The Theogony of HESIOD

The Hesiod's Theogony it's a greek epic poem in which the author describes the birth of the gods of the Greek pantheon. A synthesis of the great variety of Greek stories and traditions about the gods, telling how they were born and how they established control over the cosmos. At unPROFESOR.com we tell you more about one of the oldest versions of the origin of the Cosmos.

Hesiod is a poet who lived between the 9th and 8th centuries BC and is considered the first philosopher in ancient history. An author who left a poetic work of great literary wealth. His most notable works are the jobs and the days, the first fifty-four verses of Heracles' shieldand the Theogony, a work that explains the origin of the universe and the genealogy of the gods.

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we present you a summary and analysis of Hesiod's Theogony.

Index

1. What is Hesiod's Theogony - summary
2. What is the theme of Hesiod's Theogony?
3. What is the meaning of the Theogony?

Hesiod's Theogony is divided into a proem, the body of the poem divided into four parts, each one dedicated to a generation, and a final part.

Proem

The proem or prologue of the Theogony extends from verse 1 to 115 and has two blocks. A first block, from verse 1 to 35) which is hymn to the Muses of Mount Helicon and a second block dedicated to the Muses of Olympus (v.36-104). Both mark the transition to the main part of the poem.

The author then narrates what is the genesis of the Cosmos from a primordial god called Chaos, a being consubstantial to the universe and from which Gaea (the Earth), Eros (sexual desire) and Tartarus (the underworld) were born.

The proem has as its final point an invocation that extends from verse 105 to 115. From there we move on to the main part of the poem. The composition of the poem is similar to Homer's Hymns, written in ternary structure, That is, the theme of the hymn is announced, the life of the god being talked about is recounted, and a closing invocation is made to request his favors.

Body of the poem

There are four generations of gods and this part of the work is divided into:

• Cosmogony and first generation of gods. In this first part we talk about the gods that represent the cosmic elements such as Chaos, Gaia and Eros and the first generations of gods are presented. It goes from verses 116 to 120. From 133 to 153 the gods of the elements and anthropomorphs appear such as the Titans, the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires. At the end of this part we talk about the myth of the succession and castration of Uranus, also stopping at the gods who were born from him (verses 154 to 210).
• Cosmogony of the second and third generation of gods. Hesiod presents us with the different genealogies and the end of the myth of succession between verses 211 to 885.
• Fourth generation of gods. In this part, from verses 886 to 962, it is told how the three kingdoms of the earth are distributed, being the sky for Zeus, the sea for Poseidon and the Underworld for Hades. We are also told about the different genealogies of the Olympian gods.

The poem ends with a new hymn to the Muses, new genealogies and a relationship of heroes. This part extends from verse 963 to 1022.

Discover here others works of Hesiod.

The word Theogony comes from the Greek term Theogony, composed of the words theos (God and gonos (creation), that is, the emergence or birth of the gods. The work is written in ancient greek and it dates back to the years 730 to 700 BC. C., thus being one of the first works of Greek mythology.

In it, Hesiod tried give a logical and rational order to all the myths and legends about the gods. The purpose of the work was to expose the genealogy of the gods and the world, something key to understanding Greek mythology and constituting a first step towards philosophy.

The work uses a system known as “amorphous corpus”, a Greek system already used to include the divinities present in the works of Homer. Following this system, Hesiod implements the traditions and myths of Ancient Greece.

Here we discover a list of the most important gods of greek mythology.

The Theogony is a explanation of what the order of the world and the universe is like having divinity as its origin and exemplifying how good triumphs over evil.

The poem is the story of the deeds of the gods, especially the story of how Cronus overthrows Uranus so that the Titans are born and he is crowned ruler of the Cosmos. A statement that awakens a constant fight to try to control the universe between the old gods and the new, this fight being known as Titanomachy. In this struggle for power, Zeus ends up proclaiming himself king of the Cosmos after defeating Cronus and the Titans.

Hesiod with his work achieves collect and synthesize the numerous stories and traditions of his time, making it easier for ancient philosophers to give a logical order to Greek mythology and offer an explanation of the origin of the cosmos, the gods and the human being.

Here we leave you a review of the Greek mythology.

If you want to read more articles similar to The Theogony of Hesiod: summary, we recommend that you enter our category of Philosophy.

• DE CÓRDOVA, Paola Vianello, et al. (ed.). Theogony. UNAM, 1986.
• LÓPEZ SALGADO, Cesáreo. The ascension of things from nothing in Hesiod's Theogony. 1973.
• SUAREZ, Domingo Plácido. Hesiod: chaos and cosmos. Gerión, 2013, vol. 31, p. 424.