3. • Most complete surviving version
Origins of Stories of the creation of the world comes
from the poet Hesiod’s (He-see-
odd) Theogony (Thee-og-oh-nee)
and Works and Days
▫ Composed around the 8th
century BCE, about the same
time as the Odyssey and Iliad
(maybe 100 years later)
▫ Not an original work – writing
down of oral tales
Hesiod was a rustic bard (lived
north of Athens)
▫ Not religious work like the Bible
or Koran
There was no sacred text that
people had to follow in order to
worship the Greek gods; Greek
religion didn’t work that way
4. The Universe
• Gods are not separate from • The gods don’t create the
the universe, so although universe, they are a part of it
the Greek word Theogony ▫ There is no external
means how the gods came creator; the universe just
into existence, the story comes into existence
starts with the creation of ▫ While the gods are
the universe (which is seen extremely powerful, they
as a divine being) are not omnipotent
▫ This means that a character
can be (and often is) both a ▫ The gods
natural force or an element are, however, immortal;
(the sun, the moon, the they are a part of the
sea, etc.) and an universe, and as long as
anthropomorphic (humanlike) the universe exists, so do
entity with a
will, emotions, and bodily they
functions
5. Chaos
• First there was Chaos -- (seen as a female entity)
▫ In Greek this doesn’t mean disorder; it simply means a
gap, void or open space
• Out of Chaos come Tartarus, Erebus and Night (whose
name is Nyx)
▫ Tartarus and Erebus are the two divisions of the
underworld, with Tartarus being the deeper and
darker, and Erebus being the portion where dead souls
stay
6. Cosmic Egg
• According to Hesiod, all
• Erebus and Night creation comes into
mated existence through sexual
▫ Night is shown as a reproduction, so Eros (or
black winged figure sexual desire) is present
▫ When they mate, the very early on in the
result is shown as a creation
cosmic egg ▫ This primordial force
• Eros (Love) was born later becomes known
of the egg as the son of
▫ produced Ether – Aphrodite
Light, and Hemera – ▫ Later, Cupid is shown
Day. to have wings, which
• Also out of Night gives rise to a belief
comes that birds are
▫ the Moirae – somehow connected to
Fates, and the earliest primordial
▫ Nemesis -- forces, and that the
Retribution/Revenge world may have in fact
been hatched from a
great primordial egg
7. Gaea
• Into Chaos came Gaea (Guy-uh) --
(Also spelled Gaia; sometimes known
as Ge)
▫ Hesiod doesn’t tell us if Gaia comes
from Chaos, or simply comes into
existence
▫ Since Hesiod’s (and the ancient
Greek’s) view was geocentric (the
earth as the center of the universe) it
makes sense that the first god to
come into existence is earth herself
• Underneath Gaea were the dark
elements of Tartarus, Erebus, and
Night, which Gaia stands upon
8. Gaea Cont.
• Gaea produces Uranus --the sky;
Pontus -- the sea, (specifically the
Mediterranean sea); the
mountains; the Furies; and the
giants (NOTE: Uranus is also
spelled Ouranos)
