Theogony Student

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Theogony Student Hesiod: Theogony Name:___________________ Theogony is a primary text—that means many of the myths we study today come directly from this text. It’s important to learn how to read primary texts and understand what they offer us. For this worksheet, you will need to work through the book answering questions as you go. The questions are in order as they appear in the text. You may work with a partner or in a group if you like. 1. Define theogony. 2. What is Helicon and where is it? 3. Who is the Muses’ mother and father and who hangs out with them? 4. List the names of the muses and identify what they are CURRENTLY associated with: • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ The birth of the gods and the world: 5. Concerning the creation of the world, what were the first four entities mentioned • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ 6. What came from Chasm? 7. What came from Night and Erebos? 8. What is Earth’s first child? 9. List Earth’s babies not of a union of love: 10. List the babies she had with Heaven (Titians) • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ 11. What does Cyclopes mean? 12. Who castrates Heaven? 13. What comes from the blood as it lands on the land? (8) 14. What comes from the genitals as they land on the sea? (8-9) 15. List the children of night: • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ 16. Who is the child of the Sea and what is he called? 17. Who are the parents of the nereids? 18. Phorcys and Ceto have some interesting children. Who are the “Old Women”? 19. Name the Gorgons and which one is mortal? • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ 20. What is the name of Ceto’s daughter and what does she look like? 21. Echidna gets together with what monster? 22. Who are the parents of all the rivers? 23. Tethys and Oceanus also had other children. Who are they? 24. Who are the parents of the Sun, Moon and Dawn? 25. Who is the mother of the winds? 26. Who are the children of Styx and with whom do they hang? • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ 27. What goddess is honored by Zeus above all others? 28. List Rhea and Kronos’ children 29. Why did Kronos swallow his children? 30. Where is the stone that Kronos thought was Zeus? 31. Who are Kronos’ brothers that Zeus set free? (not the other gods) 32. Who are the four children of Iapetos and the “trim-akled” Oceanid Clymene? 33. Who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man? 34. What punishment did Zeus design for man? 35. Who is the “Ambidexter”? 36. When a god swears on the river Styx and breaks his/her oath, what happens? 37. Who is Zeus’ first wife, who is her child, and where does she “currently” live? 38. Who is Zeus’ second wife and who are her children? • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ 39. Who is the last mate mentioned and who are her children? .
Recommended publications
  • Greek Mythology at the Service of the Portuguese Inquisition: the Case of Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna
    Athens Journal of Mediterranean Studies- Volume 1, Issue 1 – Pages 25-44 Greek Mythology at the Service of the Portuguese Inquisition: The Case of Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna By Milton Dias Pacheco Greek mythology has been along the centuries a fruitful source of inspiration to artists and writers, as it possesses the strength of expressing symbolically the most common circumstances of life. Regarding the threats that in every age put in danger human life the most popular figure was maybe the Hydra that infested the region of the Lake of Lerna, in Argolis. This mythical figure may still have an older origin as it is connected with chthonic dangers. Because of its terrifying aspect, reptilian traits and poisonous breath, it was related to the evil and the domains of Hell. Later the Hydra significance became larger and deeper as it represented the heresies that could affect the Christian orthodoxy. According to this point of view, every defender of the Catholic Faith was immediately compared to Hercules, the Greek hero who succeeded in killing the mythological Hydra monster. In this way, it is easy to understand why this representation was often used in connection with the Iberian Habsburg Kings, as it worked as a political strategy of this dynasty, in which the Spanish Habsburgs were faced as the guardians and defenders of the Church of Rome, mainly in times when the Inquisition developed a determinative role. An illustrative example of this was the decoration of the arch built by the Inquisition in Lisbon, when King Philip II of Portugal visited the Portuguese Empire capital.
