Chapter Introduction

• recount the story of the origins of the cosmos' as told by Hesiod.
• explain the relationship between the Greeks' mythic conception of the universe and their "commonsensical observations" of the natural world.
• discuss the mythic conception of a vertically structured three-story universe.

Hesiod's Theogony and Ancient Near Eastern Myth

• differentiate between the terms "cosmogony" and "cosmology."
• explain how/why Hesiod's Theogony transitions from the realm of the divine to the realm of the human.
• identify Hesiod's primary sources.
• identify specific parallels between Hesiod's Theogony and the Babylonian Enuma Elish.

The Poet and His Inspiration

• trace the autobiographical subtheme in Hesiod's work.
• describe the function of the Muses in the Theogony.

The Origins of the Gods

• identify similarities and differences between the Theogony and the Book of Genesis.
• discuss the roles played by Chaos, Gaea, Tartarus, and Eros in Hesiod's creation myth.
• trace Zeus's lineage back to Gaea.
• recount the gruesome conception of the Furies and Aphrodite, and discuss the irony inherent in this myth.
• discuss the separation of sky and earth (male and female) as a pervasive theme in ancient cosmogony.
• define sparagmos and discuss the larger theme of primordial sacrifice in Greek myth.
• define deus otiosus, using Uranus as an example.
• discuss the birth of Athene in terms of this myth's implications for gender relations/reversals amongst the gods.
• identify the parallels between the birth of Hephaestus and the birth of Athene, and discuss these "divine births" in the context of a larger struggle between the genders.
• explain why Zeus's battle with Typhoeus signifies a "patriarchal assault on Gaea."

Hesiod's Worldview

After studying this section of the chapter you should be able to identify some of the major contradictions inherent in Hesiod's worldview.