▫ She produces the elemental
forces that make up the forces
that the Greeks know
▫ The world is being shaped into
a recognizable form
9. Gaea, cont.
▫ Originally, Gaea is seen as a
flat disc (until she gives birth
to the landscape
elements), and Uranus is a
dome above her
Think of a cake plate with a
cover
Tartarus & Erebus is said to
be as far below her as Uranus
is above her
10. Children of Gaea & Uranus
• Gaea and Uranus couple and
produce
▫ three Cyclopes – (plural of the
singular Cyclops),
which is a giant with a single eye in
the middle of its forehead;
▫ three Hecatonchires
the hundred-handed monsters
(who have 50 heads)
▫ the 12 Titans, including Cronus;
Some believe that perhaps these
ideas of giants and large monsters
might have originated with the
discovery of giant dinosaur bones
by early Greeks
11. Uranus against his children
• Overthrow of Uranus – 1st patriarchal
violent succession
▫ Uranus tries to hide his offspring
back in the earth, from where they
sprung
Hecatonchires hidden in Tartarus
Cyclopes condemned to live inside
the volcanic core of Mt. Etna
Their roars said to cause eruptions
▫ The patriarchal “sky” gods have a
great fear of being overthrown by
their children, and one way they try
to prevent this is by stuffing their
children back into the womb
12. Castration of Uranus
• This put a great strain on
Gaea, causing her pain as
well as anger, so she
begged her titan children
to help
• Cronus, the youngest
titan, agrees, and as
Uranus lies with
Gaia, Cronus (who is
hiding in Gaea’s womb)
castrates him with a flint
13. Result of the Castration
• The blood of the genitals that
fell onto the earth created
▫ the Erinyes (Furies), the
elemental forces who punish
blood crimes
▫ The Giants
▫ The Nymphs of the Ash Trees
Meliae
• This is a violent overthrow of a
father, and the impotence of
that father’s ability to foster
future offspring
14. Creation of Aphrodite
• Cronus then cast the
bleeding genitals into the
sea, where the fluids
mixed with the sea
foam, creating the
goddess Aphrodite
▫ Aphros is the Greek
word for sea foam
This spirit of sexual
desire (Eros) is
transformed into
Aphrodite
This is a reasonable
creation for
Aphrodite, since she
is the goddess of
sexual desire
15. Departure of Uranus
• At this point, Uranus retreats from Gaea
and becomes the dome of the sky
▫ Since a god cannot be killed, the best thing
you can do is deprive him of his
power, and in this case, denying him of his
masculinity is denying him of his power
▫ This also leaves room for more children to
be born – before this point the sky was
literally pressing down on the earth; there
was no separation between them
This space of the dome allows the children
to spring forth and have room to
live, grow, and for additional children to
be born
• Here we have the mother “earth” figures
(Gaea, Rhea, Hera all mean earth) being
dominated by the male “sky” figures
(Uranus, Cronus, Zeus)
▫ Shift from a matriarchal society to a
patriarchal society
16. Cronus & Rhea
• Cronus marries his sister Rhea
(the earth again), and then
because he is concerned about his
children overthrowing
him, swallows each as soon as
they are born
▫ Zeus, the last born, is hidden in
a cave in Crete by Rhea, who
substitutes a stone wrapped in
blankets for her husband to
swallow
▫ (some stories say she hides the
rock in her bed and as she gives
birth she swaps it for Zeus)
• Gaea helps Rhea because
Cronus imprisons Cyclopes &
Hecatonchires again
17. Upbringing of Zeus
• The goat Amaltheia (also a • Another version has Zeus being
nymph) supplied him with milk raised by the nymph
to drink, and the bees provided Adamanthea, who hung him in a
honey rope from a tree so he was
suspended between earth, sea and
▫ To reward her, Zeus later puts sky, because Cronus ruled all three
her in the heavens as the
constellation Capricorn (the
goat)
▫ In some versions, this goat’s
broken horn becomes the horn
of plenty (not that of the river
god Achelous)
• Minor deities called the Curetes
protected Zeus, and when he
cried, they rattled their spears
against their shields so that
Cronus wouldn’t hear the baby
18. Olympians return
• Zeus’ first wife, the Titan • Children of Rhea & Cronus are
Metis, gives Zeus a potion vomited up in reverse order
that he puts in Cronus’s ▫ Zeus is thus considered both
drink, causing him to vomit the youngest (last born to
up his children (in some Rhea) and the oldest god
versions it is Gaea that gives (all of his siblings were
Cronus the potion) “born” from Cronus after he
▫ The stone is vomited up when was already alive and fully
Cronus vomits up the grown)
children, and lands in ▫ Original birth order:
Delphi, where it becomes a Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Had
sacred stone, and Delphi es, Poseidon, Zeus
becomes the center of the
earth
19. Titanomachy (Battle of the Titans)
• Zeus leads his siblings in a
revolt against Cronus
▫ Three titans joined the
Olympians in the war:
Prometheus, Epimetheus,
& Oceanus
Titan women did not fight
▫ Atlas led the male Titans
in the war against the
Olympians
Cronus was past his prime
• War took 10 years
20. Help in the War
• Zeus released the
Hecatonchires (hundred-
handed ones) from beneath
the earth, on the condition • Cyclopes gave Zeus the
that they would fight thunderbolt, Hades his
alongside him,
helmet of invisibility, and
▫ Great at throwing boulders
• Released the Cyclopes, on the
Poseidon his trident
condition that they would ▫ Hades used the helm to steal
forge a weapon that no Cronus’s weapons, Poseidon
monster, god or Titan could distracted him with the
overcome trident, which allowed Zeus to
use the thunderbolt to defeat
him
21. Punishment
• Zeus overthrows Cronus, and • Another version of the story
chains him up in Tartarus puts Cronus in the Elysium
▫ (in some stories, cuts him into Fields
pieces, and then throws the ▫ Note: Although Cronus was
pieces into Tartarus – horrible to his children, he
remember, though, that the gods was a generous ruler over
are immortal and cannot die, so humankind, and the age he
Cronus is still alive in Tartarus) ruled was called the Age of
Gold
Age of Gold: when the earth
provided food without the
need for labor, and murder
was unknown to
humans, who lived together
peacefully
• Zeus chains up the Titans who
helped Cronus in Tartarus as
well, where the Hecatonchires
guard them, all except Atlas.
