Theogony | work by Hesiod (2024)

In Hesiod

…complete epics have survived, the Theogony, relating the myths of the gods, and the Works and Days, describing peasant life.

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  • study of religion
    • Theogony | work by Hesiod (1)

      In study of religion: Early attempts to study religion

      …chaotic Greek tradition was the Theogony of the Greek poet Hesiod (flourished c. 700 bce), who rather laboriously put together the genealogies of the gods. His work remains an important source book of ancient myth. The rise of speculative philosophy among the Ionian philosophers, especially Thales of Miletus, Heracleitus

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  • views on dualism
    • Theogony | work by Hesiod (2)

      In dualism: Greece and the Hellenistic world

      …found in the early Greek Theogony of Hesiod in his myths of the gods Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus and the conflict between primordial and later gods. It was in the later, Classical Greek world, however, that dualism was most evident. Many of the pre-Socratic philosophers (6th and 5th centuries bce)…

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  • literature

      • Greek
        • Theogony | work by Hesiod (3)

          In Greek literature: Epic narrative

          Hesiod’s other surviving poem, the Theogony, attempts a systematic genealogy of the gods and recounts many myths associated with their part in the creation of the universe.

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      • interpretation of creation
        • Theogony | work by Hesiod (4)

          In fable, parable, and allegory: Allegory

          …Greek poet Hesiod in his Theogony (and the later Roman version of the same event given in Ovid’s Metamorphoses). The two traditions thus start with an adequate source of cosmic imagery, and both envisage a universe full of mysterious signs and symbolic strata. But thereafter the two cultures diverge. This…

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      mythology

        Greek

        • Theogony | work by Hesiod (5)

          In Greek religion: Cosmogony

          …cosmogonies in Archaic Greece, Hesiod’s Theogony is the only one that has survived in more than fragments. It records the generations of the gods from Chaos (literally, “Yawning Gap”) through Zeus and his contemporaries to the gods who had two divine parents (e.g., Apollo and Artemis, born of Zeus and…

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        • Theogony | work by Hesiod (6)

          In Greek mythology: The works of Hesiod: Theogony and Works and Days

          The fullest and most important source of myths about the origin of the gods is the Theogony of Hesiod (c. 700 bce). The elaborate genealogies mentioned above are accompanied by folktales and etiological myths. The Works and Days shares some…

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        • Theogony | work by Hesiod (7)

          In Greek mythology: Myths of origin

          …though the aim of Hesiod’s Theogony is to describe the ascendancy of Zeus (and, incidentally, the rise of the other gods), the inclusion of such familiar themes as the hostility between the generations, the enigma of woman (Pandora), the exploits of the friendly trickster (Prometheus), and the struggles against powerful…

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        • Latinus
          • In Latinus

            …Hesiod (7th century bc), in Theogony, calls him the son of the Greek hero Odysseus and the enchantress Circe. The Roman poet Virgil, in the Aeneid, makes him the son of the Roman god Faunus and the nymph Marica. Latinus was a shadowy personality who was perhaps invented to explain…

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        Mediterranean

          • Aphrodite
            • Theogony | work by Hesiod (8)

              In Aphrodite

              …and Hesiod relates in his Theogony that Aphrodite was born from the white foam produced by the severed genitals of Uranus (Heaven), after his son Cronus threw them into the sea. Aphrodite was, in fact, widely worshipped as a goddess of the sea and of seafaring; she was also honoured…

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          • Eros
            • Theogony | work by Hesiod (9)

              In Eros

              In the Theogony of Hesiod (fl. 700 bce), Eros was a primeval god, son of Chaos, the original primeval emptiness of the universe, but later tradition made him the son of Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love and beauty, by either Zeus (the king of the gods), Ares…

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          • Titans
            • Theogony | work by Hesiod (10)

              In Titan

              According to Hesiod’s Theogony, there were 12 original Titans: the brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. At the instigation of Gaea the Titans rebelled against their father, who had shut them up in the underworld (Tartarus).…

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          • Uranus
          • Chaos
            • In Chaos

              Both concepts occur in the Theogony of Hesiod. First there was Chaos in Hesiod’s system, then Gaea and Eros (Earth and Desire). Chaos, however, did not generate Gaea; the offspring of Chaos were Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx. Nyx begat Aether, the bright upper air, and Day. Nyx later begat the…

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          • Hittite
            • Theogony | work by Hesiod (11)

              In epic: Eastern influences

              …divine kingship told in the Theogony of Hesiod and elsewhere is paralleled in a Hittite version of a Hurrian myth. In it, Anu, Kumarbi, and the storm god respectively, parallel Uranus, Cronos, and Zeus in the Theogony. The Hittites had continuous diplomatic relations with the Achaeans of Greece, whose princes…

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          Theogony

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          work by Hesiod

          Learn about this topic in these articles:

          Assorted References

          • discussed in biography
            • Theogony | work by Hesiod (19)

              In Hesiod

              …complete epics have survived, the Theogony, relating the myths of the gods, and the Works and Days, describing peasant life.

