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daughter-of-theforgotten-gods · 2 months

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My Greek mythology professor was talking about how yes, giving offerings and sacrifices is worship to the gods, but reading Hesiods poetry was a way to worship and connect to them as well.

So even if you can’t give physical offerings you can at least read about the gods as a way of worship

#hellenic polytheism #hellenic polytheist #greek mythology #greek gods #hesiod #Hesiod theogony

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divinationdrawings · 2 months

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"Fair wreathed Kytherea"

-Hesiod's Theogony, Gany translation

Aphrodite of the golden crown

The lustrous hand mirror

Seafoam from the cosmos rains down

The mist grows clearer

Kytherea blew in

From warm Cyprus winds

Enchanting the Seamen and Seafarers

I hope you enjoyed today's tale of legend and lore, come back next week and there will be even more

#aphrodite art #aphrodite devotion #aphrodite goddess #seafoam #hand mirror #venus #cyprus #greek gods #hesiod #theogony #the og #most beautiful woman in the world #original poets on tumblr #writeblr #artblr #beauty #goddess of love #take me to your planet take me to your venus

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depressed-linguist · 9 months

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‘three fair-cheeked Kharites…from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs’

- hesiod, theogony

The Three Graces - detail from La Primavera, Sandro Botticelli (Uffizi Gallery, Firenze)

#dark academia #dark acadamia aesthetic #poetry #art #beauty #words #light academia #mine #photos from pinterest #botticelli #greek myth #greek mythology #renaissance art #italian renaissance #italian art #hesiod #theogony #book quotes

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lionofchaeronea · 7 months

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For even now, when someone of mortals living on earth Seeks favor, duly performing comely sacrifices, He calls on Hecate; and great honor follows him Quite easily—him, that is, whose prayers the goddess readily Receives; and she grants him wealth, since this power is hers. καὶ γὰρ νῦν, ὅτε πού τις ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων ἔρδων ἱερὰ καλὰ κατὰ νόμον ἱλάσκηται, κικλῄσκει Ἑκάτην. πολλή τέ οἱ ἕσπετο τιμὴ ῥεῖα μάλ᾽, ᾧ πρόφρων γε θεὰ ὑποδέξεται εὐχάς, καί τέ οἱ ὄλβον ὀπάζει, ἐπεὶ δύναμίς γε πάρεστιν.

-Hesiod, Theogony 416-420

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deathlessathanasia · 4 months

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For how often one hears about Zeus's seven marriages in Hesiod's Theogony, it's worth noting that Hesiod actually only calls two of those seven goddesses wives, probably suggests marriage for a third, but gives not the slightest indication that the other four unions were marriages. Let's take a look at the text.

"Zeus as king of the gods made Metis his first wife (alochos), wisest among gods and mortal men".

"Second he married sleek Themis, who bore the watchers, Lawfulness, Justice, and flourishing Peace … and the Fates, to whom Zeus the resourceful gave the most privilege" The word Hesiod actually uses is "ἠγάγετο" = lead, carry, fetch, bring. So no explicit mention to marriage is made, though it makes sense to interpret it as such, as Zeus leading Themis to Olympos in the way a wife is supposed to be brought home. In the only instance of someone taking a spouse before the regime of Zeus in the Theogony, Perses is said to have brought/led (ἠγάγετ᾽) Asteria "to his great house to be called his dear wife (akoitis)", so the same word used in reference to Zeus and Themis here explicitly refers to marriage earlier in the text.

"Eurynome, a daughter of Oceanus with lovely looks, bore him the three Graces, Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and fair Thalia." No indication of marriage here.

"And he came to the bed of Demeter abundant in nourishment, and she bore the white-armed Persephone." No mention of marriage here either, and possibly meaningful that Zeus is the one who goes to her bed rather than vice versa. Well, not actually meaningful, but it sure doesn't sound like a marital or long-term relationship.

