Classical Studies 2200-Randall Pogorzelski

Classical Mythology
ca. 540-530 B.C.E.. Achilles and Ajax playing draughts, detail from an Attic black-figure amphora.
https://library.artstor.org/asset/AIC_970010
Classical Studies 2200-Randall Pogorzelski

Hesiod’s Theogony
If you haven’t already done the reading

assignment for this week, you can find a link to it
on the course syllabus and on the OWL site in the
Course Content tool. The organization of the
Course Content checklists generally assumes that
you’re going to do the reading before you listen to
the lecture, but you’re also welcome to listen to
the lecture first. Many of you may find it helpful to
have a bit of introduction to the reading before you
read it, while others may find doing the reading
first helps to make the lecture make sense. You
should do whatever works best for you.
Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

c.445 B.C. Shoulder-Lekythos: View
2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
Helicon.
https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTS
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Hesiod’s Theogony
When you click the link, if you’re off campus it should ask you to sign in with
your Western credentials, and then it will take you to a page that looks like this:
Hesiod’s Theogony
One of the things I like about the Loeb Classical Library is that it has the
original Greek (or Latin) on the left-hand pages, so you’re always reminded that
you’re reading a translation. That also means that the reading assignment is
shorter than the page numbers make it seem, because you only have to read
the right-hand pages.
Hesiod’s Theogony
Having the Greek there reminds me also that even

though the English translation is prose, the Greek
original is poetry. There is some uncertainty about
whether ancient Greek performers recited or sang
the Theogony, but there is good evidence that
they accompanied themselves with a lyre a lot like
the one the Muse in the image on this slide is
playing.

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Hesiod’s Theogony
Whenever you read an ancient text, or really any

text, it’s a good idea to know five basic things
about that text: the author, the title, the date of
composition or publication, the location of
composition or publication, and the original
language.
For this week’s assignment, those five prices of

information are:
Author: Hesiod
Title: Theogony
Date: some time between 750 and 650 BCE
Location: Ascra in Boeotia, a region in Greece
Language: Greek
Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
A Few Notes about Dates
BC=Before Christ
AD=Anno Domini (In the Year of the Lord)
BCE=Before the Common Era
CE=Common Era
Years BCE count down (650 BCE is the year

before 649 BCE).
There is no year zero, so 1 CE comes right after 1

BCE.
650 BCE is in the seventh century BCE.

BCE, CE, and BC all go after the year, but AD 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
traditionally goes before the year (e.g., 1066 CE Helicon.
or AD 1066). https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTS
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Hesiod’s Theogony
Hesiod’s Theogony (classicists usually refer to

“Hesiod’s Theogony” or “the Theogony” but not
“Hesiod’s the Theogony”) is one of the earliest
poems to survive from ancient Greece, and later
Greeks treated it as an authoritative account of
the gods and the creation of the world. The title
translated literally means “god birth.”

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Hesiod’s Theogony
Greek myth developed organically from a number

of sources. Those sources include local rituals,
etymological reasoning about the names of the
gods, stories transmitted through oral tradition,
and the iconography of visual art.
In the late eighth and early seventh centuries

BCE, alphabetic writing was new to Greece, and
written texts like Hesiod’s Theogony could exert a
new kind of control over myth. They could also
more effectively combine disparate local traditions
into something panhellenic.
Because written texts have survived in relatively

stable form, they are not only sources of myth, but
act for us as sources for myth. We don’t know the Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
stories because they have been passed down 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
through generations. We know the stories Helicon.
because we can read them in texts like Hesiod’s https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTS
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Theogony.
Iconography
When I say “iconography,” what I mean

is the details of a visual representation
that tell you who the figures are. So, for
example, in the image on this slide, I can
tell that the figure on the left is Poseidon
because he’s carrying a trident. Hermes
is also carrying a distinctive staff and
wearing a distinctive hat, and Athena has
a shield with an owl on it.
Attributed to the Amasis Painter. c. 550-525 BCE. Olpe with

Trefoil Mouth showing Herakles Presented to Poseidon, Hermes
and Athena (Herakles Entering Olympus). ceramics. Place:
Musée du Louvre.
https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARMNIG_10313259642.
A Summary of Hesiod’s Theogony
On pages xxiv-xxvi (24-26 of the Introduction)

which isn’t part of the required reading, Glenn W.
Most provides a handy summary of the poem. The
next few slides are that summary.

