Blog #1: Sublime Nonsense
Nonsense (n), an idea that is absurd or contrary to good sense. Sublime (n), tending to inspire awe usually because of elevated quality (as of beauty, nobility, or grandeur) or transcendent excellence. These are the two words that I would use to describe the Theogony by Hesiod, which was an epic poem containing 1,022 hexameter lines. It tackles upon the birth of the gods and their origin, thus the meaning of the Latin word theogonia, “generation of gods” (Wasson, 2017). And for me, it is nonsense in the fact that there is an incongruity in the creation of the Greek gods, their values and their nature. Yet it is sublime because of its intricacy and complexity.
To illustrate, the creation and birth of the creatures was rather odd and unusual. There were gods made from chaos and nature. From Chaos came Earth (Gaia) who bore Heaven or Sky (Ouranos) as well as other children including Eros (Desire), Tartarus (Underworld), Erebus (Darkness), and Nyx (Night). Some were made from a natural birth, that comes from the union of a man and woman. Like how Gaia and Ouranos bore the Titans from the lines “bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys, and Cronos.” Also, like how Mnemosyne and Zeus bore the Nine Muses at the beginning of Theogony: “nine daughters begotten by great Zeus, Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania and Calliope”. And there are some coming out of the blue, or would I say the severed genitals of a god, like in the lines: “First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philomedes because sprang from the members.” Them, along with many others were just some examples of the dramatic and fictitious ancestry of the greek gods and creatures for it also involved cyclops, titans, muses, monsters, etc, wherein it can be seen that the story was just overboard fantastic.
Their values as well ring total illogicality because in the text it was showed that murder, revenge, and betrayal was natural. And if we are going to analyze it, it is super contradictory to what it should mean to be a “god”. For Christians, a God is right and just, who takes care of his people and he is pleased with the holy and righteous. On the other hand, these greek gods do these inhumane things as if they have no morals and it shows how bad of an example they are for humanity. For instance, Kronos plotted against Ouranos, his own father, with his mother and castrated him. This can be seen on the lines: “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.” There are other things that are evident to their values like jealousy, envy, and violence and it is shown by how easily these gods can punish humans and even have revenge against their own family even for the most unbelievable reasons.
Lastly is about their nature, wherein greek gods have marriage as well. But at the same time, it is okay for them to commit adultery or even incest. In addition, it was clear from above that greek gods were capable of doing inhuman things as if they were humans. Because of their actions and characteristics, their nature then becomes problematic. What is the nature of the Greek gods? Are they only gods because of their origin and power but not in values and personality? Are they good or evil? Certainly, greek mythology blurred the lines between god and human for them when it comes to their nature. And aside from their blood and legal ancestry, gods only have power but they lack compassion, kindness and even love for humanity, which makes them just the same with humans. Nonetheless, everything in the theogony is a pure myth because even Hesiod himself said that they know how to speak false things as if they are true and this can be seen in the lines: "Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things.”
Little was known of the poet but others said that he was a farmer from his lines: ”And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon…”. At the same time, he was also said to be a rhapsodist or a reciter of poems, where he learned techniques and vocabulary of heroic songs. Because at that time, written literature was not yet practised so the only way that he will be able to accomplish this work is through the oral act. Hence, that is the same reason why some questions arise about the authorship of theogony. Nevertheless, many classicists believed that he did and later poets just added some lines. In conclusion, Hesiod’s theogony was a fancy myth, which all people knew is not true, however still inspired many playwrights, awed countless audiences and reached succeeding generations. That makes this literal nonsense, as it defies reality, sublime.
References:
Atsma, A. (2017). Hesiod, theogony. THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY - Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html?fbclid=IwAR2uJ8ODc3LFkrL4_FyAGiwd8-PoIvoyiiksl1PT9GO0CQwfgbV9OxsV8ng
Wasson, D. (2017, December 19). Theogony. Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/Theogony/
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