Theogony of Hesiod

Hesiod was a Boeotian poet of either the 8th or 7th century BC, who is believed by many to have flourished not long after Homer. Hesiod wrote two poems, Works and Days and the Theogony. Both works can actually be combined to form an adequate Creation myth, though I mostly relied on the Theogony.

The Theogony begins with Chaos and ends with Zeus' reign, and it includes the tale of Titanomachia, which is the war between the Titans and the Olympians. You will also find the story about Prometheus and the Deluge.

It is in Works and Days where you would find Hesiod's account of the Five Ages of Man, as well as the myth of Prometheus and Pandora. Prometheus stealing fire is also found in the other poem.

Below is the myth of Creation, where I have relied mainly on Hesiod's version, but my other sources included Apollodorus' Library and Ovid's Metamorphoses, to supplement Hesiod's myth.

• Beginning

• War in Heaven and on Earth

• Typhon

• Rise of the Olympians

• Underworld, see House of Hades

• Five Ages of Man

• Saviour of Mankind

• Deluge 

Beginning

Before the beginning of the universe, there was nothing in existence until Chaos (Χάος) came into being. Who or what was Chaos was, the Greeks didn't really make clear. The Greeks usually described Chaos as a male entity. Chaos could be the personification of the abyss or void, a formless confusion.

Out of the void came Nyx (Νύξ, "Night") and Erebus (Ἔρεβος, "Darkness"). Also from Chaos, Eros (Ἐρως, "Love"), Gaea (Γαἳα, "Earth") and Tartarus (Τάρταρος) came into being. It was Eros who made it possible for propagation between two beings, to produce offspring.

By her brother Erebus, Nyx became the mother of Aether (Αἰθήρ, "Upper Air") and Hemera (Ἡμέρα, "Day"). This was the first sexual union. By herself, Nyx became the mother of several abstract personifications: Thanatos ("Death"), Moros ("Doom"), Hypnos ("Sleep"), the Fates or Moerae and Nemesis.

Gaea, by herself, bore Uranus (Οὔρανος, "Sky"), Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Πόντος, "Sea").

Gaea mated with her son Pontus and she became the mother of two ancient sea-gods, Nereus (Νηρεύς) and Phorcys (Φόρκυς), as well as Thaumas (Θαύμας), Eurybia (Εἐρύβια), and the sea monster Ceto.

Gaea married her other son, Uranus, and he became ruler of the universe. Gaea became the mother of the Titans, Hecatoncheires (Ἑκατόγχειρες, Hundred-Handed) and Cyclops (Κύκλωπες, "Wheel-eyed"). The birth of their children resulted in a war by the gods that lasted for a generation.

War in Heaven and on Earth

Uranus

Uranus (Οὔρανος) became ruler of the universe after marrying his mother, Gaea (Οὔρανος). Uranus was the father of the three giant creatures with hundred hands and fifty heads, Briareus, Cottus and Gyges. These giants were known as the Hecatoncheires (Ἑκατόγχειρες, Hundred-Handed). They were monstrous in size and strength. They were so ugly that Uranus hid them within their mother's body. Uranus probably did the same to his other three offspring known as the Cyclops (Κύκλωπες). The Cyclopes were also giants, with a single eye in their foreheads. The three Cyclopes were named Arges, Brontes and Steropes. Imprisoning the six gigantic creatures within her body caused Gaea a great deal of pain.

The Titans were also his offspring, but they were smaller in size and fairer in looks. Unlike their ugly brethren the Titans weren't imprisoned. Gaea was furious at the treatment of her earlier sons, so she appealed to her son Cronus (Κρόνος), youngest of the Titans, to overthrow her husband and his father.

At night, when Uranus was about to lay with his mother-wife (Gaea), Cronus castrated his father with an adamantine sickle and threw his father's genitals into the sea, near the island of Cythera. The Giants, Erinyes (Ἐρινύες, Furies) and Meliae were born from the blood that fell on the ground, thereby impregnating her (Gaea). The Olympians would later fight the Giants, aided by the hero Heracles.

In the sea, the water began foaming around the severed genitals of Uranus. This foam drifted across a vast distance of sea before it reached the isle of Cyprus. From the foaming sea, Aphrodite (Ἀφροδίτη), goddess of love, divinely beautiful and naked, sprang into being, already as a fully grown young woman.