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Hesiod’s Theogony provides a comprehensive

account of the origin and organization of the
divinities responsible for the religious, moral, and
physical structure of the world, starting from the
very beginning of things and culminating in the
present regime, in which Zeus has supreme
power and administers justice.
For the purposes of analysis, Hesiod’s poem may
be divided into the following sections:
1. Proem (1–115): a hymn to the Muses, telling of
their birth and power, recounting their initiation of
Hesiod into poetry, and indicating the contents of
the following poem.
2. The origin of the world (116–22): the coming
into being of the three primordial entities, Chasm,
Earth, and Eros. Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
3. The descendants of Chasm 1 (123–25): Erebos 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
and Night come to be from Chasm, and Aether Helicon.
and Day from Night. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTS
TOR_103_41822000410579.
4. The descendants of Earth 1 (126–210): Earth

bears Sky, and together they give birth to the
twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes, and the three
Hundred-Handers; the last of the Titans, Cronus,
castrates his father, Sky, thereby producing
among others Aphrodite.
5. The descendants of Chasm 2 (211–32): Night’s
numerous and baneful progeny.
6. The descendants of Earth 2 (233–69): Earth’s
son Pontus begets Nereus, who in turn begets the
Nereids.
7. The descendants of Earth 3 (270–336): Pontus’
son Phorcys and daughter Ceto produce, directly
and indirectly, a series of monsters.
8. The descendants of Earth 4 (337–452): children
of the Titans, especially the rivers, including Styx Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
(all of them children of Tethys and Ocean), and 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
Hecate (daughter of Phoebe and Coeus). Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
9. The descendants of Earth 5 (453–506): further

children of the Titans: Olympian gods, born to
Rhea from Cronus, who swallows them all at birth
until Rhea saves Zeus, who frees the Cyclopes
and is destined to dethrone Cronus.
10. The descendants of Earth 6 (507–616): further
children of the Titans: Iapetus’ four sons, Atlas,
Menoetius, Epimetheus, and Prometheus
(including the stories of the origin of the division of
sacrificial meat, of fire, and of the race of women).
11. The conflict between the Titans and the
Olympians (617–720): after ten years of
inconclusive warfare between the Titans and the
Olympians, Zeus frees the Hundred-Handers, who
help the Olympians achieve final victory and send
the defeated Titans down into Tartarus. Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
12. Tartarus (721–819): the geography of Tartarus

and its population, including the Titans, the
Hundred-Handers, Night and Day, Sleep and
Death, Hades, and Styx.
13. The descendants of Earth 7 (820–80): Earth’s
last child, Typhoeus, is defeated by Zeus and sent
down to Tartarus.
14. The descendants of Earth 8 (881–962): a list
of the descendants of the Olympian gods,
including Athena, the Muses, Apollo and Artemis,
Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus, and Heracles.
15. The descendants of Earth 9 (963–1022): after
a concluding farewell to the Olympian gods and
the islands, continents, and sea, there is a
transition to a list of the children born of
goddesses, followed by a farewell to these and a Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
transition to a catalogue of women (this last is not 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
included in the text of the poem). Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Hesiod’s Theogony (lines 1-8, page 3)
Let us begin to sing from the Heliconian Muses,

who possess the great and holy mountain of
Helicon, and dance on their soft feet around the
violet-dark fountain and the altar of Cronus’ mighty
son. And after they have washed their tender skin
in Permessus or Hippocrene or holy Olmeius, they
perform choral dances on highest Helicon,
beautiful, lovely ones, and move nimbly with their
feet.