    [Show full text]
  • What the Muses Sang: Theogony 1-115 Jenny Strauss Clay
    STRAUSS CLAY, JENNY, What the Muses Sang: "Theogony" 1-115 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 29:4 (1988:Winter) p.323 What the Muses Sang: Theogony 1-115 Jenny Strauss Clay HE PROEM to the Theogony has often been analyzed both in T terms of its formal structure and in relation to recurrent hym­ nic conventions;l it has also been interpreted as a fundamental statement of archaic Greek poetics.2 While differing somewhat in its perspective, the present investigation builds on and complements those previous studies. Dedicated to the Muses, the patronesses of poetry, the opening of the Theogony repeatedly describes these divini­ ties engaged in their characteristic activity, that is, singing. In the course of the proem, the Muses sing four times: once as they descend from Helicon (lines 11-21), twice on Olympus (44-50, 66f), and once as they make their way from their birthplace in Pieria and ascend to Olympus (71-75). In addition, the prologue describes the song the goddesses inspire in their servants, the aoidoi (99-101), as well as the song Hesiod requests that they sing for him, the invocation proper (105-15). My aim here is a simple one: to examine the texts and contexts of each of these songs and to compare them to the song the Muses instruct Hesiod to sing and the one he finally produces. I See, for example, P. Friedlander, "Das Pro6mium von Hesiods Theogonie" (1914), in E. HEITSCH, Hesiod (Darmstadt 1966: hereafter "Heitsch") 277-94; W. Otto, "Hesiodea," in Varia Variorum: Festgabe fUr Karl Reinhardt (Munster 1952) 49-53; P.
    [Show full text]
  • Greek Characters
    Amphitrite - Wife to Poseidon and a water nymph. Poseidon - God of the sea and son to Cronos and Rhea. The Trident is his symbol. Arachne - Lost a weaving contest to Athene and was turned into a spider. Father was a dyer of wool. Athene - Goddess of wisdom. Daughter of Zeus who came out of Zeus’s head. Eros - Son of Aphrodite who’s Roman name is Cupid; Shoots arrows to make people fall in love. Demeter - Goddess of the harvest and fertility. Daughter of Cronos and Rhea. Hades - Ruler of the underworld, Tartaros. Son of Cronos and Rhea. Brother to Zeus and Poseidon. Hermes - God of commerce, patron of liars, thieves, gamblers, and travelers. The messenger god. Persephone - Daughter of Demeter. Painted the flowers of the field and was taken to the underworld by Hades. Daedalus - Greece’s greatest inventor and architect. Built the Labyrinth to house the Minotaur. Created wings to fly off the island of Crete. Icarus - Flew too high to the sun after being warned and died in the sea which was named after him. Son of Daedalus. Oranos - Titan of the Sky. Son of Gaia and father to Cronos. Aphrodite - Born from the foam of Oceanus and the blood of Oranos. She’s the goddess of Love and beauty. Prometheus - Known as mankind’s first friend. Was tied to a Mountain and liver eaten forever. Son of Oranos and Gaia. Gave fire and taught men how to hunt. Apollo - God of the sun and also medicine, gold, and music. Son of Zeus and Leto. Baucis - Old peasant woman entertained Zeus and Hermes.
    [Show full text]
  • Greek Religion and the Tradition of Myth Religion
    Greek Religion and The Tradition of Myth Religion • Religion • An institutionalized system of rituals. • An institution is a “system of ideas whose object is to explain the world” (Durkheim, 1965: 476). • Spiritualism • A belief in forces that exist outside of space and time but that can act within those domains Culture and Belief • “Religion is sociologically interesting not because, as vulgar positivism would have it, it describes the social order...but because... it shapes it” (Geertz 1973, 119). • “The social function of myth is to bind together social groups as wholes or, in other words, to establish a social consensus” (Halpern 1961, 137). Mythos • Archaic Greek: a story, speech, utterance. • Essentially declarative in nature • Classical Greek: An unsubstantiated claim • Mythographos • Logographos • Logopoios Modern Definitions • “…Myth is defined as a complex of traditional tales in which significant human situations are united in fantastic combinations to form a polyvalent semiotic system which is used in multifarious ways to illuminate reality…” • (Burkert 1985: 120). • “A traditional story with collective importance” • (Powell, 2009: 2) Logos • An argument • A statement or story based on comparative evaluation or collection of data • The result of a process • A study • Bio-logy, Socio-logy, mytho-logy • Powell: • logos is defined by authorship, it has a known origin, • mythos is anonymous, it exists in a social milieu undefined by its origin Truth and Falsehood • “The poet and the historian differ not by writing in verse or in prose… The true difference is that one relates what has happened, the other what may happen. Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a higher thing than history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular.” • (Aristotle Poetics 1451a.
