The latter was a king, and he married another daughter of Oceanus called Idyia, and they had a daughter named Medea. Many of the gods and goddesses had sobriquets or epithets. The decipherment of Hittite mythical texts, notably the Kingship in Heaven text first presented in 1946, with its castration mytheme, offers in the figure of Kumarbi an Anatolian parallel to Hesiod's Uranus–Cronus conflict.[7]. This thousand-line poem comes from Theogony literally means the “birth or genealogy of the gods.” It is the name of an epic poem by Hesiod, a Greek poet who is believed to have lived between 750 and 650 BC. Most generally it is a hymn to Zeus, king of gods and men, but it encompasses the origin of the world (cosmogony) and of the other gods.

The “Theogony” doesn’t describe the creation of humans at all; they suddenly appear in the story during the segment on Prometheus. The lower limit of earth reaches down to the unlimited (i.e the Apeiron). The latter married Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and they had an astounding number of children including the three winds, Zephyr, Notus and Boreas, the Dawn-star Eosophurus, and all of the other stars. From it appeared the androgynous god Phanes, identified by the Orphics as Eros, who becomes the creator of the world. Zeus is an archetypal dragon-slayer (like Marduk vs. Tiamat in Babylonian Notes on Style A large chunk of the “Theogony” is devoted to genealogies, which is not unique to ancient Greece. Hesiod briefly describes the fates of the four sons, most of whom ran afoul of Zeus. The Hecatochroneires simply joined the battle alongside Zeus’ side and threw gigantic rocks at the Titans. The Titan Crius married Eurybia, daughter of Pontus and Gaea. They looked like old women with grey skin. His seed produced the universal germ (Hiranyagarbha), from which everything else appeared. [98], In the Theogony, the origin (arche) is Chaos, a divine primordial condition, and there are the roots and the ends of the earth, sky, sea, and Tartarus. Zeus and Alcmena were the parents of the mighty Heracles. Medea with the mortal Jason, produced Medius, the Nereid Psamathe with the mortal Aeacus, produced the hero Phocus, the Nereid Thetis, with Peleus produced the great warrior Achilles, and the goddess Aphrodite with the mortal Anchises produced the Trojan hero Aeneas. [108], In the Babylonian creation story Enûma Eliš the universe was in a formless state and is described as a watery chaos.
He then angrily decreed that men could never be given fire. the generations of the Greek gods, click here. Styx, the goddess of the River Styx, also came to live in the Underworld. The initial state of the universe is chaos, a dark indefinite void considered a divine primordial condition from which everything else appeared. [99] In the language of the archaic period (8th – 6th century BC), arche (or archai) designates the source, origin, or root of things that exist. Harmony married Cadmus, the first Greek hero, and they had a daughter named Semele. Hesiod’s contemporary, Homer, wrote that Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione. [35], And from Eris alone, came Ponos (Hardship), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Starvation), the Algea (Pains), the Hysminai (Battles), the Makhai (Wars), the Phonoi (Murders), the Androktasiai (Manslaughters), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Pseudologoi (Lies), the Amphillogiai (Disputes), Dysnomia (Anarchy), Ate (Ruin), and Horkos (Oath). …Greek poet Hesiod in his Theogony (and the later Roman version of the same event given in Ovid’s Metamorphoses). They looked around their world and asked why? Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BC), believed that there were three pre-existent divine principles and called the water also Chaos.

Latinus was a shadowy personality who was perhaps invented to explain…, In the Theogony of Hesiod (fl. Lots of nymphs are listed. [25] From Gaia came Uranus (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea). The decipherment of Hittite mythical texts, notably the Kingship in Heaven text first presented in 1946, with its castration mytheme, offers in the figure of Kumarbi an Anatolian parallel to Hesiod's Uranus–Cronus conflict.[7]. Link will appear as Theogony: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net - Greek Gods & Goddesses, February 13, 2017, © Greek Gods and Goddesses 2010 - 2020 | About | Contact | Privacy, Theogony: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net. The 3,000 river gods, of which 25 are named: The 3,000 daughters, of which 41 are named: Of Zeus' children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived (, Hephaestus is produced by Hera alone, with no father at, Called by her title "Cytherea" ("of the Island, Cadmus was the mortal founder and first king of, According to Caldwell, p. 49 on line 359, this Calypso, elsewhere the daughter of, "Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire the primal seed and germ of Spirit, Hesiod describes the Muses as the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne. For the ancient Greeks this was their answer to the most fundamental question of existence. Gaea gaveCronus something that induced vomiting and Cronus vomited up Zeus’ five older siblings plus the stone he’d mistaken for the baby Zeus. And Nyx "from union in love" with Erebus produced Aether (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). After Zeus seized control, the Golden Age gave way to the Silver Age.

