: A farmer-poet • Boeotia, Greece, 8th century BCE NB: PRECISE DATES IN 211 & PLACES NOT TESTED • Author of two epic poems HESIOD (PS.-SENECA), ROMAN BRONZE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF NAPLES • Theogony: beginning of the world • Works & Days: advice on human life NB: In AT 1 BOEOTIA IN GREECE 1. The Poets: Homer and Hesiod Hesiod’s Works and Days 163-217 (AT 1d) Read AT 1d The Golden Age, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1862) 1. The Poets: Homer and Hesiod Hesiod’s Works and Days 163-217 (AT 1d) • Human culture has descended from a golden age of proximity to the gods, to a silver age, a bronze age, an age of heroes (like Achilles and Odysseus), and finally to our iron age. • In this age people will maintain that “might makes right”. • But they are mistaken, because “hubris surrenders to justice,” which is guaranteed by Zeus. 1. The Poets: Homer and Hesiod Hesiod’s Works and Days 163-217 (AT 1d) Hesiod, Works & Days 205-217: The Hawk & Nightingale Piteously she, transfixed by his crooked claws, was lamenting When the imperious hawk addressed her in arrogant parlance, "Why, little lady, such shrieks? One stronger than you now has got you; Where you are going I'll take you myself, though you are a songstress, For as I please I'll make you my dinner or give you your freedom. Witless is one who attempts to strive against those who are stronger: When he is stripped of the prize it's injury added to insult." Thus said the fast-flying hawk, that bird with the generous wing-span. Pay more attention to justice and curb high-handedness, [brother]; Violence ill suits men who are lowly; not even the noble Man can lightly endure it; it weighs on a person who's fallen Into affliction. It's better to take your way on the other Road which conduces to right. For outrage (hubris) surrenders to justice (dikē)…