    [Show full text]
  • Hesiod Theogony.Pdf
    Hesiod (8th or 7th c. BC, composed in Greek) The Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are probably slightly earlier than Hesiod’s two surviving poems, the Works and Days and the Theogony. Yet in many ways Hesiod is the more important author for the study of Greek mythology. While Homer treats cer- tain aspects of the saga of the Trojan War, he makes no attempt at treating myth more generally. He often includes short digressions and tantalizes us with hints of a broader tra- dition, but much of this remains obscure. Hesiod, by contrast, sought in his Theogony to give a connected account of the creation of the universe. For the study of myth he is im- portant precisely because his is the oldest surviving attempt to treat systematically the mythical tradition from the first gods down to the great heroes. Also unlike the legendary Homer, Hesiod is for us an historical figure and a real per- sonality. His Works and Days contains a great deal of autobiographical information, in- cluding his birthplace (Ascra in Boiotia), where his father had come from (Cyme in Asia Minor), and the name of his brother (Perses), with whom he had a dispute that was the inspiration for composing the Works and Days. His exact date cannot be determined with precision, but there is general agreement that he lived in the 8th century or perhaps the early 7th century BC. His life, therefore, was approximately contemporaneous with the beginning of alphabetic writing in the Greek world. Although we do not know whether Hesiod himself employed this new invention in composing his poems, we can be certain that it was soon used to record and pass them on.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hecate of the Theogony Jenny Strauss Clay
    STRAUSS CALY, JENNY, The Hecate of the "Theogony" , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:1 (1984) p.27 The Hecate of the Theogony Jenny Strauss Clay EAR THE MIDDLE of the Theogony, Hesiod appears to drop N everything in order to launch into an extended encomium of Hecate (411-52). Because of its length and apparent lack of integration into its context, but above all because of the peculiar terms of praise reserved for the goddess, the so-called "Hymn to Hecate" has often been dismissed as an intrusion into the Hesiodic text.l To be sure, voices have also been raised in defense,2 and, at present, the passage stands unbracketed in the editions of Mazon, Solmsen, and West.3 But questions remain even if the authenticity of the lines is acknowledged. Why does Hesiod devote so much space to so minor a deity? What is the origin and function of Hesiod's Hecate, and what role does she play in the poem ?4 1 Most notably by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen I (Berlin 1931) 172. Wilamowitz is followed by M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Re/igion 3 I (Munich 1969) 723. Condemnation is fairly universal among earlier editors. Cf 0. Gruppe, Ueber die Theogonie des Hesiod (Berlin 1841) 72; G. Schoemann, Die He­ siodische Theogonie (Berlin 1868) 190, who, after many good observations, concludes that the passage is a later interpolation; H. Flach, Die Hesiodische Theogonie (Berlin 1873) 81; A. Fick, Hesiods Gedichte (Gottingen 1887) 17 ("Der Verfasser war ein Or­ phiker"); F.
    [Show full text]
  • STONEFLY NAMES from CLASSICAL TIMES W. E. Ricker
    ZOBODAT - www.zobodat.at Zoologisch-Botanische Datenbank/Zoological-Botanical Database Digitale Literatur/Digital Literature Zeitschrift/Journal: Perla Jahr/Year: 1996 Band/Volume: 14 Autor(en)/Author(s): Ricker William E. Artikel/Article: Stonefly names from classical times 37-43 STONEFLY NAMES FROM CLASSICAL TIMES W. E. Ricker Recently I amused myself by checking the stonefly names that seem to be based on the names of real or mythological persons or localities of ancient Greece and Rome. I had copies of Bulfinch’s "Age of Fable," Graves; "Greek Myths," and an "Atlas of the Ancient World," all of which have excellent indexes; also Brown’s "Composition of Scientific Words," And I have had assistance from several colleagues. It turned out that among the stonefly names in lilies’ 1966 Katalog there are not very many that appear to be classical, although I may have failed to recognize a few. There were only 25 in all, and to get even that many I had to fudge a bit. Eleven of the names had been proposed by Edward Newman, an English student of neuropteroids who published around 1840. What follows is a list of these names and associated events or legends, giving them an entomological slant whenever possible. Greek names are given in the latinized form used by Graves, for example Lycus rather than Lykos. I have not listed descriptive words like Phasganophora (sword-bearer) unless they are also proper names. Also omitted are geographical names, no matter how ancient, if they are easily recognizable today — for example caucasica or helenica. alexanderi Hanson 1941, Leuctra.
