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Mythographia

    Theogony

    Theogony, Greek for "the birth of the gods," is both a general word for an account of how the gods came to exist and the specific title of Hesiod's poem, the only complete Greek theogony to survive from antiquity.

    By Reviewed by Mythographia Editorial Team

    In Practice

    Hesiod states the poem's own scope directly in its opening invocation: he asks the Muses to "tell how at the first gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above," and the gods born from them, "and how they divided their wealth, and how they shared their honors amongst them." That is the whole poem's program stated in advance: not just a list of gods, but their genealogy, their conflicts over power, and how the world ended up governed the way it currently is. The poem opens with a claim that complicates its own authority before it even reaches that program. The Muses appear to Hesiod tending sheep on Mount Helicon and address him directly as "shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies," then say of themselves: "we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things." Only after that admission do they breathe a divine voice into him and command him to celebrate the gods, themselves first and last always. Ancient and later readers took the genealogy that follows as authoritative revelation, but the poem itself never claims to be reporting only the true kind of speech the Muses say they are capable of. What follows the proem is a strict genealogical unfolding rather than a narrative in the ordinary sense. Chaos comes into being first, then wide-bosomed Earth, Tartarus, and Eros; from Chaos come Erebus and Night, and from their union Aether and Day. Earth then bears Heaven, the mountains, and the sea, and through union with Heaven bears the Titans, ending with Cronos, "the wiliest and youngest of her children." The poem carries this thread of birth after birth through the Titans, the Titanomachy, and Zeus's rise to the position he still holds, and closes with a catalogue of goddesses who bore children to mortal men, a section that ends by announcing a different subject, the tribe of mortal women, in lines identical to the opening of a separate poem ascribed to Hesiod in antiquity, the Catalogue of Women.

    What does the word "theogony" actually mean?

    It is Greek for "the birth of the gods," and it names both the general subject, an account of how the gods came into being, and the specific poem by Hesiod that states this exact scope in its own opening lines: an account of the gods, the earth, the sea, the stars and the sky, and how the gods born from them divided power and honor among themselves.

    Hesiod, Theogony 108-113

    Why do the Muses tell Hesiod they can lie?

    Before giving him the divine voice to sing the gods' genealogy, the Muses first announce their own dual capacity, stating plainly that they know how to speak many false things as though they were true, and know, when they choose to, how to speak true things as well. The poem never states which kind of speech follows, leaving the claim to genealogical authority resting on an admission of capacity to deceive.

    Hesiod, Theogony 26-28

    Where does the Theogony say the universe began?

    With Chaos, followed immediately by wide-bosomed Earth, Tartarus in the depths of the earth, and Eros. From Chaos came Erebus and black Night, and from Night's union with Erebus came Aether and Day.

    Hesiod, Theogony 116-125

    Does the Theogony cover anything besides the gods themselves?

    Its transmitted text ends with a catalogue of goddesses who slept with mortal men and bore children, introduced with its own invocation to the Muses. The final two lines of that catalogue announce a new subject, the tribe of mortal women, in wording identical to the opening of a separate poem ascribed to Hesiod in antiquity, the Catalogue of Women, marking where one poem was read as ending and the next as beginning.

    Hesiod, Theogony 965-968

    Is Hesiod's Theogony the only ancient Greek account of the gods' genealogy?

    It is the only one to survive complete, but not the only one ancient Greeks knew. Apollodorus's Library retells the same succession from Ouranos through Cronos to Zeus in prose centuries later, largely agreeing with Hesiod on the major genealogical claims and the outcome of the Titanomachy, which shows the genealogy Hesiod's poem sets out was treated as shared, retellable material rather than a single unrepeatable text.

    Apollodorus, Library 1.1.1-1.2.1

    Where Accounts Differ

    • a genealogy that admits it might be lying
    • Popular summaries of Hesiod's Theogony usually treat its genealogy as straightforward reporting. The poem's own proem complicates that: the Muses explicitly claim the ability to speak falsehoods that sound true, before ever beginning the genealogy that follows, and the text never marks which register the rest of the poem is written in.

    Where This Appears

    Sources

    Primary sources
    • Hesiod, Theogony 26-28
    • Hesiod, Theogony 108-113
    • Hesiod, Theogony 116-125
    • Hesiod, Theogony 965-968
    • Apollodorus, Library 1.1.1-1.2.1