Creation and the Cosmos
A cosmogony is a story about how the world began. The Greek word cosmos implies order and beauty, as well as universe. To compose a cosmogony, therefore, is to describe how the world came to be a beautiful and well-ordered place. Some features of a cosmogony are:
- It helps people define their place in the universe, giving specifics to a culture in a broader cosmic pattern
- Early ones provided mythical stories rather than scientific answers, and did not usually begin with creation out of nothing but with some primeval matter from which the world took shape, ie: water, sun, air, etc.
- It often has a political dimension, whereby some great ruler connected to the creator god or gods is praised by them
- It often depicts and details a struggle between different generations, an evolution from one age to the next
- It tends to classify the world as a hierarchical structure: upper world, lower world, middle earth
- It attempts to answer questions, such as: From where does the world come and of what is it made? Does it have an order, a pattern, a purpose? Was it created by some god, or gods, or entity? How did human beings come into existence?
Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007) has a few interesting scenes about the 13th century Mongolian fear of lightning. They speak to the personification of the elements and the unexplained wonders that humans have always encountered. There are three clips in chronological order. The first is Temudjin as a child, the second is his continued fear of the lightning as an adult, and the third is his bravery in the face of it. One might say that facing his fear of the lightning is what leads him to defeat his enemy and become the great Genghis Khan.
HESIOD
Hésiode et la Muse (1891) by Gustave Moreau
What are some of the reasons for oral histories?
How do you think oral stories get passed on?
Hesiod’s poetry, like Homer’s epics, was for entertainment and contests. It was memorized and sung at festivals. Even after the papyrus scroll was used and these poems were written down, they were spoken out loud.
Ages of Greece
- Mycenaean Age (1500-1200 BCE)
- Dark Age of Greece (1100-750 BCE) Hesiod and Homer compose
- Archaic Age of Greece (700-500 BCE)
- Classical Age of Greece (490-323 BCE) Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes
- Hellenistic Age (323-31 BCE) from the death of Alexander the Great, who conquered all of Greece and much of the Middle East, to the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra by Octavian. (this is when Greek culture flourishes and reaches the Mediterranean, Near East and Asia)
In Greece it was believed that there was a pantheon of deities—many of questionable moral virtue—who, while they occasionally meddled in human affairs and were keen on seducing mortals, generally remained detached from the everyday workings of the world and were not shown any strict allegiance by humans.
Theogony and Works and Days
(composed sometime during 1100-850 BCE, written down between 850-450 BCE)
- It began as an oral tradition of mythos through meter, so the hexameter is the distinct meter for both ancient Greek and Roman poems. Dactylic Hexameter is a metrical line of verse consisting of six feet. It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the Iliad and Aeneid. It is considered divine meter and therefore inspired by the gods. It is said to have been invented by Hermes, the Messenger god, who is also the son of Zeus.
In classical hexameter, the six feet follow these rules:
- A foot can be made up of two long syllables (– –), a spondee; or a long and two short syllables, a dactyl (– υ υ).
- The first four feet can contain either one of them.
- The fifth is almost always a dactyl, and the last must be a spondee.
Theogony
Three generations of gods: Ouranos, Kronos and Zeus (Olympians).
Problems with further generations:
As Rheia gives birth to her children, Kronos swallows them whole because he heard from his parents that a child of his would overthrow his throne. Rheia gives Kronos a stone wrapped in a cloth instead of Zeus and he swallows the stone. Zeus is secretly raised by Gaia. When Kronos hears of the trick, he spits his children back out and they give their brother Zeus lightnning and thunder as a token of thanks.
The Nine Muses
Kalliope (Epic Poetry)
Kleio (History)
Erato (Love Poetry)
Euterpe (Music)
Melpomene (Tragedy)
Polymnia (Hymns)
Terpsichore (Dance)
Thaleia (Comedy)
Ourania (Astronomy)
“Where Have All the Muses Gone?” is an amusing article written in The Wall Street Journal about the Muses.
Works and Days
In the poem, Hesiod gives advice on how to live off of honest work. He instructs on agriculture and the days that are more favorable for different purposes. He opens with an address to his brother who is said to have taken more than his share of their father’s estate, as well as having been idle and useless. To explain why work is man’s lot, Hesiod retells the story of Prometheus and the gods’ creation of the first woman, Pandora. This gives way to the famous myth of the success of ages, or races of mankind, starting from the golden and ending with the iron.
Hesiod’s Ages of Man
The Golden race of mortal men — this race thrives under the reign of Kronos and is made by the Olympian gods (Zeus, et al.). They live like the immortals, without strife or toil.
The Silver race of mortal men — this race is inferior to the Golden one, even though they too were created by the Olympian gods. They remain children for 100 years, and then became petulant and violent adults. They commit crimes against each other and refuse to honor the gods.
The Bronze race of mortal men — this race is also made by Zeus and fashioned from the Ash tree. They are a warring race who live off of meat and use bronze tools and weapons. They are the first race to go to Hades upon their death.
The Divine race of heroes — this is the semi-divine race, the demi-gods and heroes we see in the “Odyssey” and the “Iliad.” This race wars as well, but when they die Zeus lets them dwell in the Isles of the Blessed Ones.
The Iron race of mortal men — this is Hesiod’s race. There is no end to their daily toil and strife because the gods bring about many troubles for them.
