Hi folks! This week, we’re looking at Hesiod’s story of the origins and, in many ways, the purposes of the gods. What do the gods represent, and how is that affected by the gods being male and female?

There’s a lot going on in Theogony—but that also means there are a lot of items to choose from. Pick one moment or scene and run with it. What is Hesiod trying to get across? What kind of a perspective does it give you on the Greek conception of the gods? How does what Hesiod says fit in with Pomeroy’s interpretation in Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves?

Try to interpret as well as describe your reactions. Add a new idea to the discussion, or a new angle on what’s being talked about. There's a lot readings like this can tell us, if we spend some time breaking down what it says, and what it’s trying to say.

One detail that caught my attention was how, at the beginning of the passage, Hesiod largely glorifies or describes the gods positively, showing how the gods were praised and viewed at the time, and further down the passage, he explains how the cosmos, the universe, and everything was created. The author was trying to communicate how the world was made and how each event in the creation of the universe starts a chain reaction to what is about to come, for better or for the worse. What this document is telling us about the time and place it comes from is that many wondered how the universe was formed and what events took place in how the universe came to be, like a cause-and-effect scenario. This document supports the other readings of this time and place because, at this point, many people wondered how the universe came to be and what factors led to the creation of the universe.