    [Show full text]
  • The Legend About Phaethon
    The legend about Phaethon As the myth implies, there lived a young man named Phaethon, the son of the god Helios and the nymph Clymene. Every day the Sun rises above the Earth---this is the great god Helios drives his golden Chariot of the Sun across the sky. Once Phaethon wanted to proof his high blood and went to the palace of the god Helios. Helios saw Phaethon and asked him: – What brought you to my palace, my son? – Oh, the great and radiant Helios! - Please, establish your paternity. – It is true. You are my son indeed. Ask me everything you want to dispel your doubts. And Phaethon asked his father to allow him to drive the Chariot of the Sun instead of him. Helios was fearful at his son's request: - Bethink yourself, madman! It is above your strength, a mortal, to manage my Chariot of the Sun. Even the mighty Zeus cannot stay on the Chariot of the Sun and who is greater than he? But Phaethon insisted that Helios kept his promise and Helios had to agree. He put holy ointments on his son's face, so that hot rays would not burn it and led him to fiery horses who hoofed already. - Listen to my advice. Do not hurry the horses, they will run themselves, they are difficult to control. Keep the reins firmer, do not release them and try not to deviate from the route. Your way lies just between the Snake and the Altar. Do not go too low to the Earth, so as not to burn it, and do not go too high, or else you'll burn the sky.
    [Show full text]
  • Athena ΑΘΗΝΑ Zeus ΖΕΥΣ Poseidon ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ Hades ΑΙΔΗΣ
    gods ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣ ΑΘΗΝΑ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΣ Athena Greek name Apollo Artemis Minerva Roman name Dionysus Diana Bacchus The god of music, poetry, The goddess of nature The goddess of wisdom, The god of wine and art, and of the sun and the hunt the crafts, and military strategy and of the theater Olympian Son of Zeus by Semele ΕΡΜΗΣ gods Twin children ΗΦΑΙΣΤΟΣ Hermes of Zeus by Zeus swallowed his first Mercury Leto, born wife, Metis, and as a on Delos result Athena was born ΑΡΗΣ Hephaestos The messenger of the gods, full-grown from Vulcan and the god of boundaries Son of Zeus the head of Zeus. Ares by Maia, a Mars The god of the forge who must spend daughter The god and of artisans part of each year in of Atlas of war Persephone the underworld as the consort of Hades ΑΙΔΗΣ ΖΕΥΣ ΕΣΤΙΑ ΔΗΜΗΤΗΡ Zeus ΗΡΑ ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ Hades Jupiter Hera Poseidon Hestia Pluto Demeter The king of the gods, Juno Vesta Ceres Neptune The goddess of The god of the the god of the sky The goddess The god of the sea, the hearth, underworld The goddess of and of thunder of women “The Earth-shaker” household, the harvest and marriage and state ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗ Hekate The goddess Aphrodite First-generation Second- generation of magic Venus ΡΕΑ Titans ΚΡΟΝΟΣ Titans The goddess of MagnaRhea Mater Astraeus love and beauty Mnemosyne Kronos Saturn Deucalion Pallas & Perses Pyrrha Kronos cut off the genitals Crius of his father Uranus and threw them into the sea, and Asteria Aphrodite arose from them.
    [Show full text]
  • Greek Mythology
    Greek Mythology The Creation Myth “First Chaos came into being, next wide bosomed Gaea(Earth), Tartarus and Eros (Love). From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night. Of Night were born Aether and Day (whom she brought forth after intercourse with Erebus), and Doom, Fate, Death, sleep, Dreams; also, though she lay with none, the Hesperides and Blame and Woe and the Fates, and Nemesis to afflict mortal men, and Deceit, Friendship, Age and Strife, which also had gloomy offspring.”[11] “And Earth first bore starry Heaven (Uranus), equal to herself to cover her on every side and to be an ever-sure abiding place for the blessed gods. And earth brought forth, without intercourse of love, the Hills, haunts of the Nymphs and the fruitless sea with his raging swell.”[11] Heaven “gazing down fondly at her (Earth) from the mountains he showered fertile rain upon her secret clefts, and she bore grass flowers, and trees, with the beasts and birds proper to each. This same rain made the rivers flow and filled the hollow places with the water, so that lakes and seas came into being.”[12] The Titans and the Giants “Her (Earth) first children (with heaven) of Semi-human form were the hundred-handed giants Briareus, Gyges, and Cottus. Next appeared the three wild, one-eyed Cyclopes, builders of gigantic walls and master-smiths…..Their names were Brontes, Steropes, and Arges.”[12] Next came the “Titans: Oceanus, Hypenon, Iapetus, Themis, Memory (Mnemosyne), Phoebe also Tethys, and Cronus the wily—youngest and most terrible of her children.”[11] “Cronus hated his lusty sire Heaven (Uranus).