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 was exhibited at Delphi and …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. The sun-god Helios married Persis, a daughter of Oceanus, and they had two children, Circe and Aeetes. From Oceanus and Tethys came the three thousand river gods (including Nilus (Nile), Alpheus, and Scamander) and three thousand Oceanid river nymphs (including Doris, Electra, Callirhoe, Styx, Clymene, Metis, Eurynome, Perseis, and Idyia). XII [100], In ancient Greek philosophy, arche is the element or first principle of all things, a permanent nature or substance which is conserved in the generation of the rest of it. but soon a more abstract sexuality takes over. [105], By contrast, in the Orphic cosmogony the unaging Chronos produced Aether and Chaos and made a silvery egg in divine Aether. In the tenth year of that war, following Gaia's counsel, Zeus released the Hundred-Handers, who joined the war against the Titans, helping Zeus to gain the upper hand. The Wives of Zeus The Olympians are the best-known Greek gods; many people have heard of them. In, "Roman Mosaic Depicting Anaximander with Sundial", Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Online version at Harvard University Press, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theogony&oldid=977183560, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Articles with dead external links from December 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from March 2018, Articles with dead external links from January 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. The Cyclopes, in gratitude, made thunderbolts for Zeus; these were his deadliest and most famous weapons. [55], The Titans, Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, and Cronus married their sisters Tethys, Theia, Phoebe and Rhea, and Crius married his half-sister Eurybia, the daughter of Gaia and Pontus. Dionysus. At Gaea’s suggestion, Zeus decided to secure more allies by freeing the Cyclopes and the Hecatochroneires from their prison in Tartarus. VI Chaos, however, did not generate Gaea; the offspring of Chaos were Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx. [21], Zeus, by Gaia's advice, was elected king of the gods, and he apportioned various honors among the gods. The Works and Days shares some…, …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…, …Hesiod (7th century bc), in Theogony, calls him the son of the Greek hero Odysseus and the enchantress Circe.
The last few verse describe the descendants of various goddesses, starting with Demeter who had a son, Plutus, by the mortal hero Iasion. …complete epics have survived, the Theogony, relating the myths of the gods, and the Works and Days, describing peasant life. Plato was the first to coin the word muthologia, but that was hundreds of years after the original traditional stories were told. [106], Some similar ideas appear in the Vedic and Hindu cosmologies. Zeus refused to allow her to release Hope. The Phonoi were male spirits in charge of murder, while their sisters the Androkatasis were the goddesses of manslaughter. For these ancient peoples, nothing was done without the gods in mind because they were terrified of them and what they could do to them. [15] However, when Rhea was pregnant with Zeus, Rhea begged her parents Gaia and Uranus to help her save Zeus. The creation of Pandora and the devastation brought on by her curiosity led man out of the Golden Age and into a progressively worse level of existence. [32], Meanwhile, Nyx (Night) alone produced children: Moros (Doom), Ker (Destiny), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain), Hesperides (Daughters of Night), the Moirai (Fates),[34] the Keres (Destinies), Nemesis (Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), and Eris (Discord). Ancient Greeks were interested in understanding their place in the world around them. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Gaea (Earth), emerging from primeval Chaos, produced Uranus, the Mountains, and the Sea. More Children of Gaea After arranging for Uranus to be castrated, Gaea took her son Pontus as a new mate. Hesiod made an abstraction because his original chaos is something completely indefinite. Only Cronus, who wanted his father’s throne for himself, agreed to wield the sickle. [40] Next comes the half-nymph half-snake Echidna[41] (her mother is unclear, probably Ceto, or possibly Callirhoe). ", Rutherford, I.