Waiting on the shore of Cyprus, Eros (Love) and Himerus (Desire) waited to greet her. The other gods paid honour to her. Aphrodite would later become a member of the Olympians, even though she was technically not an Olympian.

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Cronus and the Titans

Cronus succeeded his father as ruler of the universe and became leader of the Titans. He shared the earth with his brothers and sisters. Cronus married his sister Rhea (Ῥεία), his consort. It was during his reign that he created mankind and ruled during the Golden Age.

Cronus however did not release his brothers, the Hundred-Handed and the Cyclops, from Tartarus. The whole purpose that Gaea instructed Cronus and the Titans to revolt against Uranus' rule was to release her other sons from Tartarus. Instead, Cronus had the monster Campe guarding the Hundred Handed and the Cyclopes to prevent their escape from Tartarus.

This caused his mother to become angry with her son so that she announced that Cronus would, in turn, be overthrown by his own son, just like when Cronus overthrew his father.

Cronus tried to avoid this fate by swallowing each child that his sister-wife (Rhea) gave birth to. The usual story was that he swallowed all of his children except his youngest, Zeus (Ζεύς). Rhea, realising she would lose all of her children, gave her husband a stone wrapped in swaddling cloth instead of the infant Zeus. The unsuspecting Cronus swallowed the stone.

Rhea hid the infant Zeus in Crete, where he was brought up by nymphs and the Curetes. According to some, Zeus was born in Crete, while others said that his birthplace was in Arcadia, but he was hidden from his father at Crete. His home was in the cave of either Mount Ida or Mount Dicte. The infant Zeus was fed from the milk of the goat Amalthea. The Curetes were Cretan spirits or daimones, and were usually described and depicted as youths. The Curetes danced a war-dance, clashing their spears against their shields so that Zeus' cries were drowned out by their noise. This part of the myth may actually be of pre-Hellenic origin from Minoan Crete.

When Zeus had grown, he married one of the daughters of the Titans (the Oceanids) Oceanus and Tethys, named Metis (Μἣτις). From Gaea, he received a drug that would make Cronus disgorge the five older children that he had swallowed. Metis gave Cronus the emetic, and he vomited up Zeus' brothers and sisters.

War broke out between the Titans against the younger gods known as the Olympians, led by Zeus. This war was known as the Titanomachia.

Zeus and his brothers required aid, since they were outnumbered. None of the female Titans (Titanesses) took part in the war. Of all the sons of Uranus and Gaea, Oceanus (Ὠκανωός) had chosen to remain neutral. When Zeus called upon the younger Titans to help him, the first to change sides was the Styx (Στύξ), the eldest daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Styx came to Zeus with her children: Bia (violence), Cratus (strength), Nike (victory) and Zelus (emulation). For this reason, Zeus honoured her above the other gods and gave special places to her children.

Prometheus (Προμηθεός) and Epimetheus (Ἐπιμηθεύα), the sons of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene or Asia, also defected to the Olympians because Prometheus knew that Zeus and his brothers would eventually win. Prometheus unsuccessfully tried to persuade his father Iapetus and his eldest brother Atlas (Ἄτλας) to change sides.

Gaea advised Zeus that her other children, the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed, would help him if he were to release them from their dungeon in Tartarus. So Zeus descended into the netherworld and killed the guard, Campe, then released the prisoners.

The Cyclopes became known as master smiths and as master builders. The Cyclopes were responsible for making several weapons for the younger gods: a Thunderbolt for Zeus, the Trident for Poseidon, and the Cap of Invisibility for Hades.

Victory was ensured when Zeus also released the Hundred-Handed. Because there were three Hundred-Handed and each giant had a hundred hands, they could hurl 300 large boulders at the Titans.

The war lasted for ten years before the Olympians won, and most of the male Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus, the deepest region in the Underworld. Zeus set the Hundred-Handed to guard the Titans. The Cyclopes or their descendants worked in the forge of Hephaestus.

There was a special punishment for Atlas. In Libya, the western part of North Africa, Atlas carried the weight of the sky upon his shoulders for countless centuries.

