HUMA 3110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sicyon, Polytheism, Theogony
Document Summary
Gaia gave a sickle to her son kronos, who castrated his father ouranos and succeeded him as ruler of the gods. Zeus swallowed and delivered his children: hesiod"s polytheism, and greek polytheism in general, assumes a world that is teeming with gods and the power of the sacred, almost everywhere. But among all this profusion of divine powers, Zeus stands out as the dominant power in the cosmos, the king of the gods, at least by the end of the story. Personified abstractions as divinities: after apollo and artemis had killed the monster python, they came to aigaleia, on the plain near. At a place called fear, however they fell into a panic and fled. As a result, the citizens all became ill. The soothsayers said that apollo and artemis had to be placated. Seven boys and seven girls were sent to the river sythas to pray, and the gods were persuaded to return.
