Recently I was on the road for six weeks. I took this as a great opportunity to re-read
Strauss-Clay’s great book. She provides
a close reading of each of Hesiod’s works individually and then compares and
contrasts them as we see Hesiod’s concept of the cosmological process
unfold.
The
Two Perspectives.
What I didn’t remember from my last reading was Clay’s proposal
that “Works and Days” is written from
a mortal perspective while, “The Theogony”
is for a divine audience. ( Maya M. suggests that " So Hesiod here has completely dissociated himself from the human viewpoint and taken the viewpoint of his divine characters. And not even of Zeus, but of his opponents. Phorkys is called "brave", like the Titans during the Titanomachy.") Clay
describes the apobatic moment of the Muses departure from their bath places on
Permessu or Hippocrene or Olme or dancing ground of Helicon and their arrival
where Hesiod tends his sheep as “the
moment of transition from the eternal time of the gods to the temporality of
mankind…the Muses have arrived at the limit of the world of men…the high
pastures where notoriously gods and human beings may encounter each other…In
the meantime, the change in the Muses’ name and address – from Heliconian to
Olympian –underlines the movement from a localize epichoric, perspective to a
PanHellenic one. “ Clay juxtaposes “divine and human temporalities as past and
present, eternal and ephemeral” I
would add, that even the gods are immortal, the temporality is “once and
forever” whereas generations of men die and are reborn eternally.
In Works & Days “he
revises the earlier teaching of the Muses by telling us that on earth, it turns
out there are two Irides – not one, as claimed in the Theogony. What his means is that from the point of view
of the gods, there is only one Eris” This might be more understandable if
we recall from Hippolytus that Artemis declared the gods are not allowed to interfere
with one another “Hesiodically, Eris and Hubris precede the birth of Dike. Dike enters the world of men only much later
with the fourth race, the age of heroes.”
The
Alternative Theogonies
Clay
states that “Homer and Hesiod allude to
alternative theogonic traditions”, and “a
developed genre of theogonic poetry”.
She lists the Homeric Hymn to
Hermes in her footnotes “where Hermes
enchants Apollo with his singing of a theogony which likewise recounts the
birth of the gods in order and their acquisition of their allotted shares.” She adds that “Homer seems to know of a cosmogonic model in which Oceanus and Tethys
were the primordial parents.” I
would point out that the Orphic Hymn to
Nyx suggests that;
“Nyx,
parent goddess, source of sweet repose, from whom at first both Gods and men
arose”;
and
Zeus’ awe of the goddess seems to support that thrice-prayed for, best beloved,
most fair Night is a goddess of matriarchal importance. I’ve argued elsewhere that Homer’s
treatment of Thetis and Eurynome is a subtle acknowledgement to theogonies that
make each of the water goddesses, creatrix in their own rights. (See
http://shortstories-bill.blogspot.com/2014/11/tfbt-homer-is-thessalian.html)
The
Genealogy of the Gods
If you don’t know Hesiod’s basic premise, it is that once upon a
time, there was nothing but the unfathomable abyss of Chaos. From it arose primordial Earth (Gaea). Clay
observes that Mountains, Nymphs and the barren salt Sea (Pontus) were all born
of the Earth without intercourse. With
the latter she became mother of all the primordial sea gods and sea monsters,
with the possible exception of Nereus who Pontus bore asexually. Also,
to Earth was born the starry Heaven Uranus. ”Uranus, the Heavens to cover or
enclose her (Gaia) in all direction as if she somehow required such
delimitation.” In this position there
was little opportunity for grow in the world, until Cronus emasculated his
father and for the first time Hyperion (the sun) arose splitting the earth and
sky. Also spilling from the mother’s
womb were 17 other primordial deities. The
drops of divine ichor that fell to Earth would engender the ash-maidens;
Erinyes and giants. His genitals tossed
into the sea would generate the mighty Aphrodite.1
Cronus becomes King of the Gods until overthrown by his son Zeus.
Zeus distributes the honors and privileges of the gods among his
kin and allies at Mecone. “Zeus secures the instrument of organized
violence which are characteristic of political power; an armament industry (the
Cyclopes) and a mercenary army (the Hundred-Arms).” Clay adds to this the children of the
Styx. “Zeus promised honor (time) while
she in return gave Zeus the gift of her children, Violence, Power, Zeal and
Victory.” As I write this it occurs to
me that Styx had no grandchildren, the first generation of Cyclops were slain
without heirs and two out of the three “Hundred-arms” served as jailers in
Tartarus a realm notorious for its lack of fertility. (Note Queen Persephone’s infertility.) Elsewhere I’ve noted the choice of virginity
which is unique goddesses in Zeus’s extended family and that goddesses in the
only other titan family allied to the Olympians, the Hyperionides were cursed
with an obsession with mortal men. Zeus
seemed to have made a real effort to thwart the birth of an adversary. Finally he sires a few abstractions to
decorate the place.
Meanwhile, from Chaos arose Nyx (Night) and Darkness (Erebus) who
had a brood of generally unpleasant deities and daemon, the least likeable
being born from Nyx’s attempt at asexual reproduction. Maya M refers to these daemons as the “bio-weapons in Pandora’s jar”. Clay notes
Gaia’s “line remains completely separate
from that of Chaos – intercourse between these two fundamentally opposed cosmic
entities seems impossible.” 2
Prometheus the King
So if you don’t know the story of Zeus and Prometheus; here it
is. They were cousins. When Zeus and his sibling overthrew the Titan
King and made a grab for power, Prometheus and his three brothers, the sons of
Iapetus led the resistance against them. Hesiod…makes
the Iapetids appear to be the younger sons of the family of Cronus. .. this genealogical sleight-of-hand (has to
do with) the succession myth, where it is always the younger son who disposes
his father. And significantly Prometheus
is the only figure who share the epithet ankulometis “of crooked – devising”
with his uncle Cronus. Prometheus either
through the gift of foresight or on the advice of Themis, switches sides, bring
his dullard brother Epimetheus with him.
At Mecone (see above) Prometheus
arranged for the Bronze Men to get the better part of the community meal. In revenge Zeus withholds the fire that would
have cooked the meal, Prometheus steals it from the gods, the gods withdraw the
easy living that required no farming and burden men with Pandora, the first
woman who brings all the illness of the world as a dowry to her husband
Epimetheus.
Clays asks “Why did he
take up the cause of mankind?” Clay suggests
that the crafty Titan took up the mortal cause in order to court them as allies
in his own bid for power. He ends up
leaving “mankind permanently unable to
escape its human condition, a condition founded on the institutions of sacrifice,
agriculture and marriage and predicated on Hope.”
_______________________________________________
1 Clay’s
foot note to the castration of Uranus and the release of his children from
Gaia’s womb “Hesiod seems to be punning on locos, “ambush” and the root loc-,
relating to child-birth” A similar pun
is reported on the soldiers issuing from the belly of the Trojan Horse
2 Well, at least until Iliad 14. 231 when Hera weds Nyx’s son Hypnos to one of the Graces.
