III-2 BEE | 2S-ENG07 Blogs

          In reading the unsettlingly lengthy epic poem written by Hesiod, one thing I could not miss (or myth!) is the recurring themes of violence and power.      Theogony literally means the “birth or genealogy of the gods," so there's nothing to expect but the life of Greek gods and goddesses unfolding before our eyes, at least in a didactic poem. Composed around 700BCE, making it one of the earliest texts of Greek mythology along with "The Illiad" and of course, "The Odyssey" both by Homer.      This epic poem, a combination of genealogy and history, narrates stories of the first Greek gods and their many descendants. It got everything covered down to the last detail of appearances, names in order, scenes of love, birth, and rebirth, death, war, and chaos.      Theogony is important, not just because it's one of the oldest surviving texts of ancient Greece, but it also provides a picture of the Greek liter...

 - A Reflection by Jane Segovia The Theogony is an ancient didactic poem composed by the Greek poet Hesiod around the year 700 BCE. It is considered to be one of the earliest works created about Greek mythology. Although its aim is to introduce the origins of the universe, the poet of this piece reveals a much darker side of Olympus - its misogynistic ways. Misogyny  is described to be the prejudice against women. Sadly, it is depicted in numerous parts of the 1,022 hexameter line poem that described the origin of the Greek Gods. This is not surprising since the said poem also contained greed, incest, and eating one's own babies in order to prevent one's downfall. Still, misogyny is prevalent in the piece of writing as well as in the current times which makes this topic relevant and still worth discussing. Origin of Aphrodite As the Goddess of Love and beauty, Aphrodite is someone a lot of woman look up to. She is the epitome of what they wanted to be and how they wanted to be...

Greek gods were flawed like humans do. Charmine Cumpio (charmingly yours,) III-2 BEE Hesiod’s Theogony tells about the creation of the world and the origin of the Gods, just like any other world creation stories. But more than that, it is inevitable to notice how these gods act and reveal themselves in a particular situation, especially when it comes to omens about their children overtaking their godly position. Every god possesses different attitud es , rewards, and punishment, and insecurities disclose the fact that these are not alien to them and us. Nothing we learn about them is alien to ourselves   (Hamilton, 1942, p. 10) There was chaos at first to Erebus and Night’s existence. Later, Uranus and Gaea’s existence and everything follows — titans, cyclopes, and hecatoncheires — are the product of their procreation. In connection with other creation stories like the Book of Genesis to Theogony , well, they do share the same features about how both began in nothing but a mere...

         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...