Greek Cosmology And Cosmogony

What are the characteristics and dynamics of a three-story universe?

In Greek mythology the universe is split into three parts; heaven, earth, and the underworld. Greek mythographers constructed a picture of how this three-story universe would presumably looks like; one giant basketball. The top level (heaven), above the sun and moon, is where the Olympian gods and goddess reside. This top level resembles a dome that covers the earth like a blanket that gently layers on top of it. Right below this level is the middle ground, Earth (Gaea), which is “conceived as a relatively flat disk” and has Ocean “coiled around the central landmass” (Harris and Platzner, 63). This is where the mortals claim along with Fate who assigns them an “unequal mixture of joy and pain that inevitably ends in death” (63). Beneath these two levels is Hades realm, the underworld, where the dead roam in for eternity. This basement of the universe is dark and extremely depressing and if that wasn’t bad enough, contained within this this pitiless hell is Tartarus, a “cosmic subbasement”(63). Tartarus is described from our sources to be a “geographical space, a fathomless abyss, and an elemental entity” created when the Earth was (63).

What is the significance of Hesiod choosing Chaos as the first starting entity, and then following with Gaea (Earth), Eros (Procreation) and Tartarus (Underworld)?

From our source, Classical Mythology: Images & Insights, Hesiod tells his version of the origin of the gods. In his story we learn of how “in the beginning there was only Chaos, the Abyss / but then Gaia, the Earth, came into being” along with Tartarus and lastly Eros (Theogony, 116-117). These four primal entities are important because without their existence Zeus, the patriarchal father the Greeks admire, wouldn’t have been born. Yes, correct, almighty Zeus has a family line; he is the “grandson of the primal couple Gaea and her firstborn son, Ouranos (Sky)” (Harris and Platzner, 72). The coupling of Earth and Sky lead to the creation of one of many children, one of them being Cronus (kronos), who scores with his sister Rhea to make Zeus.

Zeus is known in Greek mythology to be the most powerful god of them all, thus making him extremely important to the Greek civilization. He is King of the Gods and rules the entire universe, this is only true because he defeats his daddy and takes over his title of most powerful god. Although the male is made out to extremely important in Greek myth, Zeus would not have become so almighty without the help of mother Earth, who “ultimately confirms Zeus’s right to rule” (84). Her decision to allow Zeus as ruler of the universe is any ones guess, it could possibly have to do with the act of generations taking over. With time the younger generation always overthrows the older one and then that cycle is repeated unless everyone stopped reproducing.

Are the ancient Greek conceptions of cosmology and cosmogony rational? Why or why not?
Ancient Greek conceptions of cosmogony and cosmology are what I believe to be somewhat rational. For starters, the Greeks were not the first ones to have stories that explained their existence. Our sources tell us that, “virtually every known culture, from Africa to Asia to Mesoamerica, has produced stories explaining the origins of heaven, earth, and human life (65). Man wants and needs to know more about himself and his surroundings and he does so by being observable. This is exactly how we have gotten creation stories, religious or not they are founded by the ever so curious ones. With the Greeks we learn about the basics of any origin story; where this and that comes from, but the only difference in their stories is the Greek culture and politics represented in them.
Let’s take a step back and discuss what we know about the Greek culture so far. Well for starters they respected men over women because they observed that men were usually heftier than women, thus men are superior and smarter and everything else. What comes with this way of thinking is the acting out from this assumption of one being superior. So, we’ll find that with the Greeks that carry this thought process have women restricted with power, and men are the leaders of the household and make the ‘important’ decisions. This is exactly how the god, Zeus, is being represented as. Harris and Platzner mention that, “Zeus heads a divine patriarchy, social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in a clan or family and a sociopolitical arrangement in which male leadership and values dominate” (11). Very odd that the universe would be patriarchal, but what’s even more odd is when Hesiod explains in his epic that the female [Gaia] was one of the first and the “foundation of all” (Theogony, 118). Mother Gaia was the reason why Zeus even exists, but yet people will worship him over her because he represents the male dominance that the Greeks can appreciate.

What significance is there that most of the early gods are personifications of abstract qualities?
The significance of the early gods being personifications of abstract qualities is that those early gods were relevant to the Greeks and their worldview. I believe the Greek civilization had their gods and goddesses based off of their own people and those characteristics that those people had. This is extremely important to do, in any civilization, because it connects the audience with the story teller. If these Greek characteristics were not given it gives the stories of the god’s than the stories of them would become unreverent and eventually disappear into the abyss. Cities like Athens, named after the goddess Athena, wouldn’t have been named so if these gods weren’t represented a certain way.