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") (52)
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 - shot down from the sky)
images of The Fall of Phaethon by Joseph Heintz (1596), Sebastiano Ricci (1703),
Hendrick Goltzius, and MICHELANGELO (image one and image two). Also see the unfortunately named new automobile, the Phaeton.
   (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.
    

Agostino di DUCCIO's marble frieze of Cronos
 

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)

Saturn Devouring His Children by Francisco Goya (c. 1821-1823)

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)

copyright 2001 Janice Siegel, All Rights Reserved
send comments to: Janice Siegel (jfsiege@ilstu.edu)

date this page was edited last: 08/02/2005
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