Theogony: The Creation Of The Greek Poet Hesiod

The Greek poet Hesiod wrote the poem Theogony circa 700 B.C., which depicted a theory to the earth’s conception. It portrays three generations of gods and how the Olympians came out victorious from the war against the Titans with Zeus as their leader. This founded the main belief system for the Ancient Greeks and was publicized through word of mouth. This polytheistic understanding to creation differs from that of the Old Testament. To this day, it is still unknown who authored Genesis, the first book of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible, but it was likely written by more than one person, particularly three writers: Jehovist or Yahwist, Elohist, and Priestly, also known as the “Authors of Genesis.” In this interpretation, there was a

The Theogony thoroughly describes the actions and logic that occurred during the beginnings of the Greek gods, while the meaning behind God’s doings is referred little to. Genesis’ authors write about him producing water and light, but no further explanation to why he did this or how he accomplished them is given: “And God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Zeus is the almighty entity in Greek mythology, and Hesiod often wrote about the actions Zeus took and why those decisions occurred. For example, from his experience of overthrowing his own father Kronos to gain power, Zeus was anxious that his father’s fate would be his. He took matters into his own hands and swallowed his first wife Metis before she could give birth: “he deceived her mind/With clever words and guile, and thrust her down/Into his belly, as he was advised/By Earth and starry Heaven. In that way/They said, no other god than Zeus would get/The royal power over all the gods/Who live forever.” This is how Athena, the goddess of wisdom, originated after another god split Zeus’ head open because of a headache. From a psychological perspective, Zeus is a paranoid and power-loving character. He had assumed the title as king of gods and is not likely to give up his authority. God, however, is given little description and insight into his inner mind and remains mentally ambiguous: “And God said, ‘Let the waters

Both have limitless power and have great influence on humanity. However, their relations to humankind contrast from one another. Zeus and the other Olympians are often portrayed in a human-like form. Although described to have created mankind in his image (“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image’...”), God is not told to have possessed a human body. This could be one of many reasons to why he remains transcendent to the human world. He communicates with humans and is occasionally the instigator of occurrences, but he chooses not to meddle with human life. This is unlike the Greek gods, Zeus especially who would often personally interact and seduce mortal women, producing an immense amount of offspring, causing his wife Hera to grow jealous. If seen from a metaphysical perspective, Zeus’ tendency for extramarital relationships is a representation for relationships in Ancient Grecian life. Greeks would take part of some legal union but still have other intimate affairs apart from their spouse, both men and women