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VIDEO CLASS 5.1: ’s

1 PROGRAM FOR WEEK 3 Hesiod

Class 5: Cosmogonic Conflicts (with to )

Class 6: (less readings).

2 THE MAIN POINTS OF THE VIDEO

1. The special nature of the Proem of the Theogony

2. Cosmogonic Conflicts and ’ victory

3 THE SPECIAL NATURE OF THE PROEM OF THE THEOGONY

4 HESIOD’s THEOGONY

• Hesiod the : , 750-650 BC. Oral tradition.

• Content: cosmogonic poem = poem about the birth of the gods.

• Functions: Theological / Didactic (= instructional), Etiological and Metaliterary. Didactic poem.

5 THE MOST IMPORTANT GENEALOGIES OF THE GREEK PANTHEON

1) Elemental divinities: Chasm and Earth. Earth gave birth to Ouranos

2) , including Kronos (Zeus’ father), the Cyclops and Hundred-

Handers

3) The Olympians (Zeus and all the others): children of Kronos and

4) Children of the Olympians

6 1-10: THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE PROEM

BOEOTIA

HOW DOES THIS BEGINNING LOOK , one of the LIKE? WHICH KIND OF TEXT CAN A HYMN TO NINE YOU RECALL HERE? THE MUSES!7 THE MUSES’ MAIN ACTIVITIES

• What is the Muses’ main activity as it is described at the lines 1-22? ‘ on tender feet; go round about the altar;’ ‘dancing chorus … so beautiful, beguiling’ ‘uttering sweet sound’.

Mix of , singing and dancing

All instances of METALITERATURE!!

8 THE MUSES’ MAIN ACTIVITIES

• How does their activity as described here relate to the Theogony?

LINES 11-21 ‘To sing of -bearing Zeus and also of his queen, of Argos, …and golden garlanded, lovely . … ‘and , great , Selena shining bright, (the Earth), and Okeanos (Ocean), Nux (the Night) …’.

MISE-EN-ABYME focused on the content shared by this song and the entire poem!

9 MUSES’ FIRST SONG (11-21): A FIRST MISE-EN-ABYME

Song about different generations of the gods. 1) Olympians: Zeus and Hera, , and (with some of their sons and daughters (e.g. and ) 2) Titans: Children of Ouranus 3) Elemental divinities: Earth and Okeanos etc. REVERSE ORDER

(and importance of order) 10 THE MUSES’ EPIPHANY TO HESIOD (22-35)

EPIPHANY OF MUSES

POETIC INVESTITURE of A SHEPHERD

COSMOGONIC CONTENT

11 THE MUSES’ EPIPHANY TO HESIOD (22-35)

• Divine and poetic inspiration. 22: ‘The Muses once to Hesiod taught lovely songs’. Self-praise. First time ever emergence within ancient Greek of the poet’s personality.

• Please note: a) The message of the Muses: ‘we’re able to give truthful statements too’ b) Staff (alternative to ): sign of divine protection. c) Content of inspired poetry:

‘that I might celebrate the things that were and that shall be’. 12 THE MUSES’ SINGING (35-52) • Metaliterary message: a) 'When they sing, they give pleasure …’ b) ‘the halls of Zeus the thunderer rejoices’ c) ‘The divine singing that they send forth gives fame’.

• From line 44 to 52: a second-mise-en-abyme, this time in sequential order: 1) Titans CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 2) Olympians Muses, being , can at the same time tell 3) Human race stories both in sequential and reverse order 13 THE MUSES’ BIRTH (53-64) and THEIR ACTIVITIES (65-103) • Confirmation of the hymnic nature of this proem (due to focus on the Muses’ divine birth).

• (‘memory’) is the divine mother of the Muses. Some names of : Clio (‘to make famous’, Muse of ), (‘delight’, presiding over ) and (’the flourishing’, Muse of ).

• Muses let kings be prudent. Importance of prudent kings: function of this

text: to narrate how Zeus’ cosmos has been established. 14 SUMMARY: THE PROEM OF THE THEOGONY • Hymn to the Muses

• Muses’ Inspiration to the first poet. Divinely inspired poetry: dew!