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          • study of religion
            • Theogony | work by Hesiod (20)

              In study of religion: Early attempts to study religion

              …chaotic Greek tradition was the Theogony of the Greek poet Hesiod (flourished c. 700 bce), who rather laboriously put together the genealogies of the gods. His work remains an important source book of ancient myth. The rise of speculative philosophy among the Ionian philosophers, especially Thales of Miletus, Heracleitus

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          • views on dualism
            • Theogony | work by Hesiod (21)

              In dualism: Greece and the Hellenistic world

              …found in the early Greek Theogony of Hesiod in his myths of the gods Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus and the conflict between primordial and later gods. It was in the later, Classical Greek world, however, that dualism was most evident. Many of the pre-Socratic philosophers (6th and 5th centuries bce)…

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          literature

            • Greek
              • Theogony | work by Hesiod (22)

                In Greek literature: Epic narrative

                Hesiod’s other surviving poem, the Theogony, attempts a systematic genealogy of the gods and recounts many myths associated with their part in the creation of the universe.

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            • interpretation of creation
              • Theogony | work by Hesiod (23)

                In fable, parable, and allegory: Allegory

                …Greek poet Hesiod in his Theogony (and the later Roman version of the same event given in Ovid’s Metamorphoses). The two traditions thus start with an adequate source of cosmic imagery, and both envisage a universe full of mysterious signs and symbolic strata. But thereafter the two cultures diverge. This…

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            mythology

              Greek

              • Theogony | work by Hesiod (24)

                In Greek religion: Cosmogony

                …cosmogonies in Archaic Greece, Hesiod’s Theogony is the only one that has survived in more than fragments. It records the generations of the gods from Chaos (literally, “Yawning Gap”) through Zeus and his contemporaries to the gods who had two divine parents (e.g., Apollo and Artemis, born of Zeus and…

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              • Theogony | work by Hesiod (25)

                In Greek mythology: The works of Hesiod: Theogony and Works and Days

                The fullest and most important source of myths about the origin of the gods is the Theogony of Hesiod (c. 700 bce). The elaborate genealogies mentioned above are accompanied by folktales and etiological myths. The Works and Days shares some…

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              • Theogony | work by Hesiod (26)

                In Greek mythology: Myths of origin

                …though the aim of Hesiod’s Theogony is to describe the ascendancy of Zeus (and, incidentally, the rise of the other gods), the inclusion of such familiar themes as the hostility between the generations, the enigma of woman (Pandora), the exploits of the friendly trickster (Prometheus), and the struggles against powerful…

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              • Latinus
                • In Latinus

                  …Hesiod (7th century bc), in Theogony, calls him the son of the Greek hero Odysseus and the enchantress Circe. The Roman poet Virgil, in the Aeneid, makes him the son of the Roman god Faunus and the nymph Marica. Latinus was a shadowy personality who was perhaps invented to explain…

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              Mediterranean

                • Aphrodite
                  • Theogony | work by Hesiod (27)

                    In Aphrodite

                    …and Hesiod relates in his Theogony that Aphrodite was born from the white foam produced by the severed genitals of Uranus (Heaven), after his son Cronus threw them into the sea. Aphrodite was, in fact, widely worshipped as a goddess of the sea and of seafaring; she was also honoured…

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                • Eros
                  • Theogony | work by Hesiod (28)

                    In Eros

                    In the Theogony of Hesiod (fl. 700 bce), Eros was a primeval god, son of Chaos, the original primeval emptiness of the universe, but later tradition made him the son of Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love and beauty, by either Zeus (the king of the gods), Ares…

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                • Titans
                  • Theogony | work by Hesiod (29)

                    In Titan

                    According to Hesiod’s Theogony, there were 12 original Titans: the brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. At the instigation of Gaea the Titans rebelled against their father, who had shut them up in the underworld (Tartarus).…

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                • Uranus
                  • In Uranus

                    According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Gaea (Earth), emerging from primeval Chaos, produced Uranus, the Mountains, and the Sea. From Gaea’s subsequent union with Uranus were born the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires.

