A Discussion on Hesiod's Theogony

Ascend - The Great Books Podcast

Dcn. Harrison Garlick, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and Mr. Thomas Lackey come together to discuss Hesiod's Theogony - a poem about the origin of the gods and the cosmos.

Key conversations:

• The role of the Muses
• The four primordial gods - especially Chaos
• Eros as the generative and binding force of the cosmos
• Zeus as a bringer of civilization
• The Prometheus myths
• Women as the beautiful evil

Hesiod is a contemporary of Homer. Homer composed the Iliad around 750 BC and the Odyssey around 725 BC, and Hesiod was active in the mid 700s and into the 600s.[1] Hesiod, like Homer, has roots in Asia Minor. His father is believed to have been a merchant who moved from Asia Minor to Mount Helicon in ancient Greece.[2]

Notably, Mount Helicon had several springs that were sacred to the Muses, and it serves as the setting of the opening of the Theogony. Hesiod lived an agricultural life working his family farm and writing poetry. Hesiod is similar to Homer insofar as both are the recipients of a large treasury of Greek mythology. Hesiod is dissimilar to Homer insofar as Hesiod most likely originally wrote his plays—as opposed to them existing first as oral rhapsodies that were then reduced to writing, like with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

Check out our Musings of the Theogony written guide!

Check out our website for more resources.

[1] See A Reader’s Guide: 115 Questions on the Iliad, Ascend: The Great Books Podcast.

[2] See Ed. M. C. Howatson, Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2013), 294.