"Again, he took love of Memory with her lovely hair, from whom the Muses with their golden diadems were born, nine of them…" + "[the Muses] were born in Pieria to Memory, queen of the foothills of Eleutherae, in union with the father, the son of Kronos; … Nine nights Zeus the resourceful lay with her, going up to her holy bed far away from the immortals." So Zeus loved (ἐράσσατο) Mnemosyne, and visited her, to her own home and apart from the other gods, for nine nights. No part of this indicates a marriage.

"Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis the archer, lovely children above all the celestials, in shared intimacy with Zeus who bears the aegis." Again, no mention of marriage. Similar language is used to describe Zeus's sexual unions with Semele and Alkmene.

"Last of all he made Hera his fertile wife (akoitis), and she bore Hebe and Ares and Eileithyia, sharing intimacy with the king of gods and men." The language used to describe the sexual union is the same, except that Hera is also made a wife.

Is it possible to interpret all of these unions as marriages? Certainly, but that's just not something Hesiod actually claims. It is just as possible to only consider Metis, Themis and Hera as actual wives, or even just Metis and Hera, though personally I'd consider all three. Notice, too, that only these three have their positions on the list specified and clearly identified: first, second and last.

#ramblings #hesiod #the theogony #zeus #metis #themis #eurynome #demeter #mnemosyne #leto #hera

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h0bg0blin-meat · 8 days

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All the basics of Greek myth

The gods/godesses their roles,ther relationship etc etc

Okay. So first of all we all know about the 12 Olympians, i.e., Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes. Hephaestus and either Hestia or Dionysus, plus Hades.

Now before these Olympians there were the Titans, which included Kronos, Rhea, Oceanus, Coeus, Japetos, Crius, Hyperion, Theia, Themis, Tethys, Phoebe, and Mnemosyne, all of whom came from the Primordials, Ouranos and Gaia.

Along with them the other primordial gods included Khaos, Tartarus, Erebus, Eros, Nyx, Aether, Hemera, Pontus and Ourea.

Now this is an extremely brief explanation of these three generations of deities. I’mma get into a little more detail into their relations by whipping out Hesiod’s Theogony/the Greek Creation Myth (cuz his version is considered the standard creation myth for this pantheon till date), which sums about everything up pretty well actually so… Kudos to our fellar.

So according to this myth, in the very beginning, there was only chaos, from which we get the personified and deified version of it called Khaos. But soon after Gaia, Eros and Tartarus pop up, and then Khaos creates two more deities, namely Erebus and Nyx, who then, together, proceed to create Hemera and Aether, while Gaia creates Ouranos to partner up with, and they both, again together, whip out

The male titans, namely Kronos, Coeus, Japetus, Crius and Hyperion.

The female titans, namely Rhea, Themis, Tethys, Phoebe and Mnemosyne.

Three cyclopses, namely Brontes, Steropes and Arges.

Three Hekatonchieres (monstrous giants of immense strength and power, each having fifty heads and a hundred arms), namely Briareos, Kottos and Gyges.

Now all of these three sets of kids have one common thing, hating on Ouranos, for some reason that gets later uncovered. The reason is mostly him kidnapping his monstrous-looking kids and hiding them in secret places under the Earth (which, here, is Gaia).

Gaia got sick of this shit and produced a sickle out of adamant and asked her kids to teach Ouranos a lesson, but among these kids, only Kronos stood up to do it and so he did. Hid inside Gaia and when Ouranos came to lay with his wife, his lil kid popped up and castrated him, his two little thingies falling into the ocean, leading it to foam, and from that foam was born our beloved Aphrodite. Sensational. From his blood arose the Erinyes (chthonic goddesses of vengeance), the Giants and the Meliai (nymphs of the ash tree).

Now Kronos had full control over the cosmos from Ouranos, and was producing kids (i.e., Hestia, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera and Hades. Zeus wasn’t born yet) with Rhea. But his dad and Gaia had prophesized that one of his own kids would overthrow him, and from there we get the famous Kronos-swallowing-his-kids myth. And ofc, Zeus gets saved from the swallowing thingy with the help of his mom and grandparents, and then raised in seclusion in a cave below Mount Aigaion in the city of Lyktos of Crete. Also Kronos doesn’t know about this cuz Rhea wrapped up a huge stone in baby’s clothes and gave it to him saying it was the last kid, aka, Zeus.

(Chiron is also one of Kronos’s kids, and hence Zeus’s half-brother, paternally cuz Kronos once turned himself into a horse to mate with the Oceanid nymph, and one of the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, Philyra, who mated with him in the usual human-nymph form, and hence we get him as a centaur.)

After Zeus grew up fully, he forced Kronos (Gaia did something to help with this, like give him some kinda poison secretly to make him puke his kids out-) to release his siblings. He then released the Cyclopses (who were still trapped with the Hekatonchieres btw), and then gave him his signature thunderbolt. This is when the great war called the Titanomachy happened between the Titans and Zeus and his siblings, over the control of the cosmos. This war went on for years, and in the 10th year, Zeus even released the Hekatoncheires, who also helped him overthrow the titans. Zeus threw his thunderbolt at the previous generation of gods, hence defeating them and throwing them into Tartarus, thus ending the war.

There was another threat to him tho, and it was Typhon, son of Gaia and Tartarus. But Zeus defeated him too and threw him into Tartarus as well.

Then my mans got elected as the king of gods (as he should), and had his first wife Metis. But after knowing that he had the same fate as Kronos, i.e., a son of Metis would overthrow him, he swallowed his wife (while she was pregnant with Athena, and hence later on we see Zeus HIMSELF giving birth to a fully-grown Athena from his mind) and that’s how he ended the cycle of succession. Smart move but I need justice for Metis >:<

Now for the new generation of Olympians, i.e., Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Hermes, Dionysus and Hephaestus (also let’s add Persephone too), here’s how it goes. (Athena and Aphrodite were already covered above)

Apollo and Artemis were twin kids of Zeus’s 6th wife, Leto, who was the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe.

Persephone was born from the union of Zeus and Demeter. (there are other versions to this myth too)

Dionysus was born from the union of Zeus and Semele (a mortal woman), but he was again stitched to Zeus’s thigh to save him from Hera, who was deadlocked in killing him (cuz ofc Zeus cheated on her with another woman), and later births Dio himself. (there are other versions to this myth as well. For example, another myth says he was born from the union of Zeus and Persephone.)

Hermes was born from the union of Zeus and Maia (Atlas’s* daughter)

Ares, Hebe and Eileithyia were born from Zeus and Hera.

(*Atlas was one of the kids of Japetos and Clymene, who’s an Oceanid, and hence one of the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys.)

Now I haven’t mention what these deities are the gods of, because even though they are known for maybe one of two things they govern over (like Athena for wisdom and war, or Apollo for sun and music), their designations are actually pretty broad, and this post is long enough so ykw I’mma ask you to check out theoi.com and the theogony section of Wikipedia for further info :)

Thanks for the ask I had fun writing this lmao. (Might’ve made errors or stuff so correct me in case yall spot any)

#greek mythology #greek gods #greek titans #theogony #hesiod #creation myth #greek myths #ancient greek mythology #greek goddesses #olympians

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sarafangirlart · 17 days

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For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth Hesiod theogony

I wanna take all the hate Ovid gets and give it to Hesiod.

#greek mythology #ancient greek mythology #greek pantheon #pandora #Hesiod #theogony

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mask131 · 1 year

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The other wives of Zeus

Everybody keeps talking about Zeus and Hera. Everybody knows that Hera is the wife of Zeus, and how their love life is a stormy one (no pun intended).

But not many people talk about the fact that Hera wasn’t Zeus first wife. I am here referring to Hesiod’s Theogony: according to the Hesiodic version of Greek mythology, Zeus had at least three wives in succession, of whom Hera was the last.

First Zeus married Metis, “wisest among all gods and men”, embodiment of prudence, counsel and cunning, but he had to swallow her in his belly when she was pregnant thanks to a prophecy by Gaia and Ouranos according to which, after birthing a daughter (Athena), she would birth a boy that would overthrow his father. (And fun fact: Metis is technically still alived inside Zeus, as the poem clearly indicates she now exists as Zeus’ internal voice of reason, telling him what is good and what is bad from inside him). Of course Athena was still born later, jumping out of Zeus’ head, but that’s another story.

Then Zeus married Themis, his aunt and the embodiment of justice, and with her he had two sets of triplets. On one side, the Horae, the goddesses of seasons that organize the cycles of time. On the other side, the Moirai, the embodiment of fate ruling the human lives. (Yes I know the idea of the Moirai as primordial cosmic entities is very popular, but according to the Hesiodic tradition they are not that “old”, being the daughters of Themis and Zeus).

And then he married Hera, that gave him three children: Ares, god of war, Hebe, goddess of youth, and Ilithyia, goddess of birth. Wait... three children you ask? What about Hephaestus? Well this is another story people forgot. According to the Hesiodic tradition Hephaestus isn’t the child of Zeus... In this version of Greek mythology, after giving birth to Zeus’ three children, Hera saw Zeus give birth to Athena all on his own. And given she had become mad at Zeus and the two were quarreling and fighting, she decided that her next child would be produced by herself, all on her own, without any masculine help: and thus she birthed Hephaestus.

Now, you might have noticed I said “Zeus had at least three wives”. Yes, because in the Theogony, Zeus is only described as having explicitely married three goddesses. However those three goddesses are part of a list of seven primordial lovers of Zeus. The list opens up with Metis, “first wife of Zeus”, followed by Themis that “Zeus next took as his wife” and the list concludes with Hera that he took “as his final wife”. And in between, there are goddesses he is said to have slept with, to have loved, to have children with - but it is not explicitely said that he was married to them. As a result this leads to some open interpretation. Were all seven of them his wives in turn, and the poet simply avoided repeating himself? Were only Metis, Themis and Hera Zeus’ legal wife, while the other four goddesses were unmarried lovers? There is a great opening for a lot of interpretations.

But overall the other “primordial lovers” of Zeus, and possibly other four first wives, are:

# Eurynome, Oceanid that gave to Zeus the Charites, the trio of goddesses embodyig grace, pleasure and beauty. This took place after Zeus’ marriage to Themis. (Or at least it is listed next in the list of Zeus lover, right after he was said to marry Themis).

# After Eurynome, Zeus slept with his sister Demeter and from their union was born Persephone.

# Next was Mnemosyne, goddess of memory and another aunt of Zeus, who birthed with him the nine Muses, the goddesses of the art.

# Then he took Leto as his next lover and she birthed Apollo and Artemis (that’s right, in the Hesiodic tradition, Zeus and Leto’s love took place BEFORE he married Hera, so Apollo and Artemis aren’t “bastard children”).

In conclusion, the full list of Zeus “primordial lovers” goes: Metis (confirmed to be first wife) - Themis (confirmed to be second wife) - Eurynome - Demeter - Mnemosyne - Leto - Hera (confirmed to be the last wife).

And it is only AFTER that Hesiod lists other love affairs of Zeus, this time explicitely taking place after his marriage to Hera, aka this is his “true” extra-marital, “cheating” affairs, in order: Maia, who birthed Hermes ; Semele, who gave birth to Dionysos ; Alcmene, who gave birth to Herakles. A list which does make sense and actually presents a “logical order” of Hera’s growing jealousy: with Hermes we never heard of Hera persecuting his mother or him ; but then, with Dionysos and Herakles, Zeus’ second and third unfaithfulness to Hera, this is when she gets mad and starts throwing curses and monsters left and right.

It should also be noted that the fights and feuds between Zeus and Hera are noted by Hesiod to have taken place BEFORE he was unfaithful to Hera - more precisely, we know that when Hera birthed on her own Hephaestos (so after Athena’s birth) she was already in deep fights and feuds with Zeus, quarrels which notably involved her refusal to have anymore children from him.

