Hesiod's Theogony: The Greek Creation Myth
The Greek Creation Myth
I’ll be examining cosmogonic Greek myths. The Theogony, a poem written around 700 B.C. by Hesiod, states that from the vast expanse of nothingness called Chaos arose Gaia. Gaia is female and first into being. Her existence not deliberate, but magically occurs for no stated purpose. Gaia gives birth to a son, Uranus without the assistance of any other deity. Uranus is the sky and Gaia who is the earth, mates with her son to bring forth the 12 Titans. There were six male Titans; Coeus, Cronus, Crius, Hyperion and Lapetus and six female Titans; Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis and Tethys. Cronus, the youngest male Titan comes to castrate his father, Uranus and then rule the Gods in his place beside his sister, Rhea. But Cronus’ son Zeus eventually unseats him in the epic battle between gods called the Titanomachy which results in the Olympians coming to power and the Titans being banished to Tartarus. This is how the Gods come into being. Later, the Gods are responsible for being human beings into existence, but that is a convoluted tale beyond the scope of this essay. …show more content…
The idea of ‘world parents’, where the culture explains its origin by the sexual congress of earth, typically female, and sky, typically male, is fairly common. For the Greeks the earth is female and the sky is male. The union of Gaia and Uranus is something the community which would have been composed of Greek mothers and fathers can readily understand. I think that the ‘world parents’ mythology is common because the parenthood journey provides an abundant frame of reference to explain how life changing events arise. The ‘world parents’ narrative would be easily grasped by the members of the Greek
I’ll be examining cosmogonic Greek myths. The Theogony, a poem written around 700 B.C. by Hesiod, states that from the vast expanse of nothingness called Chaos arose Gaia. Gaia is female and first into being. Her existence not deliberate, but magically occurs for no stated purpose. Gaia gives birth to a son, Uranus without the assistance of any other deity. Uranus is the sky and Gaia who is the earth, mates with her son to bring forth the 12 Titans. There were six male Titans; Coeus, Cronus, Crius, Hyperion and Lapetus and six female Titans; Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis and Tethys. Cronus, the youngest male Titan comes to castrate his father, Uranus and then rule the Gods in his place beside his sister, Rhea. But Cronus’ son Zeus eventually unseats him in the epic battle between gods called the Titanomachy which results in the Olympians coming to power and the Titans being banished to Tartarus. This is how the Gods come into being. Later, the Gods are responsible for being human beings into existence, but that is a convoluted tale beyond the scope of this essay. …show more content…
The idea of ‘world parents’, where the culture explains its origin by the sexual congress of earth, typically female, and sky, typically male, is fairly common. For the Greeks the earth is female and the sky is male. The union of Gaia and Uranus is something the community which would have been composed of Greek mothers and fathers can readily understand. I think that the ‘world parents’ mythology is common because the parenthood journey provides an abundant frame of reference to explain how life changing events arise. The ‘world parents’ narrative would be easily grasped by the members of the Greek