▫ Zeus punishes Atlas for his
leadership role by forcing
him to hold up the sky
22. Cronus in Rome
• According to Greek • Connects the more brutal, war-
mythology, Cronus (Roman like, and less imaginative
named Saturn), when Roman culture to the more
overthrown by Zeus and the cultured and sophisticated
other Olympians, was cut apart Greek culture
and the pieces were cast into a • Later, when we study the fall of
deep part of the underworld Troy, we meet the Trojan
known as Tartarus warrior Aeneas (ah-nee-
▫ According to Roman us), who is the only Trojan hero
mythology, when to escape Troy. He leaves Troy
overthrown, Saturn fled and ends up in the area that
Greece and took up residence eventually becomes Rome. He
in Rome is credited with the founding of
▫ Becomes the start of the Rome, and thus gives them a
Golden Age in Rome reason to take over the culture
and mythology of Greece when
the Romans conquer it.
23. Gaea Upset AGAIN
• Gaea, who originally supported Zeus and the Olympians in their war
against the Titans, becomes angry when her children are imprisoned
within her (chained in Tartarus)
▫ Gives birth to two
giants, with
serpent-like
lower
limbs, Typhon
and Enceladus
Could breathe
fire, and pile
mountains on
top of each other
Typhon had a
hundred dragon-
like heads, a
human-like
upper body that
reached the
stars, and wings
24. Olympians Run…
Olympians were terrified, and began to run away to Egypt, turning
themselves into animals
• Hades put on his helmet of • Aphrodite and Eros disguised
invisibility to hide themselves as fish
• Typhon caught Dionysus by ▫ Constellation Pisces
surprise on the banks of the commemorates this, and is
Nile river, and he transformed represented by two fish tied
himself into a creature that together with a string
was part goat, part fish Tied themselves together so
▫ Constellation of Capricorn they wouldn’t lose each
other
commemorates this event –
typically shown as a goat with • Zeus disguises himself as a
a fish’s tail ram, but later returns to fight
Some stories say that the each of the giants with his
constellation is actually thunderbolt
Amaltheia
25. Mt. Etna
• Enceladus was struck down
by a spear thrown by
Athena, and buried under
Mt. Etna on the island of
Sicily
• This is why Mt. Etna is such an
active volcano – when he tries
to break free, the earth
shakes, and when he breathes
fire, lave erupts
26. Typhon
• When he fought Zeus, Typhon cut
out the sinews (muscles) from
Zeus’ hands and feet and left Zeus
helpless
• Hermes goes and steals the sinews
back, and Zeus replaces
them, healing himself
▫ Later Zeus subdues Typhon with
his thunderbolts, and either
imprisons him in Tartarus, or
buries him under Mt. Etna (and it
is he, not Enceladus, that causes
the volcanic eruptions)
27. Children of Typhon
• Had many monstrous children
that show up in later myths
▫ Cerberus
▫ The Sphinx (killed by
Oedipus)
▫ The Chimera (killed by
Bellerophon)
▫ Several that Hercules faces:
The Nemean lion, the
hydra, Orthus (Geyron’s two-
headed wolf/dog) and the
Ladon (the serpent that
guarded the golden apples in
the garden of the Hesperides)
