Theogony

**Read Θεογονία at the source, before centuries of translation made its language familiar in other forms.**

## The Work and Its World

Theogony, preserved here as Θεογονία, is one of the works through which ancient Greek literature and thought continue to speak to later centuries. Hesiod orders the births and battles of gods from Chaos to Zeus, providing a foundational map of Greek divine genealogy.

The Theogony is an epic poem by Hesiod that describes, in contrast to the cosmogonies of other Eastern peoples, the origin of the gods of Greek mythology as they were born and formed in human perception after early observations along with the Earth (Gaia), the rivers, the vast sea, the bright stars and the wide sky above all. It is considered that it was written after the Homeric epics, which are the source of the work, theoretically calculating its writing around 1000 to 700 BC. The Theogony of Hesiod is a very important source for ancient Greek mythology, which mentions almost all of the ideal deities that the ancient Greeks respected and honored.

The poem consists of 1022 hexameters and begins with the first generation of gods, Chaos, Gaia, continues with Uranus, the Titans and ends with the gods of Olympus and their dominion.

Hesiod's Theogony is a lengthy synthesis of a vast array of local Greek traditions concerning the gods. The work is organized as a narrative telling how the gods were created by creating the early moral and orderly order without laws.

Hesiod, after thanking the Muses for the inspiration they gave him, explains that Chaos spontaneously appeared which gave birth to the first divine Trinity, Earth, as the concept of matter, Tartarus as the concept of time and death and Eros, as the concept of creation. Then, from Chaos sprang Erebus and Nyx. From the union of Night and Erebus were born Aether and Day. The Earth, by parthenogenesis, gave birth to Uranus, Oὔrea (Mountains) and Pontus.

Uranus mated with Gaia and 12 Titans were born: Oceanus, Coius, Creon, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Saturn, 3 Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropus and Argys and finally 3 Hecatoghires: the Briareus, Kottos and Gygis.

When Saturn cut off the genitals of Uranus, drops of blood fell on the earth and thus the Erinyes, the Giants and the Meliads were created. He then threw the genitals into the sea and from the foam Aphrodite was born. Meanwhile the Night alone gave birth to Moro, Dreams, Destiny, Feud, Momo, Friendship, Old Age, Death, Fates, Nemesis, Hesperides, Sleep, Oizy and Deceit. Eris followed in her mother's footsteps and gave birth to Pain, Battles, Quarrels, Murder, Wrestling, Lies, Disputes, Famine, Disease, Oaths, Stories, Disobedience and Ruin. Gaia married Pontus and gave birth to Forky, Keto, Nireus and Thaumas. Phorcys and Ceto mated and gave birth to Graia and the 3 Mermaids (Stheno, Euryale and Medusa). Medusa and Poseidon gave birth to Pegasus and Chrysaora, who together with Calliroi gave birth to Geryon. Nereus together with Dorida gave birth to 50 Nymphs, the Nereids. Thaumas together with Electra gave birth to Iris (rainbow) and the Harpies. Gaia and Tartarus gave birth to Typhon who together with Echidna gave birth to Orthos, Geryon's dog, Chimaera, Hydra and Cerberus. Orthos and Chimaera gave birth to the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion (raised by Hera). Oceanus and Tithys gave birth to 3,000 rivers and 3,000 Oceanids. Theia and Hyperion gave birth to the Sun, the Moon and the Dawn or Io. Creus and Eurybia gave birth to Astraeus, Pallas and Persis. Pallas and the Oceania Styx gave birth to the 4 Winds and the Stars. Iapetus and Clymene gave birth to Menoitius, Atlas, Epimetheus and Prometheus.

## Why It Still Matters

Approaching Theogony in its original language brings the reader closer to choices of rhythm, argument, image, and dramatic emphasis that translations must inevitably interpret. The work is not important only because it is old: it remains a living point of reference for writers, philosophers, historians, theatre makers, and readers confronting related questions today.

## Author and Legacy

Hesiod was an early Greek didactic poet whose works preserve central accounts of divine genealogy, labour, justice, and rural life.

Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet, rhapsodist, writer and mythographer. He was the second greatest poet after Homer. He was born in Askra in Boeotia, where his father fled.

It is estimated that he lived at the end of the 8th century. B.C. Often visiting Mount Helicona, where legends said the Muses resided, he himself said that they gave him the gift of poetry. Because he grew up in this sacred and rural environment his poems have a didactic and religious content. With Hesiod, Greece comes out of the realm of myth only, since he derives his subjects not only from imagination, but also from life, thus bringing poetry closer to man.

The manner and time of his death is confused. One tradition wants Hesiod's tomb in Orchomenos Boeotia, while according to another the oracle of Delphi made an oracle that Hesiod would "die in Nemea", so he fled to Locris, where he was killed in the local temple of Nemean Zeus and buried there.

In ancient times although many poems bore his name, three poems have been saved by time. Hesiod's poems contained the first attempts at lyric writing, iambic and elegiac.

Works and Days, where Hesiod talks about the moral lessons that people should follow. He also gives advice to farmers on cultivating the land and states that work is the only way to ensure success. "Ergon d' neun oneidos, aergii de t' oneidos" that is "no work is a shame, it is a shame not to work". In the same work he also gives advice on maritime, commercial and agricultural projects, as well as on marriage and the upbringing of children, trying to exhort man to become better and more virtuous.

In this collection, the author's importance is approached through Theogony. The work shows how a particular genre or method could become a durable instrument for examining human action, public life, knowledge, memory, and the demands of justice.