Delphi Complete Works of Hesiod (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics)
The Complete Works of
HESIOD
(c.750-c.650 BC)
Contents
INTRODUCTION TO HESIOD by Hugh G. Evelyn-White
THE CONTEST OF HOMER AND HESIOD
© Delphi Classics 2013
Version 1
The Complete Works of
HESIOD
By Delphi Classics, 2013
The Translations
Mount Helicon, upon which the town of Ascra was located. Hesiod’s father came from Cyme in Aeolis, Asia Minor, and crossed the sea to settle at Ascra, a hamlet, near Thespiae in Boeotia, which the poet described as “a cursed place, cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant”.
THE THEOGONY
Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White
Composed circa 700 BC in the epic dialect of Homeric Greek,
The Theogony
(‘the birth of the gods’) describes the origins and genealogies of classical gods and goddesses. It provides an important synthesis of a vast variety of local traditions concerning the gods, organised as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. Interestingly,
The Theogony
of Hesiod is unique for establishing no historical royal line, instead choosing to affirm the kingship of Zeus over all the other gods and the cosmos.
Hesiod was probably influenced by Near-Eastern traditions, such as the Babylonian Dynasty of Dunnum, which were mixed with local traditions, with lingering traces from Mycenaean traditions. Following the invocation to the muses in the opening, Hesiod declares that he has received their blessings and thanks them for the gift of inspiration. Hesiod commences to explain that the initial state of the universe, or the origin (arche) is Chaos, a gaping void (abyss) considered as a divine primordial condition, from which appeared everything that exists. Then came Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (the cave-like space under the earth; the later-born Erebus is the darkness in this space), and Eros (Sexual Desire), who serves an important role in sexual reproduction, before which children had to be produced asexually. From Chaos came Erebus (place of darkness between the earth and the underworld) and Nyx (Night). Erebus and Nyx reproduced to make Aether (the outer atmosphere where the gods breathed) and Hemera (Day). From Gaia came Uranus (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea).
Hesiod then explains how Uranus mated with Gaia to create twelve Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronus; three cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes and Arges; and three Hecatonchires: Kottos, Briareos, and Gyges. Disgusted with his own children, Uranus hid the Hecatonchires somewhere in Gaia. Angered by this, Gaia asked her children the Titans to punish their father. Only Cronus was willing to do so and castrated his father with a sickle from Gaia. The blood from Uranus splattered onto the earth producing Erinyes (the Furies), Giants, and Meliai. Cronus threw the severed testicles into the Sea (Thalassa), around which foam developed and transformed into the goddess of Love, Aphrodite. The myths then progress on to the war of the Titans and Zeus’ eventual rise and defeat of his own father, establishing the pantheon of gods and goddesses of ancient Greek mythology.
Gaia by Anselm Feuerbach, 1875
‘The mutilation of Uranus by Cronus’ by Giorgio Vasari
‘The Birth of Venus’ by Sandro Botticelli, 1485
THE THEOGONY
(1-25)
From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing, who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronos, and, when they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse’s Spring or Olmeius, make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon and move with vigorous feet. Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis and quick-glancing Aphrodite, and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty counsellor, Eos and great Helius and bright Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and dark Night, and the holy race of all the other deathless ones that are for ever. And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses said to me — the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis: