Hesiod's account of creation is summarized in three murals. The first shows Cronus castrating Uranus and the birth of Aphrodite from the severed genitals. The second depicts Zeus being raised in secret on Mt. Dikte to avoid being eaten by Cronus. The third shows the marriage of Zeus and Hera, with Zeus grabbing Hera's breast.

1. Misc. images of Hesiod’s
account of the creation of the
world and the gods.

2. Hesiod, the sleeping shepherd, visited by
a Muse who inspired him to tell this
story. By Delacroix, a 19th c. French artist

3. The personification of
Geae, Mother Earth

4. Eros, visualized by the
Greeks as a handsome
youth, is the
personification of
sexual love and desire.

5. Know that there are 2 different account for the creation of Eros (Roman name,
Cupid, see below). You now know the lesser known of the two accounts—this
Eros is not really associated with Venus whom we’ll encounter later

6. The 3 Fates (Moerae). Notice that one is spinning the wool (birth),
another is measuring the thread (of life), and the third is cutting it (death)

7. A Cyclops.
Notice that he
has a single eye
on his forehead.

8. Cyclopes serve
different
functions in
different myth
stories. Our 3
Cyclopes make
the lightening
bolts for Zeus

9. The Cyclops in
Homer’s
Odyssey (left,
being blinded
by Odysseus) is
not the same as
one of those
that appear in
our story

10. True or False:
Are Cyclopes
real?

13. Okay—enough of the
Cyclopes. How about
their brothers, the 3
Hecatonchires (100-
handers)

14. A photograph I found on the web, called Hecatonchires

15. The Mutiliation of Uranus by Cronus, by Vasari
and Gherardi
Focus on the central scene in this painting. All the Titans are inside of Mother Earth
(inside her womb). Cronus is holding a scythe, given to him by his mother, to castrate
Uranus, and thus release her from perpetual intercourse...that's why Uranus is inside with
the Titans.

16. Saturnus, or Saturn, is
the Roman name for
Cronus. This is a
photograph of a Roman
fresco. Saturn is
holding his sickle,
without which we
could not identify this
figure

17. The most important sequel to the castration of Uranus by Cronus is the birth of Aphrodite, the
goddess of sexual attraction. After Cronus castrated his father, he threw the severed genitals into
to the sea. Aphrodite was born from the foam created by the mixture of sea water and the
genitals. The severed genitals floated first to Cythera (1). Aphrodite finally stepped on land on
Cyprus, a larger island farther east (2)
2
1

18. Greek relief depicting Aphrodite rising out of the sea for the first time.
Her maidens or nymphs are covering her with a robe. She is nearly
always depicted nude.

19. The Birth of Venus (Roman name) by Botticelli, an Italian Renaissance painter (1485).
In the Ufitzi gallery in Florence. Notice the triad of figures (three is the magic number
in art): Our eyes are drawn to Aphrodite, the central nude figure standing on a shell as
she approached the shore. To our left are personified winds blowing her to shore, and
to our right are nymphs waiting to clad the goddess

20. Venus (the Roman Aphrodite) as depicted on a fresco found
on a wall in Pompeii, Italy. Again, notice the triad structure:
Venus is in the center with cupids flanking her. The one on
our left holds a scythe, which helps put this scene in context
(these iconographic symbols are necessary to identify most
figures)

21. The place is the
Underworld and the three
figures in the air are Furies,
female figures with snakes
for hair (here seen with
snakes wrapped around
their bodies) and wings on
their backs. In the
Upperworld, they appear
only to those who have
spilled the blood of kin.
They are personified
vengeance.

22. In the following slide you’ll see the 3 Furies
haunting Orestes, the young male in the
foreground, after he killed his mother (left,
with the knife in her chest). He killed his
mother because she killed his father (her own
husband). She killed her husband because he
killed their daughter. We’ll learn about
myth’s most dysfunctional family in several
weeks. But for now, check out the Furies
haunting Orestes…

24. The Greeks believed that their world was a flat disc surrounded by a fresh water river called
Oceanus or Ocean. On top of this disc sat a solid dome called the sky, much like an inverted tea
cup sits on a saucer. Across this dome from east to west rides Helios (or sometimes Apollo), the
personification of the Sun (notice the rays emanating from his head), in his fiery chariot; and
every night he returns to the east in a cup which floats along in the river Ocean.

