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Chapter Four, Lecture One

Chapter Four, Lecture One. Myths of Creation Up to t he Birth of Aphrodite; Monsters and Sea Deities. “Sing all this to me, Muses, you who dwell on Olympus: from the beginning tell me, which of the gods first came to be.” Hesiod, Theogony (114 – 5). The cosmogony is the theogony.

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Chapter Four, Lecture One

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  1. Chapter Four, Lecture One Myths of Creation Up to the Birth of Aphrodite; Monsters and Sea Deities

  2. “Sing all this to me, Muses, you who dwell on Olympus: from the beginning tell me, which of the gods first came to be.”Hesiod, Theogony (114–5)

  3. The cosmogony is the theogony.

  4. The Children of Chaos • Hesiod, Theogony 116-125 • Chaos < Chasm • Gaea, Tartarus • Mythic geography • Olympus/Topmost • Earth/Middle • Tartarus/Bottommost

  5. The Children of Chaos • Eros • Force of sexual attraction • Nyx and Erebus • Features of Chaos? • Nyx • Moerae • Nemesis • Eerbus – Nyx • Aether (Radiance) • Hemera (day)

  6. The Children of Chaos • Is Gaea the mother of all things? • Homeric Myth to Gaea

  7. The Children of Gaea: The Titans and their Cousins • Many beings from the earth • Most important the • Titans • Cyclopes • Heacatonchires

  8. The Titans • Gaea = > Uranus, Mountains, Pontus • Gaea + Uranus

  9. The Titans • Uranos and Gaea in eternal sexual embrace • C.f. Egyptian Nut and Geb

  10. The Titans Thereafter Gaea was bedded with Uranus, lord of heaven, and bore deep-swirling (1)Oceanus, (2)Coeus, (3)Crius, (4)Hyperion, (5)Iapetus, (6)Theia and (7)Rhea, (8)Themis, (9)Mnemnosynê, (10)Phoebê, and fair-featured (11)Tethys. Last of all she gave birth to (12)Cronus, that scheming intriguer, cleverest child of her brood, who hated his lecherous father. Hesiod, Theogony (126–38)

  11. The Titans • Titans six male, six female • Most Titans hardly more than names • Take no role in subsequent Greek myth

  12. The Titans • Oceanus – Tethys • Homer’s alternate cosmology makes them the primordial parents of all the gods • Ancient geography • Oceanus rims the world • Sky is a dome over it • The Oceanids

  13. The Titans • Phoebê = “brilliant,” “shinning” • Themis = “settled law” • Occupied Delphi before Apollo • Zeus + Themis => Mnemosynê • Iapetus = Jepheth (?) • Cronus + Rhea • Parents or grandparents of the Olympians

  14. Cyclops, Hecatonchires • Also children of Gaea and Uranus • Cyclops • Not the Cyclops of Homer (Polyphemos) • Blacksmiths for the gods • Brontes (“Thunderer”), Steropes (“flasher”), Arges (“brightener”)

  15. Cyclops, Hecatonchires • Hecatonchires (“hundred-handers”) • Also fifty heads • Cottus, Briareus, Gyes

  16. Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Hyperion (“he who goes above”) • Father of Helius, another sun god • Selenê (moon) • Eos (dawn) • Homeric Hymn to Helius • The Story of Phaëthon in Ovid 1.750-

  17. Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Clymenê • The hasty promise • Etiology: why the Ethiopians are black • Eridanus (Po) river • Heliades = > poplar trees and golden amber • Phaethon’s fall in art

  18. Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun • Selenê and Endymion • Endymion placed in eternal sleep • Eos • Tithonus • Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 5

  19. Cronus Against Uranus • Uranus stuffing newly born Titans back into Gaea • Cronus, the youngest, castrates Uranus with a sickle • Blood from the severed genitals becomes the Erinyes

  20. The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters and Sea Deities • Aphrodite springs up from the “foam” at Cythera • Birth of Aphrodite in modern art • Monsters • Altered Egyptian and Mesopotamian archetypes: • Harpies, Sirens, Sphinx

  21. The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters and Sea Deities • Combined human and animal parts • Gorgons, Geryon, Cerberus, Chimera • Natural animals, but with special powers • Ceto, Graeae, Nemaean Lion, Nereus (the Nereids – Thetis)

  22. Next Zeus’s battles | Near Eastern Creation Myths

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