Myths of Creation (Lecture 3 Slides)

- creation of the world then the creation of humans

- Hesiods Theogony was the most important, but there were other creation stories
as well, like Homer
- Homer thought that the world was created from Oceanus and
Tethys
- note: Theogony means birth of gods but Hesiods
Theogony is about the creation of the world gods are usually
embodiments of the world
- background issues:
inspiration: muses
- muses were the ones who inspired the poets and
teachers of the ancient Greece
- Hesiod has an obsession with the muses
- ... but always to sing of them themselves,
the Muses, both first and last Hesiods honoured the muses
before and after his poems
- Hesiod said his creation story is true because he
was inspired by the muses
- inspiration is the only source of knowledge
- theyre not doing research!
- everything comes from inspiration
from the muses
- purpose:
- to explain the origins of the world, but in order to
understand how the world is today
- praise gods, especially Zeus
- he upholds the natural world and
moral world as well; the High God
- justify political realities?
- at the end of Hesiods Theogony, he
spoke of gods mating with mortals which created heroes
- why talk about gods mating with
lowly mortals? justified realities of the day when this was written
(Greek aristocratic families dominated the society, and the
aristocrats would say theyre privileged because theyre
descendants of Zeus, and so this addresses that)
- account of creation:
- primeval elements:
- Chaos: to Hesiod, Chaos means a big gap or
chasm, an amorphous thing: there was something there
- Earth: Gaia
- Tartarus: underworld (not fully formed yet), but
Tartarus became the place where the dead went
- Eros: desire principal to drive things
forward (in Hesiods Theogony, things were created sexually)
- priority of Chaos?

first generation gods: Earth and Heaven (Gaia and Oruanos)

- asexually Gaia produces Heaven, Mountains, and
Sea (Pontos)
- sexually Gaia (with Ouranos) produces 12 Titans,
the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants and makes for Zeus his bolts), and the
Hecatonchires (Hundred-Handers)