28. A Final Battle
• Giants rebel against the
Olympians
• With the help of
Hercules, they are defeated
and hurled into Tartarus
• Olympians are secure in their
position
• Zeus, Poseidon & Hades cast
lots for realms
30. Ages of Humanity
• Humans were created by the
gods
• 1st race – Golden Race
▫ Age during the reign of
Cronus – it was eternally
springtime
▫ Humans were created by the
gods out of gold
▫ Mankind lived to a very old
age, but with a youthful
appearance
▫ When they died, they became
pure spirits, who protected
and helped mankind
Dying was more like falling
into sleep
In some versions, men even
aged backwards
31. Ages of Humanity, cont.
• Age of Silver • Age of Bronze (or Brass)
▫ The four seasons appeared ▫ Men were created out of ash trees
during this period, and (trees used to make spears)
humans learn art and ▫ Called age of bronze because their
agriculture armor and homes were made of
▫ Not very intelligent bronze
Lived as childlike beings for ▫ Very warlike
over a hundred years Ended up killing each other off because
Very short period as adults of all of the wars
▫ Constantly killed each other
accidentally
▫ When they died, their spirits
did not live on earth, but
dwelt in the underworld
▫ This race was destroyed by
Zeus because they refused to
honor the gods
32. Ages of Humanity, cont.
• Age of Heroes
▫ These were demi-gods, and
were more honorable than
the previous race
▫ Most of these heroes were
killed in great wars such as
Trojan war or war in Thebes
Most of the heroes of Greek
mythology lived in this age
When they died,
many went on to live in
the Elysium Fields with
Cronus,
Some became
companions of the gods
Some were placed in the
heavens as constellations
33. Ages of Humanity, cont.
• Age of Iron ▫ The goddess Justice
▫ Age of toil and (Astraea), who stayed on Earth
injustice, crime and for all of the previous four
punishment ages, fled to the heavens during
this age, and is represented as
▫ This is the age humanity is
the constellation Virgo (the
still suffering through virgin)
▫ Many virtues have She once carried a pair of
disappeared, and most of the scales with which she weighed
gods remaining on Earth the rights and wrongs of any
have abandoned it dispute. Now her scales shine
close by Virgo, as the
constellation Libra.
