3.6: Hesiod- Introduction to The Theogony

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Family tree of the first, second and third generation of Olympians. (Simeon Netchev, CC By-NC-SA, via World History Encyclopedia)

Hesiod’s Theogony, composed c. the 8th-century BCE as a didactic instructional poem, was part of a rich oral tradition which only achieved written form decades later. The poem (officially called The Theogony) traces the history of the world from its creation through the battle between the Olympians and the Titans (The Titanomachy) to the ascension of Zeus as the absolute ruler of all of the Olympian gods. With the rise of Zeus to supremacy and the birth of his many children, the poem ends, and does not address the continued struggles between mankind and the gods. Hesiod’s primary intention with this work was to add his interpretation of the Creation to further burnish the image and traditions of the Greeks.

Much of what is known today concerning early Greek mythology comes from Hesiod's work and Homer. Collectively, their works would serve as a major influence on later Greek literature and drama, and Roman mythology, especially through the epic Metamorphoses by Ovid.

Authorship

The Theogony (from the Greek theogonia, meaning "generations of the gods") is an epic poem of 1,022 hexameter lines which describes the birth of the gods in the Greek pantheon. It is thought to have been composed c. 700 BCE (give or take a generation on either side of that date). Like many authors of the time, little is known of Hesiod's life. His father emigrated from Cyme in Asia Minor and settled in Boeotia, a small state in central Greece. Assumptions that the poet was a farmer were garnered from the early verses of the Theogony. He may also have been a rhapsodist, a reciter of poetry, who is schooled in the technique and vocabulary of heroic songs.

Although there are some who question whether or not Hesiod actually wrote the Theogony, most classicists believe he did. However, parts of the work may have been added by later poets and there is a definite similarity in some aspects to earlier Mesopotamian literature. The historian Dorothea Wender believes that the Theogony was an earlier work than Works and Days, based upon the lack of polish in the lyrical style of Theogony. She further criticizes Hesiod for failing to address the dethroning of Kronos and the poet’s relentless focus upon "colourless deities." Finding fault in his characterization of Zeus, whom she believes is too invincible, she finds there is no suspense. "Homer,” she asserts, “gets more excitement out of a footrace than Hesiod does out of a full-scale war in heaven" (18). However, to Wender, the poem still has historical interest. Certainly, the Theogony was influential and the historian Norman Cantor in his Antiquity wrote that the Greeks readily adopted Homer and Hesiod's notion of the gods and Hesiod was influential on Classical Greek literature and philosophy, his Prometheus story, for example, inspiring such playwrights as Aeschylus (c. 525 - c. 456 BCE). His poetic style was often imitated, particularly in Hellenistic times and in Roman times–both the Republic and Imperial Rome–when Hesiod's works continued to be recited and set to music. His legacy even reached to the Roman empire, and the writer Ovid (43 BCE - 17 CE) would use many of the themes of the Theogony in his Metamorphoses.