My husband read my blog so far and called it clinical, which wasn’t
my intention. Today, I’m writing at work. I get a lot of down
time, where I can do what I like while waiting for trucks. I test
milk before the milk tankers pump it into the factory for processing.
Today, I have an unexpected redirect of 25000L of milk, which, seeing
as I was scheduled none but have to be here anyway, is a nice
change.
Edition
As I said for Works and Days, I purchased a combined edition that
also included Works and Days, Theogony and the Shield of Heracles.
This was not a penguin classics edition as that only had Works and
Days, and Theogony and I wanted to also look at The Shield of
Heracles and I didn’t want to buy two editions. Heracles of course
being also know as Hercules.
The Story
Theogony is an overview of the Greek creation story and the creation
or birth of the gods. It starts with the god Chaos and then Gaia.
From these two, come all the gods right down to the Olympians. First
comes the likes of Night, Day, Space and Love. These are not the gods
of love and space etc. But rather, these are the embodiment of the
concept; so this is the creation of space and love etc. After that
comes the Titans, the youngest of which is Kronos. After some
monsters are birthed from Gaia and are hidden away from her. Kronos
kills his father Ouranos and his blood gives birth to the Furies. He
is killed by chopping off his genitals and through them in the ocean
from this was birthed Aphrodite. More gods are born, mainly of
physical features of land like rivers and also Poseidon. The Olympian
gods are born, many of which are the children of Kronos and Rhea.
Those that are not are given new jobs and titles when Zeus overthrows
Kronos.
Pandora is a gift to men from Zeus who holds a jar that, when
opened, gives to men all suffering but she manages to keep hope
inside it.
Prometheus angers Zeus by stealing fire and giving it to man. To
punish him Zeus chains him to a rock and has a bird come and eat out
his liver, which regrows, daily.
Reflections
The first thing that really struck me is just how complicated the
“creation”, or birth, of the gods is. There are multiple
generation of, not just the gods, but also of men. There is a series
of kings of the gods and they are killed by their sons; first Kronos
kills Ouranos, then, in time, Zeus kills Kronos in the war between
the Olympians and the Titans.
The second was, that I was unaware Kronos is a Titan. I knew he was
Zeus’ father but did not realise his place in the greater scheme of
things.
Not all of the Olympians are from the same generation, e.g. Aphrodite
is in the same generation as Kronos not Zeus. Zeus raises all those
who fight on his side in the war with the Titans to new positions in
his court with new responsibilities, in so far as the Greek gods have
responsibilities.
Zeus’ anger at Prometheus seems extreme, though in character with
other things we see from Zeus, for it to have no specific end does
not mean it will be truly endless. We see in later texts that
Prometheus is killed ending his suffering. Prometheus is a very
sympathetic character because of his love for mankind.
Comparisons
The creation story presented in this text is rather chaotic, with
gods waring with each other. Compared with the Rig Veda which, while
still pantheistic, is more ordered; we do not see power struggles. In
contrast again, the Bible’s Old Testament is monotheistic and we
see even more unity with God and his spirit working to make creation,
though I guess it is a little hard to go to war with yourself.
While the Rig Veda is still pantheistic, it does not detail even half
as many gods as Theogony lays out for the Greek. It seems, with the
Rig Veda, like the amount of gods increase in later texts, where as
Theogony is more of a definitive list and accounts for even the
creation of the fates.
Have you read the Theogony? If so what did you think?
Does this inspire you to read the Theogony and succeed where I have failed? If so tell me what you think when your done!
Buy a copy of Theogony
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