▫ Zeus will eventually destroy
this age
34. Prometheus & Epimetheus
• Prometheus & Epimetheus • Epimetheus asked his
assigned to create animals and brother, Prometheus (whose
humans, so there would be name means forethought) for
someone to worship the gods help
• Epimetheus, whose name ▫ Prometheus molded humans
means afterthought, gave all out of clay, causing them to
the good gifts to the animals stand upright like the gods
when he created them ▫ He brought them fire from
▫ Fur the sun
▫ Claws • Prometheus is depicted of the
▫ Fangs great benefactor of humanity
▫ Wings
▫ Strength
▫ Speed
35. Sacrificial Ritual in Ancient Greece
• Importance of sacrifice shown ▫ Lead it to the altar, sprinkle
through a story of Prometheus water on the bull’s head, and
• Greeks only ate meat about as the bull shook its head to
shake off the water, they
once a month, and did so as a
would take this as a sign that
part of a great religious
the bull was shaking his head
celebration in permission to kill him
▫ They were very aware of the Another way was to lead
significance of the taking of a several bulls to the
life, and equated it with altar, then put honey-cakes
sacrificing the animal for the on the altar, and the first
gods bull that stretched its head
They created a ritual known towards the cake to eat it
as the comedy of was seen as stretching
innocence, in which they towards the altar in an offer
appeared to get the animal’s to be sacrificed
permission before killing it
36. Sacrificial Ritual, cont.
• Blood of the sacrificed ▫ All the meat was distributed to the
animal was caught in a people, and the innards (the spagmata
dish and burned, and in Greek) were wrapped up in the
the rising smoke was animal’s hide and resurrected (made to
seen as an offering to look like the whole animal again), and
the gods on high burned in honor of the gods
▫ Myth of Prometheus explains this
▫ If the blood was
allowed to spill on
the ground, it was
seen as an offering to
the gods of the
underworld
37. Prometheus Tricks Zeus
• Prometheus arranges that • In retaliation, Zeus took away
humans should get the best
fire, which Prometheus had to
part of any animal
sacrificed, and the gods would steal for mortals
get the unusable parts • The gods live off of the smoke
• He cut up an ox, and piled all
of the meat under the
hide, and topping it with the
disgusting-looking entrails
• He made a second pile, which
was bigger than the first, of the
bones, covered by shining fat
• He told Zeus to choose
▫ Zeus chose the bigger
pile, only to discover it was
inedible
▫ Only bones & fat are burned
38. Importance of Fire
• Fire is the basic elemental force of
civilization
▫ Cook food, purify water, harden metal
implements
• Prometheus stole fire and hid it in a
fennel stick, then gave it back to humans
▫ Fennel is the way hunter-gatherer
societies carried embers of fire from
place to place
Outer stalk of fennel doesn’t burn, but
the interior is flammable, so the embers
can be carried within
• Humans get to keep the fire, but are
punished, because now fire is also
dangerous, and dirty (smoke) and hot
▫ Idea of eternal toil
39. Prometheus Punished
• Prometheus is punished
for going against Zeus
▫ He is chained to a great
rock
Caucasus
▫ A great eagle (in some
stories a vulture) tears
out his liver
▫ Because he is a god
(Titan), his liver
regenerates each
night, and the eagle
returns each day
Torture continued for
30,000 years
40. Prometheus Punished, cont.
• He is also punished because he heard • He knew that he would only be
a prophecy released if one of the other
▫ Thetis would give birth to a son immortals went to Hades of his
conceived with Zeus, who was own free will, to stay forever.
destined to overthrow his father. ▫ Hercules, during his 12
▫ Zeus knew part of the prophecy, but labors, shot the eagle that was
not the name of the goddess. feeding on his liver
Prometheus refused to tell Zeus ▫ Hercules had also accidentally
which goddess. shot his friend, the wise centaur
Chiron, with a poisoned
arrow, leaving a wound that
could not be healed.
Chiron volunteered to go to the
Underworld. Prometheus took
pity on his unending pain, and
gave Zeus the name of Thetis.
Chiron went to the
underworld, Prometheus’s
chains immediately fell off, and
Zeus promptly married off
Thetis to a mortal man.
41. Humanity Punished -- Pandora
• Zeus had Hephaestus mold a • She was also given a jar, and
beautiful maiden from clay each god put something
▫ Up to this point, there had harmful into it
only been men on the earth ▫ Pandora was told never to
• Each of the Olympians gave open the jar
her gifts • She was sent to marry
▫ She was called Epimetheus
Pandora, which means “Gift ▫ Prometheus warned against
of All” taking gifts from the gods, but
Athena clothed her Epimetheus didn’t listen, and
Aphrodite gave her beauty fell in love with Pandora
▫ Epimetheus locked the jar in
the closet so Pandora
wouldn’t open it
42. Pandora, cont.
• Pandora’s curiosity got the better
of her, and she took the key to the
closet when Epimetheus was gone
and opened the jar
▫ Later stories make it a box
• All the evils escaped into the
world
▫ She tried to close the lid but was
too late
• The only thing that remained in
the jar was hope, which never
leaves mankind
▫ In some stories, it is
hopelessness that she traps
43. Deucalion & Pyrrha
• Humans had become so wicked • Two people survived, floating in
that Zeus decided to destroy a wooden chest, which landed
mankind after those 9 days at Mt.
• He sent a great flood that Parnassus
covered the entire world except ▫ Deucalion - husband
the very top of Mount Parnassus He was the son of Prometheus
▫ He unleashed torrential rains ▫ Pyrrha - wife
▫ Poseidon stirred up the rivers She was the daughter of
and seas, and sent earthquakes Epimetheus & Pandora
• Almost everyone died, either by • Deucalion & Pyrrha were
drowning or by starvation honest, moral people, and
• Constant rain lasted for 9 days faithful worshippers of the gods
• Prometheus had warned his
family, and had them build the
chest and fill it with supplies
44. Deucalion & Pyrrha, cont.
• Zeus drew away the • Deucalion’s stones became men
waters, and they were the only • Pyhrra’s stones became women
living creatures on earth • Parallel story to Noah’s Ark
• They found a temple and gave
thanks for being alive
▫ A voice told them to cover
their heads and throw the
bones of their mother behind
them
Horrified – disrespecting the
remains of an ancestor was
horrible sacrilege
Realized the bones of their
mother were rocks (mother
earth)
