#theogony

[reaty]

So you know how in Homer and other sources it is stated that greek gods swear on Styx water and this oath considered to be unbreakable? Lately I read the Hesiod's "Theogony" and found out what would happen if they break it.

Basically if a god swears on Styx and then breaks the oath, they will 1) go to the lethargic sleep for a year; 2) the next 9 years they will not be invited to any gods parties. That's it. You see, gods can not live without parties, so they never break the oath.

Also Styx is a girl.

[depressed-linguist]

‘three fair-cheeked Kharites…from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs’

- hesiod, theogony

The Three Graces - detail from La Primavera, Sandro Botticelli (Uffizi Gallery, Firenze)

[ahotpeaceofshit]

Different versions of Calypso in ancient sources, I only added ones that had conflicting information.

[dionysusmybeloved]

I decided to make a post on this since I kinda forgot to make a separate one from the master-list, but I wanted to share that I've made a free library of resources to use!

Which includes:

• The Theogony, Works and Days, The Shield

• The Odyssey and Illiad

• The Homeric and Orphic Hymns

• The Library by Apollodorus

• Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship

and many more books / plays (Euripides, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Sophocles), secondary resources on Dionysus, etc.

also, you can message me to add some books and resources, I'll try to add it to the best of my ability (I'm uploading Euripides I to IV tomorrow probably)

[divinationdrawings]

"Fair wreathed Kytherea"

-Hesiod's Theogony, Gany translation

Aphrodite of the golden crown

The lustrous hand mirror

Seafoam from the cosmos rains down

The mist grows clearer

Kytherea blew in

From warm Cyprus winds

Enchanting the Seamen and Seafarers

I hope you enjoyed today's tale of legend and lore, come back next week and there will be even more

[boymanmaletheshequel]

A god to consider: Nyx 🌚🪶

Lady Nyx, the primordial, ancient goddess of the night and of darkness itself, one of the protogenoi, daughter of Chaos, is one of the gods of the underworld. A premordial Cthonic deity, She is the mother of the daemons, as well as the mother of sleep, death, and pain. Referred to as “the subduer of gods and men” She is one of, if not the single most intimidating god, so terrifying in her cadence in fact, that Zeus himself was once in terrified awe of her power. She bore nearly all of her children through immaculate conception, these children being some of the most fearsome gods of Hellen, including but not limited to: Hypnos, Thanatos, Nemesis, the Morae, and the Daemons. She is the mother of death, the mistress of dreams, the personification of night. She is Nyx, learn her name.

If you wish to learn more about Nyx, consider the sources below. If you wish to learn about more gods of Hellen, please consider giving my blog a follow! I lost daily. Blessed be your day! 💙🏛️💙

Sources:

• Theoi.com

• Wikipedia.org

• “the Iliad” - Homer

• “Theogony” - Hesiod

Relevant stories:

• Theogony - Hesiod

• The Iliad - Homer

• works and days - Hesiod

• Eumenides - Aeschylus

• Aeneid - Virgil

[catrawoods]

Greek goddess and god Concepts in the Theogony ( Greek Creation Myth )

here's my concept of these 6 as they were warriors before becoming the new rulers of Olympus

[brainrotroulette]

Now, you could call this one a real "cliff hanger"

Been a lifelong Greek myths nerd, just started taking up drawing, and JUST got into EPIC.

I know that it's based on the Homeric telling of Odysseus' life and that Hesoid's Thoegony was basically fanfic. HOWEVER, it doesn't stop the thoughts swirling about if Hesoid's idea of Odysseus' lineage existed within the context of this musical; a man who occasionally snaps back into reality, and names sons whose existence he can barely stomach after the two things he wants most in the world, a quick ship and navigation proficiency so he can return home to Penelope and Telemachus and not the woman who is about to strip him of his memories and make him play house with a song.

[whencyclopedia]

This infographic illustrates the 12 Olympian Gods (Greek: Δωδεκάθεον, Dodekatheon), the principal deities of the Greek pantheon who reside on Mount Olympus, ruling over aspects of the natural world, human life, and cosmic order. Traditionally, they include Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus, with Hades (brother of Zeus and Poseidon...

[clare-with-no-i]

fun fact: there is a file collecting dust on my laptop called 'greek myth jily' which has absolutely nothing to do with theog and was, in fact, going to be a canonverse one-shot which interwove parts of Hesiod's theogony into jily's love story. that was the reason I spent a random evening reading Hesiod's theogony in August of 2021. later that same night, though, I got the idea for (what is now) theog "as a joke" because in my head it felt so overplayed and formulaic – I just couldn't stop thinking about it as I went to bed.

about a week later I got tagged in an ask game where one of the prompts was "Ideas I probably won't get to but it would be nice" and I ranted and raved about this dumb idea that wouldn't get out of my mind. I got a bunch of responses telling me to write it, so I spent a few hours plotting it out (handwritten! in the notebook I would later use for the Masters program I would audit before deciding on law school!), wrote the prologue and the epilogue, and posted the prologue the next day. I had a concrete plan to be done with it by January 2022. lmfao.

I'm not going to write the canonverse piece, because I think I've just about had enough of intertwining greek mythology and jily, but it is pretty fun to look back on and giggle about.

i guess the moral of the story is: be open to changing your ideas around if something really strikes your interest. and if you can't stop thinking about something (even in a derogatory way) that probably means something.

[kurzler]

Hi, I recently saw your post of your rant about Greek Mythology and I'm recently interested in getting into it.

I know a bit about some myths from school, we read versions of Pandora's box, the Minotaur, Heracules, and the Odyssey. This was Year 4 so I was around 8-9, so there all probably a version for a child to read and understand. I also listened to Epic the Musical. I am fully aware of the inaccuracies of it from the original.

I'm just so overwhelmed on where do I start? Also I want to read the Iliad and Odyssey do have any recommendations for any versions?

hi! thank you for the ask, i'm gonna try my best to be helpful

disclaimer: i'm not a classicist nor a professional, this is just a passion of mine, so if anyone who has more credentials than me wants to chime in i'd be more than happy!

so! im gonna be listing some texts to look into, most of them i think are easily found on the internet, since they are so ancient and iconic. but before getting into that, i've found some helpful sites:

this site is a collection of classical texts: of course i'm not gonna be able to list every classical text here, i'm gonna recommend a few, so this is a good place to look if you want more, but i don't necessarily recommend reading them directly from here, since i know some of the translations are a bit outdated

this site, part of the same project, serves as a guide to gods, creatures, and heroes: again, some information may be a bit outdated, but it's a good place if you want to get a general idea

now, onto the texts themselves, there are a few i would recommend:

-the theogony by hesiod tells the origin of the gods and their genealogy

-works and days also by hesiod might be a little harder to get through, since it's mostly hesiod telling his brother how to work a farm, but it also contains the story of prometheus and pandora, and the myth of five ages

-the bibliotheca by pseudo-apollodorus is a collection of myths from the events of the theogony to odysseus, and it contains many famous myths, like those of the argonauts, perseus, heracles, theseus and various others

-the homeric hymns are useful it you want to know more about the gods, they are 33 and tell the stories of the birth of some gods or the establishment of their cult. they are 33, but some of the most famous are the hymn to demeter (the story of persephone's abduction), the hymn to athena (her birth from zeus' head) and the hymn to hermes (him stealing apollo's cows and creating the lyre)

-of course, the iliad and the odyssey by homer. the iliad comes chronologically before the odyssey and, contrary to popular belief, it isn't the story of the trojan war, but it covers a part of the last year of the war. the odyssey also isn't the linear journey of odysseus, it's mostly told in flashbacks

-the iliad and the odyssey are part of the epic cycle, a collection of works that tells a story that spans from the events leading up to the trojan war, the war itself, and the aftermath. apart from the iliad and the odyssey, the other works only survive in fragments, but they're worth looking into if you're curious about the trojan war

-finally, i also recommend reading some theatrical plays

from euridipus i recommend: medea, iphigenia in aulis, the trojan women

from sophocles i recommend: oedipus rex, antigone

from aeschylus i recommend: prometheus bound, the oresteia

now, as for what translation/version to read for the iliad and the odyssey, i'm afraid i can't be of much help because english isn't my first language, so i haven't read them in english and i can't offer firsthand advice, i've searched online and this is what i've found:

this is a collection of translations of the iliad and this is a collection of translations of the odyssey. overall, i've seen that the three translations that are most commonly suggested are by robert fagles, emily wilson and e.v. rieu. again, i haven't read these translations firsthand so if i'm mistaken, let me know!

i hope this helps you🫶

[zippyskyfalls]

POV: you save your brothers from your dad's stomach

[templeofelysium]

some mentions of Hades in historical works

HESIOD'S THEOGONY:

" In front of that stand the echoing halls Of mighty Hades and dread Persephone, Underworld gods, and a frightful, pitiless Hound stands guard, and he has a mean trick: When someone comes in, he fawns upon him, Wagging his tail and dropping his ears, But he will not allow anyone to leave— He runs down and eats anyone he catches Leaving Persephone’s and Hades’ gates. "

THE ORPHIC HYMNS

" You dwell below the earth, O' strong-spirited one, a meadow in Tartarus, thick-shaded and dark. Sceptered Chthonic Zeus, please accept this sacrifice, O' Plouton, holder of the keys to the whole earth. To mankind you give the wealth of the year’s fruits, yours is the third portion, earth, queen of all, seat of the gods, mighty lap of mortals. Your throne rests on a dark realm, the realm of distant, of untiring, of windless, and of impassive Hades; it does rest on gloomy Acheron, the river who girds the roots of the earth. All-receiver, master of death, master of mortals, host of many, Euboulos, you once took as your bride pure Demeter’s daughter: you tore her away from the meadow, and through the sea you carried her to an Attic cave upon your steeds— it was the district of Eleusis, where the gates to Hades are. You alone were born to judge deeds obscure and conspicuous. Holiest and illustrious ruler of all, frenzied god, you delight in the respect and in the reverence of your worshippers. I summon you, come with favor, come with joy to the initiates. "

THE HOMERIC HYMNS

PLATO'S GORGIAS

[ahotpeaceofshit]

Ody making some toys for his sons... while looking out towards ithaca

[cacaesar]

Was Hesiod or Homer earlier? Or do we not rlly know? Thx!!

Hesiod! But not by much and in different regions - in fact, by such a small amount of time that we maybe have some textual response/allusion to the Works and Days in the Iliad, but that's about as far as their traditions interact with each other, which essentially created two whole different canons by how Homer and Hesiod each adapted and subverted the existing tradition!

There's been quite a lot of work done on this, and sadly I only recall this because it was something we discussed at length in my tutorial so I can't cite a specific source rn, but generally Martin West and Bruno Currie are two great scholars for Homer and Hesiod's interactions with tradition, possibly also Oliver Taplin? BUT - we place Hesiod c.730 BC, and Homer c.700 BC (according to the Neo-Analyst school for the dates; but afaik every school of thought is now in agreement that Hesiod is older, if only marginally!)

[zebedeezing]

Big lincoln sends you to hell