CLA 10 Lecture 4: CLA10 Ch4 (Myths of Creation I- the Rise of Zeus)
Document Summary
Chapter 4 myths of creation i: the rise of zeus: hesiod"s theogony (~700 bce?) Earliest surviving greek account of the origin of the world (cosmogony: hesiod gives some background to this before the telling. The theogony (origin of the gods) is assumed to be the cosmogony (origin of the world/cosmos) The muses come; they call hesiod a fool for thinking with his stomach. Chaos was first to appear : chaos (< chasm) at the beginning, something opened and beings existed, gaea (mother earth, tartarus (underworld, eros (force of sexual attraction reproductive power) Frees us from all our sorrows, / but ruins our hearts" good sense (p. 119-120: out of chaos, erebus (darkness) and nyx (night, nyx begets: moerae (the fates) and nemesis (retribution) Their union bears the 12 titans: named by hesiod (powell, p. 79) 6 male, 6 female: the twelve titans. The ones in bold are important; we"ll go in more detail below.