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Starting out from there, shrouded in thick

invisibility, by night they walk, sending forth their
very beautiful voice, singing of aegis-holding
Zeus, and queenly Hera of Argos, who walks in
golden sandals, and the daughter of aegis-holding
Zeus, bright-eyed Athena, and Phoebus Apollo,
and arrow-shooting Artemis, and earth-holding,
earth-shaking Poseidon, and venerated Themis
(Justice) and quick-glancing Aphrodite, and
golden-crowned Hebe (Youth) and beautiful
Dione, and Leto and Iapetus and crooked-
counseled Cronus, and Eos (Dawn) and great
Helius (Sun) and gleaming Selene (Moon), and
Earth and great Ocean and black Night, and the
holy race of the other immortals who always are.
Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Greek Names
Ἠέλιόν in line 19 is an inflected form of Ἥλιος.

When we write the names of Greek gods, we first
have to transliterate them, which means we have
to change the letters from those of the Greek
alphabet to the modern version of the Roman
alphabet that we use.
To some people, it seems best to use the

Romanized versions of the names, while to other
people it seems better to use a more direct
system for transliterating Greek names. That
means that there are different spellings of Greek
names for us, and there are sometimes many
correct versions.
Helios is a common spelling and that preserves Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
the Greek omicron as an o, but when the name is 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
written in Latin that omicron becomes a u, and so Helicon.
Helius is also a common and correct spelling of TOR_103_41822000410579.
the name.
Greek Names
The various ancient Greek texts we’ll read in this

class all have different translators, and they will all
use slightly different transliteration practices. That
means that I won’t be consistent in spelling the
same names the same way all the time, since I’ll
follow the practice of the translator of the
particular text we’re working on.
For example, sometimes I might refer to Herakles,

and other times to Heracles, and still other times
to Hercules.
Also, sometimes translators will translate names

instead of just transliterating them. In line 116,
Hesiod refers to Χάος, which most translators
simply transliterate as “Chaos,” but our translator, Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
Most, thinks that’s misleading, and so he 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
translates the name as “Chasm.” Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Greek Names
Even more than spelling, the pronunciation of

Greek names is confusing. Sometimes we try to
reconstruct how ancient Greek people might have
pronounced the name, sometimes we instead use
a Romanized version of the pronunciation. Most
often, we invent a few options that seem to sound
right in English.
I’d love to say that there are no wrong ways to

pronounce the names, and that’s tempting
because there aren’t really rational rules for how
we do pronounce the names.
Even though there aren’t really any right answers,

there are often one or a few usually acceptable
ways to pronounce the names, and a lot of Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
possible pronunciations that just don’t get used. 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
There are many possible pronunciations of “Zeus” Helicon.
or “Phoebus,” but most people pronounce them in TOR_103_41822000410579.
the same way.
One time, they taught Hesiod beautiful song while

he was pasturing lambs under holy Helicon. And
this speech the goddesses spoke first of all to me,
the Olympian Muses, the daughters of aegis-
holding Zeus: “Field-dwelling shepherds, ignoble
disgraces, mere bellies: we know how to say
many false things similar to genuine ones, but we
know, when we wish, how to proclaim true things.”
So spoke great Zeus’ ready-speaking daughters,
and they plucked a staff, a branch of luxuriant
laurel, a marvel, and gave it to me; and they
breathed a divine voice into me, so that I might
glorify what will be and what was before, and they
commanded me to sing of the race of the blessed
ones who always are, but always to sing of
themselves first and last. Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Mnemosyne (Memory) bore them on Pieria,

mingling in love with the father, Cronus’ son—
Mnemosyne, the protectress of the hills of
Eleuther—as forgetfulness of evils and relief from
anxieties. For the counselor Zeus slept with her
for nine nights, apart from the immortals, going up
into the sacred bed; and when a year had passed,
and the seasons had revolved as the months
waned, and many days had been completed, she
bore nine maidens—like-minded ones, who in
their breasts care for song and have a spirit that
knows no sorrow—not far from snowy Olympus’
highest peak. That is where their bright choral
dances and their beautiful mansions are, and
beside them the Graces and Desire have their
houses, in joyous festivities; and the voice they Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
send forth from their mouths as they sing is lovely, 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
and they glorify the ordinances and the cherished Helicon.
usages of all the immortals, sending forth their https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTS
TOR_103_41822000410579.
lovely voice.
Such is the holy gift of the Muses to human

beings. For it is from the Muses and far-shooting
Apollo that men are poets upon the earth and lyre
players, but it is from Zeus that they are kings;
and that man is blessed, whomever the Muses
love, for the speech flows sweet from his mouth.
Even if someone who has unhappiness in his
newly anguished spirit is parched in his heart with
grieving, yet when a poet, servant of the Muses,
sings of the glorious deeds of people of old and
the blessed gods who possess Olympus, he
forgets his sorrows at once and does not
remember his anguish at all; for quickly the gifts of
the goddesses have turned it aside.

