Chapter Four, Lecture One Myths of Creation Up to the Birth of Aphrodite; Monsters and Sea Deities

“Sing all this to me, Muses, you who dwell on Olympus: from the beginning tell me, which of the gods first came to be.” Hesiod, Theogony (114 – 5)

The cosmogony is the theogony.

The Children of Chaos Hesiod, Theogony Theogony Chaos < Chasm Gaea, Tartarus Mythic geography –Olympus/Topmost –Earth/Middle –Tartarus/Bottommost

The Children of Chaos Eros –Force of sexual attraction Nyx and Erebus –Features of Chaos? Nyx –Moerae –Nemesis Eerbus – Nyx –Aether (Radiance) –Hemera (day)

The Children of Chaos Is Gaea the mother of all things? –Homeric Myth to GaeaHomeric Myth to Gaea

The Children of Gaea: The Titans and their Cousins Many beings from the earth Most important the –Titans –Cyclopes –Heacatonchires

The Titans Gaea = > Uranus, Mountains, Pontus Gaea + Uranus

The Titans Uranos and Gaea in eternal sexual embrace C.f. Egyptian Nut and GebEgyptian Nut and Geb

Thereafter Gaea was bedded with Uranus, lord of heaven, and bore deep-swirling (1) Oceanus, (2) Coeus, (3) Crius, (4) Hyperion, (5) Iapetus, (6) Theia and (7) Rhea, (8) Themis, (9) Mnemnosynê, (10) Phoebê, and fair-featured (11) Tethys. Last of all she gave birth to (12) Cronus, that scheming intriguer, cleverest child of her brood, who hated his lecherous father. Hesiod, Theogony (126 – 38) The Titans

Titans six male, six female Most Titans hardly more than names Take no role in subsequent Greek myth

The Titans Oceanus – Tethys Homer’s alternate cosmology makes them the primordial parents of all the gods Ancient geography –Oceanus rims the world –Sky is a dome over it The Oceanids

The Titans Phoebê = “brilliant,” “shinning” Themis = “settled law” –Occupied Delphi before Apollo –Zeus + Themis => Mnemosynê Iapetus = Jepheth (?) Cronus + Rhea –Parents or grandparents of the Olympians

Cyclops, Hecatonchires Also children of Gaea and Uranus Cyclops –Not the Cyclops of Homer (Polyphemos) –Blacksmiths for the gods –Brontes (“Thunderer”), Steropes (“flasher”), Arges (“brightener”)

Cyclops, Hecatonchires Hecatonchires (“hundred-handers”) –Also fifty heads –Cottus, Briareus, Gyes

Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun Hyperion (“he who goes above”) Father of Helius, another sun god Selenê (moon) Eos (dawn) Homeric Hymn to Helius The Story of Phaëthon in Ovid Ovid 1.750

Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun Clymenê The hasty promise Etiology: why the Ethiopians are black Eridanus (Po) river Heliades = > poplar trees and golden amber Phaethon’s fall in art

Hyperion’s Children: Sun, Moon, Sun Selenê and Endymion –Endymion placed in eternal sleep Eos –Tithonus –Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 5Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 5

Cronus Against Uranus Uranus stuffing newly born Titans back into Gaea Cronus, the youngest, castrates Uranus with a sickle Blood from the severed genitals becomes the Erinyes

The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters and Sea Deities Aphrodite springs up from the “foam” at Cythera –Birth of Aphrodite in modern artBirth of Aphrodite in modern art Monsters Altered Egyptian and Mesopotamian archetypes: –Harpies, Sirens, SphinxHarpiesSirensSphinx

The Birth of Aphrodite, Monsters and Sea Deities Combined human and animal parts –Gorgons, Geryon, Cerberus, ChimeraGorgonsCerberusChimera Natural animals, but with special powers –Ceto, Graeae, Nemaean Lion, Nereus (the Nereids – Thetis)

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