Theogony Analysis-Richard Taveras

“Chaos was born first and after it came Gaia

the broad-breasted,  the firm seat of all

the immortals who hold the peaks  of snowy  Olympos,

and the misty Tartaros in the depths of broad-pathed earth

and Eros”

Theogony is another great example of humans wanting to understand their existence.  The Greeks needed to explain why they were here which is actually the basis of all creation myths.  This excerpt is interesting because chaos is what comes first.  Now it makes sense for Hesiod to believe this because at the time life in Greece was not great.  This time period was known as the “Dark ages.”  Entire cities were lost and there is also a lot of evidence of famine and depopulation.  When you think of chaos you think of evil and danger, and disorder and confusion.  In Theogony, everything comes from chaos.  This includes the first three beings who were earth, the underworld, and love.  It says a lot about what the Greek society valued at the time.  By putting chaos first, it shows what the sentiment was at the time.  It is also an interesting parallel to the what we know as the “Big Bang” that there was nothing and suddenly an explosion and the universe as we know it came to be.