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
In truth, first of all Chasm came to be, and then

broad-breasted Earth, the ever immovable seat of
all the immortals who possess snowy Olympus’
peak and murky Tartarus in the depths of the
broad-pathed earth, and Eros, who is the most
beautiful among the immortal gods, the limb-
melter—he overpowers the mind and the
thoughtful counsel of all the gods and of all human
beings in their breasts.
From Chasm, Erebos and black Night came to be;

and then Aether and Day came forth from Night,
who conceived and bore them after mingling in
love with Erebos.

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Earth first of all bore starry Sky, equal to herself, to

cover her on every side, so that she would be the
ever immovable seat for the blessed gods; and
she bore the high mountains, the graceful haunts
of the goddesses, Nymphs who dwell on the
wooded mountains; and she also bore the barren
sea seething with its swell, Pontus—all of them
without delightful love; and then, having bedded
with Sky, she bore deep-eddying Ocean and
Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus and
Theia and Rhea and Themis and Mnemosyne and
golden-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After
these, Cronus was born, the youngest of all,
crooked-counseled, the most terrible of her
children; and he hated his vigorous father.
Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Earth and Sky
There are many gods in the Theogony and

each one has a complicated history of names
and stories. We’ll come back to a lot of them
over the course of the year, but it’s worth
looking at a few examples now. I’ve already
talked a little about Chaos, which Most
translates as “Chasm.”
Also significant here are Γαῖα, Gaia, or Earth,

and Οὐρανός, Ouranos, Uranus, or Sky.
Original Caption Released with
If you were to look up these words in a Greek Image: This is an image of the planet
dictionary, you would most likely find two Uranus taken by the spacecraft
entries for each, one with a capital first letter Voyager 2 in 1986. The Voyager
for the god, and one with a lowercase first project is managed for NASA by the
letter for the natural phenomenon. Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Addition Date: 1986-12-18
https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/
catalog/PIA18182
Earth and Sky
While the brightest planets from Earth were

named after (and identified with gods) in
ancient Greece and Rome, Uranus was not
identified as a planet in antiquity and was
only named Uranus in the late 18th and early
19th centuries. In 1782 Johann Elert Bode
proposed the name Uranus for the newly
identified planet on the reasoning that Saturn
(Cronus) was the father of Jupiter (Zeus), and
Uranus (Ouranos) was the father of Saturn
(Cronus). Original Caption Released with
Image: This is an image of the planet
Uranus taken by the spacecraft
Voyager 2 in 1986. The Voyager
project is managed for NASA by the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
catalog/PIA18182
The Names of Greek Gods
The primordial gods Hesiod names are often

the names of natural phenomena, and this is
not uncommon in polytheistic religions.
It is unusual that the most important Greek

gods have names that are largely
unintelligible, not just to us, but to the ancient
Greeks too. Ancient Greeks and modern
scholars try to find etymologies for names like
Zeus, Hera, and Apollo, but they’re never
clearly correct. This is all the more puzzling Original Caption Released with
given the fact that many Greek personal Image: This is an image of the planet
names, like Thrasyboulos (bold in counsel) Uranus taken by the spacecraft
have clear meanings. Voyager 2 in 1986. The Voyager
It is not the case the Zeus is the storm. He Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
brings storms. And Aphrodite is not sexuality Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
—she bestows sexuality. The most important
Greek gods are not personifications of natural catalog/PIA18182
phenomena.
Some Types of Greek Gods
Nevertheless, we have already seen, mixed

