Lecture 2 Flashcards
Hesiod
- we know he wrote The Theogony and where he’s from because he put it in the prologue
- what we know about his life comes from hundreds of years later when it was published
- can’t really trust these biographies
The Theogony
- Birth of the gods
- origin story of the gods
- sets up Greek way of ruling things
- generations of the gods
- sets up framework/look of the world (heaven, earth, underworld)
Cosmogony
-account of origin of the universe
Cosmology
-statement about the universe’s nature and purpose (logic of the cosmos)
The Muses
- begin the story with dancing and are inspiring people to create art/literature/music/dance etc…
- they inspire Hesiod with the story and say that he should sing about all the gods but that he must talk about the muses first and last.
Kronion
-son of Kronos and most important son is Zeus
Chaos
-comes first
Early gods
- more of an image not a personified god.
- forces
Gaia
- Earth
- comes out of Chaos
- parthenogeneic (no father) birth produces Ouranos (heaven), Mountains and Sea
- non-parthenogenic birth with Ouranos produces Ocean, Krios, Hyperion, Lapetos, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe, and Thetys
Tartaros
- underworld
- comes out of Chaos
Eros
- love
- comes out of Chaos
- spirit of reproduction/regeneration especially in early gods
- very powerful and early eternal force
Night and Erebos
- Erebos=darkness
- come out of Chaos
Day and Aether
-come out of night and Erebos
Gaia and Ouranos (Plan)
-Gaia plans to castrate Ouranos to remove his power
-Hides Kronos so that he can do this
-Blood from castration drips on ground and creates the Furies, Giants, and Ash-tree nymphs
Genitals that fall to earth make Aphrodite
-Kronos now rules the gods because Ouranos is powerless
Furies
-punish people for wrongdoings
Giants
-cause problems for humans and gods
Eros vs. Aphrodite
- eros is the primordial force of love
- Aphrodite more traditional and classic/romantic/lustful type of love
First Generation Olympians
- Zeus: sky, thunder, gods…
- Hera: queen, marriage, childbirth
- Demeter: harvest
- Poseidon: sea
- Hestia: hearth
- Hades: underworld
Kronos and his Children
- only Kronos is going to be king so he eats all his children
- Rhea protects Zeus and hides him while feeding Kronos a rock instead
- Zeus fights Kronos to become “master of the universe
Zeus and Prometheus
- testing of Zeus’ power
- The Trickery of Sacrifice
- The Theft of Fire–>results in Pandora
More Olympian GOds
- Athena: wisdom
- Dionysus: wine
- Apollo: sun, arts, oracle
- Artemis: the hunt and childbirth
- Hermes: messenger
- Ares: war
- Aphrodite: love