• Cosmogonic and didactic (’taught’) poem, giving delight (‘sweet dew, honey’), joy and fame

• Importance of order: Hesiod will choose chronological order, as to have his

text being ordered as the cosmos is. 15 COSMOGONIC CONFLICT AND ZEUS’ VICTORY

16 COSMOGONIC CONFLICT IN THE THEOGONY

1) Elemental divinities: Chasm and Earth. Earth gave birth to Ouranos

2) Titans, including Kronos, and the Cyclops and Hundred-Handers

3) The Olympians (Zeus and all the others): children of Kronos and Rhea

1) Fathers’ fear to lose their power through female reproduction (Ouranos and Kronos) 2) Mothers protect one of their children and let them take the father’s power (Gaia with Kronos and Rhea with Zeus).

>> NEVER-ENDING CONFLICTS BETWEEN GENERATIONS!! 17 COSMOGONIC CONFLICTS IN THE THEOGONY MIRRORING THE HUMAN DOMESTIC WORLD

Female goddesses both threaten the power of the male kings gods through reproduction, and assist the divine children.

1) Gaia’s rebellion to her husband Ouranos, who had imprisoned his children, the Titans, within her womb, fearing that they would overthrow him. She even crafted a giant sickle for the purpose. Though most of the children were reluctant, took the sickle and castrated his father. The outcome of the castration was good, as it led to the birth of some gods and goddesses, including Aphrodite.

18 COSMOGONIC CONFLICTS IN THE THEOGONY 2) Rhea’s rebellion to her husband Kronos, who was told that he was going to be overcome by his own children and therefore was swallowing all of them. Rhea devised a plan to save the last of them, Zeus. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in a cavern on the island of , and gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed; Rhea hid her infant son Zeus in a cave on .

19 TIITANOMACHY AND ZEUS’ DEFEAT OF TYPHOEUS MIRRORING POLITICAL HISTORY

- 10-year : an epic war resembling the - With Gaia’s help Zeus defeats the Tirtans. And yet …

- Gaia’s birth of Typhoeus:

‘But after Zeus had driven out the Titans from the sky, Prodigious Gaia bore her youngest child, Typhoeus, by ’ (820-2).

20 ZEUS’ ESTABLISHMENT OF MALE ORDER (WITH GAIA’S HELP)

‘But when the blessed gods had finished laboring in due course, they settled the claim to honor of the Titans with brute force, And then it was they urged farseeing Zeus the Olympian, On Gaia’s cunning counsel, to be sovereign and to reign Over the deathless ones; and he gave each what he was due. ...

Zeus wed Themis, and from her the come, and and full of bloom – and they attend upon the works and deeds of mortal men’. (881-5, 901-3)

21 ZEUS’ ESTABLISHMENT OF MALE ORDER (WITH GAIA’S HELP)

Zeus takes as his first wife, and when she is about to give birth to , he swallows her, because Gaia and Ouranos has warned Zeus that ‘otherwise there would have come a crafty lineage from Metis by fate’ (894- 5), including ‘a king of gods of men, a child having a proud and mighty spirit’ (897-8).

22 FINAL OPTIMISM: THE VICTORY OF ZEUS’ MALE ORDER

‘Using force, polygamy, ingenuity and the bait of honor, Zeus prevents the birth of a male successor altogether; … suppresses violent male gods of the earlier generations and distributes powers to all others; mates with goddesses to produce deities whose names suggest the of cultured life, and ensures the permanent separation of the worlds of humans and gods’ (Foley, 114). ESTABLISHMENT OF ZEUS’ MALE PATRIARCHY!!

23 COSMOGONIC CONFLICT AND THE HYMN TO DEMETER

What is the nature of the challenge to the established divine order? What was the ‘established' divine order in the first place, and how was this being challenged?

24 COSMOLOGICAL CONFLICT AND THE HYMN TO DEMETER

HINT TO AN EARLIER MATRIARCHAL ORDER? The peaceful harmony before the abduction of can be taken as a reference to a divine order in which Demeter, of fertility, had strong power. Demeter as a Greek version of . Zeus’ challenge: let his brother abduct Persephone.

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