Creation Myth: Theogony

Who was Hesiod?

• Hesiod was a Greek epic poet who
flourished in Boeotia, northwest of
Athens, in the 700's BCE. Next to Homer,
Hesiod was the most famous and honored
old Greek poet.
• He was a poet who crafted traditional
stories about the gods into an organized
pattern.
 Theogony
• Means “origin or generations of the
gods.”
• Cosmogony = how the universe came to
be
• Cosmology = how its parts are arranged
• Figures in the poem range from fully
developed characters to allegorical
names.
 Overall Structure
• Invocation of the Muses  inspiration
• 1st generation: primordial gods: Chaos 
Gaia  Gaia and Uranos.
• 2nd generation: Titans, Kronos, etc.
• 3rd generation: Titanomachy and Zeus’
rise to power.
 The Beginning
• First only Chaos
• Then Gaia (Earth), Tartaros, Eros (Desire)
• Gaia produces Uranos (Sky, Heaven),
Mountains and Sea
• Mating with Uranos, she produces the 12
Titans, the 3 Cyclopes and the 3 Hundred-
Handed Ones
• Uranos does not allow them to be born.
 The Second Generation
(Titans)
• Kronos castrates and overthrows his
father Uranos.
• Birth of Furies, Giants and Aphrodite
• Kronos and his sister Rheia produced the
6 first-generation Olympians
• Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon,
Zeus
• Kronos swallows them
 The Third Generation
• Rhea tricks Kronos and hides the baby
Zeus in a cave on Crete.
• She gives Kronos a stone in swaddling
clothes.
• Zeus grows up and overthrows his father,
tricking him into vomiting up his siblings.
• The stone (omphalos) is placed at Pytho
(Delphi).
Cronus, the new Lord of the
Universe, took his sister
Rhea for his bride.
When Cronus defeated Uranus, becoming
lord of the universe, Uranus prophesied that
Cronus’ children would in turn overthrow
him.

Thus, Cronus swallowed each of

his children as soon as they were
born.
Rhea tricked Cronus. She hid her
last baby and gave Cronus a rock to
swallow instead. Zeus grew up
in the care of
nymphs on Mt.
Ida. The goat
Amalthea
provided him
with milk, and
one of her
horns was later
presented by
Zeus to the
nymphs.
When the time was
right, Zeus came
back. He gave his
father a poison drink
which made Cronus
violently ill.
He vomited up his
children, who
were now fully
grown . . . and
angry!
 Children of Cronus and Rhea

Zeus
Hades
Poseidon
 Children of Cronus and Rhea

Hestia
Demeter
Hera
Artemis Aphrodite

Athena
Triumph of Zeus