25. This piece depicts a scene from a myth that we’ll read soon, but for now I point out the
sun god (Helios or Apollo) on our left. Without the rays of light emanating from his
head, we would not know both who this is and the context of this scene. The 3 figures
on the right are the Cyclopes, makers of Zeus’ lightening bolts and whatever else needs
to be manufactured on Mt. Olympus. They’re in the workshop of Hephaestus, the fifth
figure in the foreground

26. Helios, the son of
Hyperion (a Titan,
and brother of
Cronus), had a son
named Phaethon.
Know this story
well. Here,
Phaethon asks his
father to lend him
his sun chariot

27. Phaethon is depicted in his
father’s chariot, trying to
control the 4 horses that pull
the sun across the sky. He
loses control and the horses
pull the sun too close to the
earth, which sets the earth on
fire and burns the Africans
(aetiological story of why
Africans have dark skin and
how a desert was made)

28. In order to save the
earth, Zeus ( in the upper
right) must blast
Phaethon out of the sky
with his lightening bolts.
Zeus’ iconographic
symbols are his crown,
lightening bolts, and the
eagle, one wing of which
we can see.
A favorite scene for
artists to depict

30. Rubens, the 17th c.
Flemish master,
captures the
moment when
Phaethon is blasted
out of the chariot
by Zeus

31. “Phaethon” by
Michelangelo.
Zeus sits upon his eagle,
above, about to throw his
lightening bolt (cut off) at
Phaethon. The central scene
depicts Phaethon among the
horses falling from the sky.
At the bottom Phaethon’s
sisters lament their dead
brother.

33. Another offspring of
Hyperion, the Titan, is
Selene, the moon
goddess. She also drives
a chariot (2 horses, not 4)
…across the NIGHT sky.
We are able to make out
her two horses, and she is
flanked by stars and
wearing the moon-disk
on her head. She is the
subject of a very famous
story which involves
Endymion, for which you
are not responsible.

34. Poussin, an 18th c. French artist, was interested in the story's erotic overtones--notice the little Cupids
throughout. Here we see Selene leaving Endymion, a shepherd whom Selene would regularly visit at night as
he slept. Apollo the sun is in his chariot in the background (right) and Eos the dawn precedes him, sprinkling
the morning dew. Night (right foreground) is forced to pull back her black pall. Endymion apparently is
begging her to let him sleep on forever (they had sex in his dreams) as the god of sleep, Somnus, sleeps on in
the background.

35. POUSSIN

36. Caracci, a 16th c.
Italian painter,
depicts one of
Selene’s nightly
visits to the sleeping
shepherd. How do
we know it’s
Selene? A crescent
moon appears on
her head.

37. You're looking at a painting fired into the inside of a Greek shallow drinking vessel.
You tip the cup to sip some wine and see Eos and Tithonus. Eos fell in love with the
mortal and asked Zeus to make him immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youth. He
soon grew so old that he was unable to satisfy his eternal youthful wife.

38. In this baroque ceiling
painting Aurora (the
Roman name for Eos)
leaves the now aged
Tithonus for her daily
trip across the morning
sky. In this depiction
her companions
sprinkle the dew for
her.

39. Interpretation of
three scenes from
this story…

40. Goya, 18th c. Spanish master,
painted this one as one of a series of
frightening murals which adorned
the walls of a small house where he
suffered through a long illness as a
recluse. Although the text states
that Cronus swallowed his children,
Goya depicts him as eating them.
His eyes symbolize the brutality and
violence of this part of the story of
the creation of the universe.

41. Ruben’s Cronus and Child

42. Roman relief of
Rhea giving a rock
to Cronus instead
of his last born
son, Zeus, who
was then spirited
away to Greece
where he was
raised

43. Zeus spent his infancy on Mt. Dikte in Crete

44. And there’s a cave on Mt. Dikte where Zeus is said to have been raised

45. Poussin shows us the nymphs (spirits of natural
places personified) of Mt. Dikte nurturing Zeus
on the goats' milk provided by a friendly Satyr
who milks the goats

46. The marriage of
Zeus, the sky god,
and Hera, the earth
and fertility goddess
(symbolized by
Zeus’ grabbing of
Hera’s breast).
Archaic sculpture

47. Zeus and Hera
again, this time
more subdued.
A later,
Classical
version.

48. A scene from a well preserved Greek vase. Prometheus or Hephaestus is
said to have whacked Zeus on the head to alleviate his migraine. Athena
with her shield (one of her iconographic symbols) is then born from his
head, fully grown and armed for battle. She is the offspring of Zeus and
Metis (who is still inside of Zeus)

50. A view inside of a
shallow Greek wine
vessel. On the left is
Atlas, a Titan, who
holds up the sky at the
edge of the world, as
punishment for fighting
against the Olympians.