in with the Olympian gods, personifications of
abstract concepts. On page 3, Hesiod wrote
about, “venerated Themis (Justice) and
quick-glancing Aphrodite, and golden-
crowned Hebe (Youth) and beautiful Dione,
and Leto and Iapetus and crooked-counseled
Cronus, and Eos (Dawn) and great Helius
(Sun) and gleaming Selene (Moon), and
Earth and great Ocean and black Night, and
the holy race of the other immortals who Original Caption Released with
always are.” Image: This is an image of the planet
There are at least, then, three types of gods: Voyager 2 in 1986. The Voyager
natural phenomena like Eos (Dawn), project is managed for NASA by the
personifications of abstract concepts like Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Themis (Justice), and characters whose Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
names and origins are mysterious like Zeus.
catalog/PIA18182
Some Types of Greek Gods
Hesiod makes no attempt to explain the

concept of gods, although later Greeks did
and we do.
We associate with Euhemerus (who lived in

the 4th century BCE) the idea of
“euhemerism,” which argues that gods like
Zeus were once real people and that stories
about them grew exaggerated over time to
the point that they became gods in later
times. Original Caption Released with
Image: This is an image of the planet
Voyager 2 in 1986. The Voyager
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
catalog/PIA18182
Hesiod’s Theogony
Hesiod’s achievement in the Theogony, although

it is certainly not his alone, is to organize a system
in which primordial, natural gods like Earth and
Sky coexist with abstract concepts like Justice and
Youth and with more complicated, personal gods
like Zeus and Hera.
Ancient Greek names often included a

patronymic, which means the name of the father.
Pericles, for example, was Pericles, son of
Xanthippus. It makes some sense, then, that the
principle that would organize the proliferation of
many gods into a system is a genealogical one.

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Hesiod’s Theogony
What I want to do with the rest of our time for this

week is just to retell one of the narrative threads of
the Theogony in a way that emphasizes its
continuity, even though it takes place in passages
that are spread out throughout the poem. That
thread is the story of the succession of the
rulership of the gods that leads to the permanent
establishment of Zeus as the king of the gods.

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
For all these, who came forth from Earth and Sky
as the most terrible of their children, were hated
by their own father from the beginning. And as
soon as any of them was born, Sky put them all
away out of sight in a hiding place in Earth and did
not let them come up into the light, and he
rejoiced in his evil deed. But huge Earth groaned
within, for she was constricted, and she devised a
tricky, evil stratagem. At once she created an
offspring, of gray adamant, and she fashioned a
big sickle and showed it to her own children.

Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
So he [Cronus] spoke, and huge Earth rejoiced

greatly in her breast. She placed him in an
ambush, concealing him from sight, and put into
his hands the jagged-toothed sickle, and she
explained the whole trick to him. And great Sky
came, bringing night with him; and spreading
himself out around Earth in his desire for love he
lay outstretched in all directions. Then his son
reached out from his ambush with his left hand,
and with his right hand he grasped the monstrous
sickle, long and jagged-toothed, and eagerly he
reaped the genitals from his dear father and threw
them behind him to be borne away. But not in vain
did they fall from his hand: for Earth received all
the bloody drops that shot forth, and when the
years had revolved she bore the mighty Erinyes Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
and the great Giants, shining in their armor, 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
holding long spears in their hands, and the Helicon.
Nymphs whom they call the Melian ones, over the https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTS
TOR_103_41822000410579.
boundless earth.
Rhea, overpowered by Cronus, bore him splendid

children, Hestia, Demeter, and golden-sandaled
Hera, and powerful Hades, who dwells in
mansions beneath the earth and has a pitiless
heart, and the loud-sounding Earth-shaker and the
counselor Zeus, the father of gods and of men, by
whose thunder the broad earth is shaken. Great
Cronus would swallow these down as each one
came from his mother’s holy womb to her knees,
mindful lest anyone else of Sky’s illustrious
children should have the honor of kingship among
the immortals. For he had heard from Earth and
starry Sky that, mighty though he was, he was
destined to be overpowered by a child of his,
through the plans of great Zeus. For this reason,
then, he held no unseeing watch, but observed Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
closely, and swallowed down his children; and 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
unremitting grief gripped Rhea. Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.
But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father