Looking back at Hesiod’s structure and chronology of these divine loves puts what “people” “know” or rather repeat about Greek mythology in a whole different light.

#greek mythology #greek gods #greek goddesses #hera #zeus #themis #metis #mnemosyne #leto #eurynome #demeter #hephaestus #athena #apollo #artemis #hesiod #theogony #hesiodic greek mythology

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gennsoup · 1 year

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Blessed the man who is loved by the Muses; sweet is the voice that flows from his mouth.

Hesiod, Theogony

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evergreenalice · 1 year

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wait Hesiod introduces Gaia in the Theogony by saying she has big tits?

I never actually read it

#greek mythology #Gaia #theogony #Hesiod

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lionofchaeronea · 7 months

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"Hesiod is a less familiar name to the general reader than Homer, Aeschylus, or Plato, and no one would claim that he is as great a writer as they...If I have sometimes made Hesiod sound a little quaint and stilted, that is not unintentional; he is."

--M.L. West, introduction to his translations of the Theogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics)

"Oh, yeah? Let's see whether anything you wrote is still read and discussed 2,700 years later, you pompous and now-deceased blowhard! ...Ahem. Sorry. I do get worked up sometimes."

--Me

#personal #ramblings #tagamemnon #hesiod #theogony #works and days

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deathlessathanasia · 2 months

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Children of Zeus in the Homeric Hymns. Generational Succession by Nancy Felson

#homeric hymns #hesiod #the theogony #succession myth #zeus #athena #apollon #apollo #gaia #hera #typhon #article

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clare-with-no-i · 11 months

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Hey Clare!

I've been doing online school/credit recovery for reasons too complicated to get into right now (chronic illness gang 😎) and I was taking a quiz when this question popped up:

Who wrote the Theogony, a genealogy of the Greek gods?

First of all, I didn't know the answer because I'm cheating to pass this course. (The OG curriculum doesn't include this and I am pretty good at history, so I made the executive decision to not pay attention).

So, of course, my immediate reaction was, "clarewithnoi? wtf? a genealogy of Greek Gods? Excuse me, theogony the most beautiful love story of our generation between a time-traveling scholar and Athenian general - who also happen to be Harry Potter's parents. " The absolute chokehold this fanfiction (and your writing in general) has on me is unparalleled.

I'm so freaking excited for the next chapter!!!!

(Also I was wondering if you could give us a little heads up before posting it so I can reread all 70,000 words - just to build anticipation) totally fine if you can't/don't want to tho, inspiration sparks at weird times

this made me tear up omfg. you always make me so emotional about theogony, treesthatarepeachy!! I'm sorry for the delay, life has been Really Very Insane and I always want theogony to be published when it's at its best (and when I am, as well). and I will definitely give a heads-up! hopefully about a day before.

also, for you, a snippet of ch10!

#ask #treesthatarepeachy #theogony #theogony spoilers #also Hesiod!!! Hesiod wrote theogony!!! put me in coach I'm ready!!!#also good luck with your courses babe!! there is no deadline for education that's for damn sure #sending love to u as I always am!#mwah!

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laugh-of-the-medusa · 9 months

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if u wanna read about sapphic yearning written while the author was sleep deprived, depressed, and having a fever dream click here:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/48727063

(even i have no idea how to describe this. and i wrote it. lmao BUT GIVE IT A CHANCE IF YOU WANT AN EXPANDED PYGMALION LORE, A RETELLING OF APHRODITE’S THEOGONY ORIGIN STORY, AND A LOT OF CARSON-SAPPHO REFERENCES, OH AND JUST A MORE FUN AND GAYER WAY OF TALKING ABOUT POST STRUCTURALISM)

#sapphic #give it a chance #sappho #anne carson #aphrodite #atthis #ovid's metamorphoses #ovid #hesiod #theogony #helene cixous #poststructuralism #I was going crazy trying to understand my readings #so I channeled it all into this assignment lmAo

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