    [Show full text]
  • Hesiod, Cosmogony, and Cupid-Apollo-Daphne in Metamorphoses Book 1 April 12, 2018 - CAMWS Annual Meeting – Albuquerque, NM Brett L
    Hesiod, Cosmogony, and Cupid-Apollo-Daphne in Metamorphoses Book 1 April 12, 2018 - CAMWS Annual Meeting – Albuquerque, NM Brett L. Stine – Texas Tech University – [email protected] 1) Theogony 116-28 Translation:1 ἤτοι μὲν πρώτιστα Χάος γένετ᾽· αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα Then first Chaos came to be; then next Γαῖ᾽ εὐρύστερνος, πάντων ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ Gaia, broad-breasted, the always unslipping seat ἀθανάτων οἵ ἔχουσι κάρη νιφόεντος Ὀλύμπου, of all the immortals, who hold the head of snowy Olympus, [Τάρταρά τ᾽ ἠερόεντα μυχῷ χθονὸς εὐρυοδείης,] and murky Tartarus in the depths of broad-pathed earth 120 ἠδ᾽ Ἔρος, ὅς κάλλιστος ἐν ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσι, and Eros who [is] most beautiful, among the immortal gods, λυσιμελής, πάντων τε θεῶν πάντων, τ᾽ ἀνθρώπων limb-loosening, [who] subdues the mind and prudent council δάμναται εν στήθεσσι νόον καὶ ἐπί φρονα βουλήν. of all gods and men. ἐκ Χάεος δ᾽Ἔρεβός τε μέλαινά τε Νὺξ ἐγένοντο· From Chaos came to be Erebos and Swarthy Night. Νυκτὸς δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ Αἰθήρ τε καὶ Ἡμέρη ἐξεγένοντο, And further from Night Aëther and Day came to be, 125 οὕς τέκε κυσαμένη Ἐρέβει φιλότητι μιγεῖσα. whom [she] bore, impregnated, having mingled in love Γαῖα δἐ τοι πρῶτον μὲν ἐγείνατο ἶσον ἑωυτῇ with Erebos. And Gaia first brought into being an equal to herself Οὐρανὸν ἀστερόενθ᾽, ἵνα μιν περὶ πᾶσαν ἐέργοι, starry Uranus, in order to cover her on every side, ὄφρ᾽ εἴη μακάρεσσι θεοῖς ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεί. [and] so as to be always an unslipping seat for the blessed gods 2) Metamorphoses 1.5-9, 15-25 5 ante mare et terras et, quod tegit Omnia, caelum before sea and earth, and which covers everything, heaven, unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, one face existed in the whole orb of nature, quem dixere Chaos, rudis indigestaque moles which they call Chaos, a mass unformed and without order, nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem which [was] nothing except artless weight and similarly non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum heaped-up discordant seeds of things poorly joined.
    [Show full text]
  • Myth and Origins: Men Want to Know
    Journal of Literature and Art Studies, October 2015, Vol. 5, No. 10, 930-945 doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2015.10.013 D DAVID PUBLISHING Myth and Origins: Men Want to Know José Manuel Losada Université Complutense, Madrid, Spain Starting with a personal definition of “myth”, this paper seeks to substantiate the claim that every myth is essentially etiological, in the sense that myths somehow express a cosmogony or an eschatology, whether particular or universal. In order to do that, this study reassesses Classical and Judeo-Christian mythologies to revisit and contrast the narratives of origin—of the cosmos, of the gods and of men—found in ancient polytheism and in Judeo-Christian monotheism. Taking into consideration how these general and particular cosmogonies convey a specific understanding of the passage of time, this article does not merely recount the cosmogonies, theogonies, and anthropogonies found in the Bible and in the works of authors from Classical Antiquity, but it also incorporates a critical commentary on pieces of art and literature that have reinterpreted such mythical tales in more recent times. The result of the research is the disclosure of a sort of universal etiology that may be found in mythology which, as argued, explains the origins of the world, of the gods, and of men so as to satisfy humankind’s ambition to unveil the mysteries of the cosmos. Myth thus functions in these cases as a vehicle that makes it possible for man to return the fullness of a primordial age, abandoning the fleeting time that entraps him and entering a time still absolute.
    [Show full text]