Typhon

Although, Zeus and the Olympians defeated the Titans, they were faced with an even mightier foe, the Typhon (Τυφών). Gaea had conceived this new offspring from her brother Tartarus.

Apollodorus gave a wonderful description of Typhon in his work called the Library. Typhon was a gigantic, winged monster that was part man and part beast. Typhon was also taller than the tallest mountain. Under Typhon's arms there were a hundred dragon-heads. Below his thighs were the massive coils of vipers. Typhon was a terribly horrifying sight and was deadly since flame would gush from his mouth.

Typhon was the father, by Echidna (daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, or else Gaea and Tartarus, which would make it Typhon's sister), of many monstrous offspring: Cerberus, Chimaera, Orthus, the Hydra, Nemean Lion, Sphinx, the Caucasian Eagle, the Crommyonian Sow and vultures.

There are a few different versions on how Zeus defeated the Typhon. Here, I will relate to the most popular version of the myth.

According to Ovid and Hyginus, when Typhon came and attacked heaven, all of the Olympians fled south from Typhon to Egypt. The Olympians transformed themselves into various animals to escape from the monster. Apollo disguised himself as a crow, his sister Artemis as a cat, and Dionysus changed into a goat, as did Pan (where he was known as Aeocerus; the goat was later immortalised as the constellation Capricorn). Hera turned into a snowy cow, Hermes into an ibis, Aphrodite and Eros into fishes; the fishes were later commemorated as the constellation Pisces.

Only Zeus dared to confront Typhon. Zeus hurled his deadly thunderbolts but as the monster drew closer, Zeus attacked Typhon with the sickle of adamantine (note that this is the same sickle that Cronus had used against his father Uranus, see War in Heaven and Earth; and possibly the same sickle used by Perseus to decapitate Medusa). The Typhon fled to Mount Casion in Syria.

Zeus, seeing that the monster had been seriously wounded, became over-confident. Typhon trapped Zeus in his massive coils, and with Zeus' sickle, Typhon managed to cut the sinews and tendons of Zeus' hands and had the god imprisoned in the Corycian cave in Cilicia. According to Apollodorus, Typhon set a she-dragon named Delphyne to guard this cave, and the sinews were hidden under a bear's skin. Without his sinews, Zeus was helpless and could not wield the thunderbolts.

Hermes and Aigipan somehow retrieved the sinews and rescued Zeus. After Zeus' sinews were restored, he regained the use of the thunderbolts.

Zeus wielded his mighty thunderbolts against Typhon, pursuing the monster to Sicily. There, Zeus defeated Typhon and buried the monster under Mount Etna or the entire island of Sicily. The volcanic eruptions of Mount Etna were the result of Typhon spewing out his fire.

Rise of the Olympians

Zeus (Ζεύς), the leader of the Olympians, became the supreme ruler of the universe. He shared the world with his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades. Through casting the lot, Zeus received heaven and became the god of the sky, including the rain and storm, while Poseidon (Ποσειδὣν) became the god of the sea and Hades (Ἅιδης) ruled the Underworld, the world of the dead.

The younger gods were called Olympians because they made their home on or in the sky above Mount Olympus. Olympus was a mountain almost 3000 metres high, in northern Thessaly.

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Zeus became the father of most of the younger Olympian gods.

Zeus learned from his grandparents, Gaea and Uranus, that if his first wife Metis bore a second child, that son would dethrone him as he had overthrown his father Cronus. Zeus wanted to avoid this fate, so he decided to swallow Metis while she was still pregnant. When it was time for Metis to give birth, Zeus suffered from a massive headache. Unable to bear the pain, Hephaestus or Prometheus split open Zeus' head with an axe. His daughter Athena (Ἀθηνᾶ) sprang out of the Zeus' head fully armed. This alarmed the other gods until she took off her helmet, revealing a less warlike appearance.

Zeus married the Titaness Themis before he married his own sister Hera (Ἥρα). Hera became his consort, the queen of heaven. She bore Zeus, Ares (Ἄρης), and two daughters – Eileithyia and Hebe. Some said that Hephaestus (Ἥφαιστος) was also their son, but Hephaestus was more popularly known as the son of Hera, without a father.

