Reference no: EM13832370

1. The first 116 lines of Hesiod's Theogony are essentially there to set up the poem. He opens with an invocation to the Muses, which of there are nine. They are goddesses of the arts and live by Mt. Helicon along with Hesiod. The Muses, most simply put, are the daughters of Zeus. In one portion of introduction, Hesiod describes how the Muses were born; Zeus and Memnosyne conceived them in nine nights. The chief of the Muses was Calliope. The Muses are there to give the speaker the blessing and inspiration to continue with the story.

2. Earth grew angry at Uranus, for he hid their children away and would not let them emerge. She forged a knife and enlisted her son, Kronos, to punish the "vile outrage" of his father. When Uranus came and lay about Earth, his son took the sickle and cut off his genitals, which landed in the sea and became Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

3. It is said that the Ocen and Thethys bore thousands of rivers and oceanids, one of the chief ones being the River Styx. Styx and her children , all abstract powers, receive special treatment from the gods, for Styx lends her children to help Zeus. He needed one of the deathless gods to offer to fight with him against the Titans, and Styx offered her children. Therefore, Zeus honored her with great gifts and appointed her to be the "great oath of the gods".

4. When Metis, Zeus's first wife, was about to give birth to Athena, he deceived her and put her in his own belly. Later, he himself gave birth to her from his own head. Hesiod describes Athena as a "strife-stirring" lover of war and battle.

5. There exists logic concerning Hesiod's methods. He has Aphrodite born from the genitals of Uranus because she is the god of love, and the genitals are the means by which beings express their love. On the other hand, Athena is born from the head of Zeus because she is the goddess of war and wisdom; since battle takes skill and intelligence to complete, it makes sense that she should be born of the god of Olympus.