Chapter 3 Outline and Keywords

Pages are keyed to Morford and Lenardon's Classical Mythology, 7th edition
You are responsible for words and names in red.

Stories to know

Creation according to Hesiod:
Chaos: first being to "become" (Chaos means "void")
next came Gaia, Tartarus, Eros
Chaos engendered (begat!) Erebus, Night
Night begat Aether and Day (with Erebus)

EROS (52): important to Hesiod as all entities but Chaos are born through sexual reproduction. Therefore, sexual desire - EROS - must have existed from the beginning, too.

SACRED MARRIAGE (hieros gamos) OF URANUS (SKY) AND GAIA (EARTH) (54)
Gaia begets Uranus, mountain ranges, and Pontus without sex (parthenogenesis).
Gaia (with Uranus) begets the 12 Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Thebe, Tethys, Cronos. Gaia also begets the Cyclopes and the Hundred-armed giants (Hecatonchires).

THE TITANS (56-61)
Oceanus (Ocean) and Tethys > Oceanids, 6000 spirits of rivers, springs, etc.
Hyperion (Sun) and Theia > Helius (a sun god), Selene (moon), Eos (Dawn)
(Phaethon is a son of Helius (or Apollo) - shot down from the sky)

(Selene - the Moon - falls in love with the mortal Endymion, who sleeps perpetually)
(Eos - the Dawn - is made to fall in love with Tithonus, who grows older and older)

THE CASTRATION OF URANUS AND THE BIRTH OF APHRODITE (61-63)
from Theogony 156-206: Gaia creates a sickle out of the metal ore in her body and her son Cronos lies in ambush for his father Uranus. When he comes to mate with Gaia, Cronos attacks, slicing off his genitals and throwing them far away into the sea. They foam on contact with the sea, and Aphrodite is born of the foam (aphros = "foam"). The blood that falls on the earth bring forth the Furies, or Erinyes, goddesses of vengeance. Aphrodite was brought to the island of Cythera, and then to Cyprus (she is often called the "Cyprian maiden"). Note that Aphrodite has only a male parent. Eros attends her.

THE TITANS Cronos (Sky) + Rhea (Earth) > Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus

How and why Cronos swallows his children (64)
Cronos ( = Saturn) eats all his children, but Rhea saves Zeus (Theogony 453-506)

read through the different myth interpretations that are possible (67-71)

read the beginning of Hesiod's Theogony: the birth of the Muses (72-73)
Know how and why Hesiod invokes the Muses in the beginning of his poem (51)

Chapter 3 Power Point slides
 

definition/etymology of COSMOGONY

The Fall of Phaeton (1596, HEINTZ, Joseph the Elder)
The Fall of Phaeton (c. 1533, MICHELANGELO Buonarroti)
The Fall of Phaeton (c. 1533, MICHELANGELO Buonarroti)
Fall of Phaeton (1703-04, Sebastiano Ricci)
Volkswagen's new Phaeton

Diana and Endymion, by Jean-Honore Fragonard, National Gallery of Art

Saturn (c. 1456, Duccio, Agostino di) a marble frieze
The Birth of Venus, Botticelli, 1485
Rhea delivering the swaddled stone instead of Zeus to Cronos (160 AD)
Saturn (c. 1821, Francisco Goya)

Muses: Clio, Euterpe and Thalia, 1652-55 by Eustache LE SUEUR
The Muses: Melpomene, Erato and Polymnia by Eustache LE SUEUR
The Muse Terpsichore by Eustache LE SUEUR
Valley of the Muses, Mount Olympos (described by Hesiod)