Zeus had several love affairs with other goddesses. By the Titaness Leto (Λητώ) he became the father of the twins, Apollo (Ἀπόλλων) and Artemis (Ἄρτεμις). The Pleiade Maia, daughter of Atlas, was the mother of Hermes (Ἑρμἣς), the messenger of the gods.

According to some authors, Aphrodite (Ἀφροδίτη) was his daughter by Dione, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, while other earlier writers said she sprung out of the sea from the severed genitals of Uranus (I preferred this version, since aphros means "sea-foam").

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The other Olympian was Hestia, the eldest child of Cronus and Rhea. Some writers said that Dionysus (Διόνυσος), son of Zeus and a mortal, Semele, became an Olympian when Hestia decided to step aside for the youngest god.

Though Zeus' other sister Demeter (Δημήτηρ) was the great earth goddess, she was not always recognised as an Olympian. Those who said that she was an Olympian, also said that Hades was not, because Hades never lived on Olympus.

Five Ages of Man

The creation of mankind can be divided into five ages.

Cronus created the Golden Age. It was the happiest era for mankind, where people lived and died peacefully. There was no illness and no disease. They never suffered from the hardship of war or toil of the earth. Food was wild and plentiful. When they died they became spirits, becoming guardians of mankind.

But when the new gods arrived, they began experimenting on the creation of mankind, creating a new age. Each succeeding age would be inferior to the last, from excellent to worst.

The Silver Age was inferior to the Golden Age. It was a time when the gods destroyed mankind, because they refused to honour them.

The third period was the Bronze Age, which was populated with brazen men who loved war for its own sake, until they destroyed themselves in continuous warfare. According to Apollodorus, Zeus tried to destroy the men of the Bronze Age with the Deluge.

This was followed by the Heroic Age. During this age lived race of demigods, heroes who would find themselves rewarded for their courage and heroic feats at their death in the Isles of the Blessed (Elysium).

The last age was the Iron Age. This was the worst age, where good will and decency would cease to exist. Men would suffer from great oppression by wicked rulers. These rulers would only satisfy their own needs because of their greed and thirst for power, until Zeus would destroy this race.

According to Apollodorus, it was Prometheus who created mankind, not Cronus nor Zeus. According to one myth, Prometheus would made each man and woman from clay and displayed what he had made to Zeus. One beautiful youth that Prometheus had created, he wanted to hide, because he knew of Zeus' fondness for boys.

Saviour of Mankind

Gift of the Fire

When Zeus became the supreme ruler of the universe, he was not interested with mortals, and began experimenting with the creation of mankind. The Titan Prometheus (Προμηθεός), however, tried to protect mankind from the other gods. But in doing so, Prometheus would bring about his own downfall.

Prometheus was one of the few male Titans to support the Olympians in the war against the Titans. Prometheus knew the Titans would lose the war, so he persuaded his brother to change sides. Prometheus was an extremely intelligent and wise god who was gifted with foresight. He failed to persuade his father Iapetus and his elder brother Atlas (Ἄτλας) not to resist Zeus, but without avail. Both Iapetus and Atlas were punished for opposing the Olympians.

Prometheus was the guardian of mankind, often trying to aid them. Prometheus stole fire from heaven, hiding the fire within a hollow fennel-stalk, and gave it to man (or he taught them how to make fire).

Prometheus also tricked Zeus to select the part of the sacrifice that the gods and man would receive. He made sure that man received the best part.

He cut a bull and disguised the meat with its hide and entrails on top, while the bones were covered with fat. Zeus was angry with Prometheus when he found out that he had selected the fat with only bones. The bones and fat were to be used to sacrifice to the gods, while man would keep the best meat for himself.

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Pandora

Zeus took his revenge upon mankind by creating the first mortal woman, named Pandora (Πανδώρα). The gods gave her gifts before showing Zeus' creation to the rest of the world. Zeus gave Pandora to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus, in marriage. Prometheus tried to warn his brother not to accept anything from Zeus, but Epimetheus did not listen to his wise brother.

One of the wedding gifts given to the new couple was a beautiful, large box. Pandora was told to never open the box. But Pandora was curious; she wanted to know what was in the box.

One day, she opened the box. All sorts of misfortunes - sufferings and evils - escaped, to plague mankind. In horror, Pandora quickly closed the lid, but it was too late. The only thing that did not escape was Hope. This was the only thing that provided comfort for mankind in their suffering.