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                • Chaos
                  • In Chaos

                    Both concepts occur in the Theogony of Hesiod. First there was Chaos in Hesiod’s system, then Gaea and Eros (Earth and Desire). Chaos, however, did not generate Gaea; the offspring of Chaos were Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx. Nyx begat Aether, the bright upper air, and Day. Nyx later begat the…

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                • Hittite
                  • Theogony | work by Hesiod (30)

                    In epic: Eastern influences

                    …divine kingship told in the Theogony of Hesiod and elsewhere is paralleled in a Hittite version of a Hurrian myth. In it, Anu, Kumarbi, and the storm god respectively, parallel Uranus, Cronos, and Zeus in the Theogony. The Hittites had continuous diplomatic relations with the Achaeans of Greece, whose princes…

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                Theogony | work by Hesiod (2024)

                FAQs

                What is the purpose of Hesiod's Theogony? ›

                literature. Hesiod's other surviving poem, the Theogony, attempts a systematic genealogy of the gods and recounts many myths associated with their part in the creation of the universe.

                What is the Theogony summary? ›

                Descriptions. Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. It is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony.

                What did Hesiod say about the gods? ›

                Tell how at the first gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods who were born of them, givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth, and how they shared their honours amongst them, and also how at the ...

                What is the prophecy of the Theogony? ›

                In the Theogony, when Zeus eats Metis due to a prophecy that she will bear a son that will be even more powerful than he, it says "But Zeus put her into his own belly first, that the goddess might devise for him both good and evil." what's that mean? so that the goddess might advise him on good and evil.

                What is the main lesson of the Theogony? ›

                The major theme of "Theogony" is that the world is harsh and the earliest origins of the cosmos are chaotic and violent. While his account covers how the universe becomes more ordered as generations of the gods come into being, the gods themselves remain violent.

                How were humans created in Hesiod's Theogony? ›

                With the story of Pandora, Hesiod recounts the creation myths, from the birth of the gods to early man, within the Theogony. In Works and Days, his other poem, Hesiod states that mankind was created multiple times by both the Titans and the Olympian gods.

                How does Hesiod's Theogony end? ›

                With the rise of Zeus to supremacy and the birth of his many children, the poem ends and does not address the continued struggles between mankind and the gods. Much of what is known today concerning early Greek mythology comes from Hesiod's work and that other great Greek poet Homer.

                Is Theogony worth reading? ›

                The Theogony is one of those works that indicates such a depth of meaning. It is, of course, an essential source of Greek mythology, but it also ties in well with other traditions besides just the Greek. Highly recommended reading.

                What are important themes in Theogony? ›

                Key elements and themes found in “Theogony” include:

                Chaos and the Primordial Forces: The narrative begins with Chaos, a void or abyss, giving rise to Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (Underworld), and Eros (Love). These primordial forces set the stage for the unfolding cosmic drama.

                Who is Medusa according to Hesiod? ›

                Like all myths, the story of Medusa is one that has changed over time. In Hesiod's early ancient Greek poem Theogony (dated to around 700 BCE), she is one of three sisters, the Gorgons, who are so terrifying that those who look on them turn to stone.

                Does Hesiod's Theogony have a moral lesson? ›

                Final answer: Hesiod's Theogony carries themes reflecting power dynamics and societal values of ancient Greek society, albeit indirectly. It doesn't possess a direct moral lesson but retrospectively evaluated, one can deduce multiple ethical themes based on societal structure and the nature of divine figures.

                What did Hesiod mean by chaos? ›

                Chaos, a Greek term translated as "chasm" by West, is the first being to come into existence in Hesiod's Theogony. In the Greek, it is essentially a great abyss, and empty, formless, and infinite space, not at all like our notion of things out of order.

                What is the summary of the Theogony? ›

                Theogony Summary. The Theogony details the genealogy of ancient Greek gods, from the beginning of the universe through the Olympian gods and various monsters and heroes descended from them.

                Who is Heaven in Theogony? ›

                Heaven is born from Earth during the initial pages of the Theogony, and goes on to father several children with her, including Kronos and Rhea.

                What is Hesiod famous for? ›

                Hesiod (flourished c. 700 bc) was one of the earliest Greek poets, often called the “father of Greek didactic poetry.” Two of his complete epics have survived, the Theogony, relating the myths of the gods, and the Works and Days, describing peasant life.

                What was the purpose of the creation myth? ›

                Creation stories and epics have performed enormous and essential tasks for human societies. They have explained the universe and defined the meaning of existence. They have entertained us and introduced us to extraordinary events and individuals.

                What does the Greek poem Theogony suggest? ›

                The Greek poem 'Theogony' by Hesiod is an epic poem that explores the origins of the universe and the birth of the gods in Greek mythology. In the beginning, the poem suggests that there was nothing but Chaos, a primordial void or emptiness.

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