of gods and of men, she beseeched her own dear
parents, Earth and starry Sky, to contrive some
scheme so that she could bear her dear son
without being noticed, and take retribution for the
avenging deities of her father and of her children,
whom great crooked-counseled Cronus had
swallowed down…They told her to go to Lyctus, to
the rich land of Crete, when she was about to bear
the youngest of her children, great Zeus; and
huge Earth received him in broad Crete to nurse
him and rear him up. There she came first to
Lyctus, carrying him through the swift black night;
taking him in her hands she concealed him in a
deep cave, under the hidden places of the holy
earth, in the Aegean mountain, abounding with Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
forests. And she wrapped a great stone in 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
swaddling clothes and put it into the hand of Sky’s Helicon.
son, the great ruler, the king of the earlier gods. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTS
TOR_103_41822000410579.
Zeus, king of the gods, took as his first wife Metis

(Wisdom), she who of the gods and mortal human
beings knows the most. But when she was about
to give birth to the goddess, bright-eyed Athena,
he deceived her mind by craft and with guileful
words he put her into his belly, by the counsels of
Earth and of starry Sky: for this was how they had
prophesied to him, lest some other one of the
eternally living gods hold the kingly honor instead
of Zeus. For it was destined that exceedingly wise
children would come to be from her: first she
would give birth to a maiden, bright-eyed
Tritogeneia, possessing strength equal to her
father’s and wise counsel, and then to a son, a
king of gods and of men, possessing a very
violent heart. But before that could happen Zeus Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.
put her into his belly, so that the goddess would 2-Muse Playing the Kithara on Mount
advise him about good and evil. Helicon.
TOR_103_41822000410579.

Classical Studies 2200-Randall Pogorzelski

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Classical Studies 2200-Randall Pogorzelski

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Classical Mythology

Classical Studies 2200-Randall Pogorzelski

If you haven’t already done the reading

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

Having the Greek there reminds me also that even

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

Whenever you read an ancient text, or really any

For this week’s assignment, those five prices of

AD=Anno Domini (In the Year of the Lord)

BCE=Before the Common Era

Years BCE count down (650 BCE is the year

There is no year zero, so 1 CE comes right after 1

650 BCE is in the seventh century BCE.

Hesiod’s Theogony (classicists usually refer to

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

Greek myth developed organically from a number

In the late eighth and early seventh centuries

Because written texts have survived in relatively

When I say “iconography,” what I mean

Attributed to the Amasis Painter. c. 550-525 BCE. Olpe with

On pages xxiv-xxvi (24-26 of the Introduction)

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

Hesiod’s Theogony provides a comprehensive

4. The descendants of Earth 1 (126–210): Earth

9. The descendants of Earth 5 (453–506): further

12. Tartarus (721–819): the geography of Tartarus

Let us begin to sing from the Heliconian Muses,

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

Starting out from there, shrouded in thick

Ἠέλιόν in line 19 is an inflected form of Ἥλιος.

To some people, it seems best to use the

The various ancient Greek texts we’ll read in this

For example, sometimes I might refer to Herakles,

Also, sometimes translators will translate names

Even more than spelling, the pronunciation of

I’d love to say that there are no wrong ways to

Even though there aren’t really any right answers,

One time, they taught Hesiod beautiful song while

Mnemosyne (Memory) bore them on Pieria,

Such is the holy gift of the Muses to human

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

In truth, first of all Chasm came to be, and then

From Chasm, Erebos and black Night came to be;

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

Earth first of all bore starry Sky, equal to herself, to

There are many gods in the Theogony and

Also significant here are Γαῖα, Gaia, or Earth,

While the brightest planets from Earth were

The primordial gods Hesiod names are often

It is unusual that the most important Greek

Nevertheless, we have already seen, mixed

Hesiod makes no attempt to explain the

We associate with Euhemerus (who lived in

Hesiod’s achievement in the Theogony, although

Ancient Greek names often included a

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

What I want to do with the rest of our time for this

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

Achilles Painter, fl. ca. 450-425 B.C.

So he [Cronus] spoke, and huge Earth rejoiced

Rhea, overpowered by Cronus, bore him splendid

But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father