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Prometheus' Punishment

Prometheus did not escape Zeus' punishment for giving fire to mankind. He was taken to the Caucasian Mountains and chained to the highest peak. Each day, a giant eagle (Caucasian Eagle) would come and feed on Prometheus' liver and entrails, causing the Titan to suffer in great agony.

Prometheus appeared in Aeschylus' play, Prometheus Bound (mid 5th century BC), where the Titan encountered a suffering heifer. This cow was a maiden named Io, daughter of the Argive river god, Inachus. Unfortunately, she was a high priestess of Hera who was loved by Hera's husband, Zeus. Zeus tried to hide Io from Hera by transforming the girl into a beautiful white cow. Hera asked for the heifer (Io) as a gift, which Zeus couldn't refuse. Hera knew who the cow was, anyway. Hera set a herdsman named Argus Panoptes with a hundred eyes to guard Io so that Zeus couldn't rescue her. After Hermes killed Argus Panoptes, Hera sent a gadfly to torment Io. The gadfly stung her repeatedly so that Io began to wander through many distant lands.

When Prometheus met her, the Titan informed her that she would have her natural form restored to her one day, when she reached Egypt. She would have a son by Zeus, and she would have descendants that produced powerful rulers and great heroes. Prometheus also foretold his own freedom and reconciliation with Zeus. See Io on the Heroines page.

The irony of Prometheus' punishment was that Heracles, son of Zeus, would release the Titan from his bondage. In return for his freedom, Prometheus informed Heracles how to win the apples of Hesperides from Prometheus' own brother, Atlas.

Once Prometheus gained his freedom, the Titan once again shared his wisdom with Zeus. Prometheus warned Zeus not to seduce the sea goddess Thetis because she would bear a son who would be greater than his father. Zeus avoided this fate by marrying Thetis to the hero Peleus.

There was another reason why Prometheus was released. According to Hesiod, it was simply that Zeus wished to increase the glories and fame of his son (Heracles).

Deluge

Hesiod didn't recount the Deluge, so I had to rely on several different authors.

Zeus decided to destroy the race of men with a flood, for their wickedness and impiety.

According to Apollodorus, it was the race of men in the Bronze Age that Zeus wanted to destroy. Another one of the possible reasons that Zeus sent the flood was that Lycaon and his 50 sons in Arcadia had slaughtered a baby, and given the flesh to Zeus to eat when the god was disguised as a labourer. See Lycaon in Wrath of Heaven.

Zeus sent rain and storms while Poseidon (Ποσειδὣν) sent water from the sea, covering the land with water.

Prometheus managed to save his family by warning them. Deucalion (Δευκαλίων) was his son by Pronoea. Deucalion had married Pyrrha (Πέρρα), daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. They built a chest stored with provisions.

The flood lasted nine days and nights, and then the chest landed at the peak of Mount Parnassus. Even though Zeus did not like Prometheus, the god was not angry that Deucalion and Pyrrha had survived the flood since they were a pious couple.

According to Ovid, Deucalion and Pyrrha were lonely, being the only survivors. They found a ruined temple and prayed to the goddess Themis. Themis told them to throw the bones of their mother over their shoulders.

At first they were outraged by such a suggestion, until Deucalion correctly interpreted that the stones on the ground were the bones of mother earth (Gaea). As the two started throwing stones behind them, people sprung out of the earth. These people became known as the Stone People. The stones that Deucalion threw became men, while Pyrrha created women with her tossed stones.

According to Apollodorus, Deucalion offered sacrifice to Zeus as the God of Escape, when they had disembarked from the chest. Zeus sent Hermes to grant them a wish. Deucalion said that they wanted people, so it was Zeus, not Themis, who instructed Deucalion and Pyrrha to throw rocks over their shoulders to make people out of stones.

Deucalion and Pyrrha became the parents of Hellen, Amphictyon, Protogeneia, Pandora and Thyia. Deucalion ruled in Phthia and was succeeded by his son, Hellen.

According to Apollodorus, the whole of mankind didn't die in the Flood, with the exception of Deucalion and Pyrrha; there were other survivors, but Apollodorus doesn't say who. These few survivors were able to escape the devastation through scaling high mountains.