Once There was A Circus in The Mountain of Gods
Reading Hesiod’s Theogony, a 1,028-versed poem about the pedigrees of Greek Gods and their mythical family relations (Solmsen, 2019), is like watching a circus play in front of your eyes. It is entertaining, impressive, and illuminating because you get to learn how the gods you know of came to be, similar to how you can be entranced with a riveting circus act. Yet, like how the greatest of these acts can be full of absurdity, Hesiod’s said poem is not absent of this quality, as its content overwhelms one with a variety of ironic mess. The entire text is replete of incongruity and chaos as reflected on the birth of gods and their eventual decisions in their lives. In particular, Hesiod’s Theogony chronicles an ironic mess of events in Grecian mythology through the conflicting attitudes and attributes of gods, their seemingly visible disregard on family boundaries, and the very process of their existence, as well as those of creatures which are not in the same species as them.
Gods are beings known to be superior to humans in all aspects. Despite this common agreement and thinking between all of us, what the gods have shown through their decisions and actions in the poem do not follow. For once, murder, trickery, vengence, and hunger for power and authority are some reoccurring events and desire for most of the gods. One example is Cronus' fear of being overthrown by his own child has made him devour (literally) all of his descendants. As the text states,
“For of all the children that were born of Earth and Heaven, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first. And he used to hide them all away in a secret place on Earth so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. (147)”
This power struggle takes place again in Zeus’ reign when he impedes his child’s (Athena) natural birth inside her mother Metis: ”But he seized her with his hands and put her in his belly, for fear that she might bring forth something stronger than his thunderbolt: therefore did Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in the aether, swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway conceived Pallas Athene: and the father of men and gods gave her birth by way of his head on the banks of the river Trito. (929)”
Other than this, vengeance and trickery are also part of their lives. Zeus’ “punishment” for the cunning Prometheus and Hera’s acts toward her husband’s many lovers are only few examples of the former, while Prometheus himself’s devious move of deceit and thievery on Zeus and Rhea’s maneuver to get back at her husband Kronus are some sample cases of the latter. In other words, the gods are not as holy as they are and as perfect as what they are deemed to be. One prime illustration for the latter point is Zeus. Though considered to be a supreme ruler of all gods in Mount Olympus, his abilities are not innate and absolute. His well-known power of lightning bolt was given to him by the Cyclopes:
“And again, she bare the Cyclopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges, who gave Zeus the thunder and made the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the gods, but one eye only was set in the midst of their fore-heads. (139)”
His wisdom/intelligence is not faultless as seen with how he is tricked by Prometheus twice — first with the ox fat and second with fire. In short, these gods are not immaculate beings given their measures and line of thinking. It can be said that the only thing separating them from humans, aside from their appearance, are their extraordinary powers.
Prometheus stealing fire
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Perplexing is one word to describe the lineage of the Greek gods. The chaotic organization of their family tree has arisen because of their seemingly visible nonobservance of what it takes and means to be a family. This is evident with the relationships that occur between the members of the same family. Zeus, for one, is prominent for parenting gods and demigods by having affairs or liaisons with his relatives. Even if this is the case, the genealogy of Greek gods would not have been formed in the first place if not for the act of consanguinity itself.
from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c8/13/38/c813380d081972e4edb0b9cf5765feb9.png
The very process of existence of the beings in the poem is also full of bewildering events. For once, the “wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night... (116)” has come out of Chaos, also known as The Void. How can something exist out of nothing?
Another baffling thing on the Grecian gods’ emergence is how some of them are able to rise from another god’s body parts. Heaven’s situation after being cut by Earth is one good illustration.
“Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him. And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bare the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. (176)”
Also, creatures that are of different species from that of their parents can come about. For example, Chrysaor and Pegasus both come from the blood of their mother Medusa’s head. The two of them are siblings; however, the former is more human-like while the latter is a winged-horse animal. In short, the rules of science that we know of today do not always or totally apply in the reproduction of these Grecian gods. As such, they are always a fascinating matter to learn about.
Chrysaor and Pegasus emerge from Medusa’s bloody head
from https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/uploads/5/3/1/3/53133595/edward-burne-jones-the-death-of-medusa-i-1882_orig.jpg
Even if this is the case, it is still interesting to know from the poem that darkness has always been associated with negative things. This is evident from how all the unpleasant emotions are birthed from Night who bears “... hateful Doom and black Fate and Death... Blame and painful Woe, ... ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos... Nemesis (Indignation) to afflict mortal men, and after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted Strife (211),” who then delivers “... painful Toil and Forgetfulness and Famine and tearful Sorrows, Fightings also, Battles, Murders, Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes, Lawlessness and Ruin, all of one nature, and Oath who most troubles men upon earth when anyone wilfully swears a false oath. (226)”
Nyx, the mother of the Spirits of the Night
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The creation myth and myth of the birth of Grecian gods in Hesiod’s Theogony may have been likened to a circus act that is both captivating and ludicrous (because of mainly how human the gods' thoughts and actions are), but its significance will nevertheless be reduced. The connected account Hesiod gives to offer explanation for the creation of the universe and the birth of gods presents an idea of the religious and literary traditions of a bygone era. Moreover, it is significant because for the study of myth, Hesiod's Theogony "... is the oldest surviving attempt to treat systematically the mythical tradition from the first gods down to the great heroes (Feldman, nd.)"
- Maria Lira Jasper O. Go
References:
Atsma, A. Hesiod, theogony. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html.
Feldman, T. P. (n.d.). Hesiod. https://users.pfw.edu/flemingd/Hesiod%20Theogony.pdf
Solmsen, F. (2019, October 18). Hesiod. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hesiod.
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