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Rebels Class VIDEO CLASS 5.1: HESIOD’s THEOGONY 1 PROGRAM FOR WEEK 3 Hesiod Class 5: Cosmogonic Conflicts (with Hymn to Demeter) Class 6: Prometheus (less readings). 2 THE MAIN POINTS OF THE VIDEO 1. The special nature of the Proem of the Theogony 2. Cosmogonic Conflicts and Zeus’ victory 3 THE SPECIAL NATURE OF THE PROEM OF THE THEOGONY 4 HESIOD’s THEOGONY • Hesiod the poet: Boeotia, 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) Titans, including Kronos (Zeus’ father), the Cyclops and Hundred- Handers 3) The Olympians (Zeus and all the others): children of Kronos and Rhea 4) Children of the Olympians 6 1-10: THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE PROEM BOEOTIA MOUNT HELICON HOW DOES THIS BEGINNING LOOK CLIO, one of the LIKE? WHICH KIND OF TEXT CAN A HYMN TO NINE MUSES 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? ‘dance on tender feet; go round about the altar;’ ‘dancing chorus … so beautiful, beguiling’ ‘uttering sweet sound’. Mix of poetry, 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 aegis-bearing Zeus and also of his queen, Hera of Argos, …and Hebe golden garlanded, lovely Dione. … ‘and Eos, great Helios, Selena shining bright, Gaia (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 ancient Greek gods. 1) Olympians: Zeus and Hera, Poseidon, Themis and Aphrodite (with some of their sons and daughters (e.g. Apollo and Artemis) 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 literature 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 lyre): 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 goddesses, 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). • Mnemosyne (‘memory’) is the divine mother of the Muses. Some names of the nine Muses: Clio (‘to make famous’, Muse of history), Euterpe (‘delight’, presiding over music) and Thalia (’the flourishing’, Muse of comedy). • 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, Cronus 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 Crete, and gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed; Rhea hid her infant son Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida. 19 TIITANOMACHY AND ZEUS’ DEFEAT OF TYPHOEUS MIRRORING POLITICAL HISTORY - 10-year Titanomachy: an epic war resembling the Trojan war - 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 Tartarus’ (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 Horae come, Eunomia and Dike and Eirene 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 Metis as his first wife, and when she is about to give birth to Athena, 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 arts 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 Persephone can be taken as a reference to a divine order in which Demeter, goddess of fertility, had strong power. Demeter as a Greek version of the Great Mother. Zeus’ challenge: let his brother Hades abduct Persephone. 25.
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