Theogony
c. 700 BCE · Archaic Greek · Greece (Boeotia)
The Theogony, attributed to Hesiod of Boeotia, is the foundational Greek account of the origins of the cosmos and the genealogy of the gods, composed in hexameter verse. Before time there was Chaos, then Gaia (Earth), Tartaros, and Eros. Gaia produces Ouranos (Sky), with whom she mates to produce the Titans. Ouranos fears his children and forces them back into Gaia's womb at birth. Gaia plots with her youngest son Kronos, who castrates Ouranos with an adamantine sickle; from the blood and severed genitals cast into the sea, Aphrodite is born. Kronos swallows his own children in turn. His wife Rhea hides Zeus, who grows to adulthood, forces Kronos to disgorge his siblings, and leads the Olympians in a ten-year war against the Titans. Zeus wins, assigns the Titans to Tartaros, and apportions divine offices among his siblings. The poem catalogues hundreds of divine genealogies.
notes
Parallels between the Theogony and the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish and Hittite Kumarbi Cycle established the Near Eastern roots of Greek mythology. Hesiod's account became the canonical version of divine origins for classical antiquity.
currently held: Manuscript tradition
related texts
The Enuma Elish, named after its opening words meaning "When on high," is the Babylonian creation epic recited during the New Year festival at Babylon. In the beginning there is only commingled water: Apsu, the primordial freshwater, and Tiamat, the salt sea. From their union the first gods are born…
The Kumarbi Cycle is a series of related Hittite mythological texts dealing with the succession of divine kingship in heaven, preserved among the archives of the Hittite capital Hattusa. In the beginning, Alalu holds kingship, served by the young god Anu. After nine years, Anu defeats Alalu. Kumarbi…