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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
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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 Void
Chaos
Erebus
Nux (Night)
A dark place between
Earth and Hades
Aether (Atmosphere)
Hemere (Day)
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
Desire
Cronus 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
Erebus
Nux (Night)
A dark place between
Earth and Hades
Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Blame, Woe,
Hesperides, Destinies, Deceit, Friendship, Age,
Strife
The Avenging Fates
Nemesis
Heaven = Earth
Cronus = Rhea
Hestia
Hera Demeter Hades 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)
Oceanus = Tethys
Iapetus (Titan) = Clymene
Atlas
Menoetius
Themis
Prometheus
Epimetheus
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
Ocean = Tethys
Metis = Zeus = Themis
Athena
The Hours
Eunomia Dike Eirene
Order
Justice
Eurynome = Zeus
Peace
=
Demeter
Charitas Algaea Euphrosune Thaleia
Charity
Pain
Good Sprit
Plenty
Persephone
Birth of the Muses
• Mnemosune (memory) = Zeus
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Clio
Euterpe
Thaleia
Melpomene
Terpsichore
Erato
Polyhymnia
Urania
Calliope
History
Song
Comedy
Tragedy
Dance
Love Poetry
Hymns
Astronomy
Epic Poetry
Jacques Stella ca. 1640
Zeus
Hebe
Ares
=
Eileithyia
Hera
Hephaestus
Other Children of Zeus:
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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
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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
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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?