While Hesiod's Theogonia is one of the two primary religious sources (and not just religious) of pre-classical Greek literature, it is interesting that a number of elements are quite different in Hesiod's account to the (by now more popular) Homeric account.
For example in Hesiod there are only three Cyclopai, instead of the full-tribe in Homer, led by Polyphemus. But a more interesting difference is regarding the omnipotence of Zeus:
Hesiod makes it a point (and mentions it many times) that everything which happens is already part of the plan of Zeus. Moreover, he is seldom (if at all) termed as brutal or vicious (like many of the other gods, and particularly the pre-olympian order). By classical times you get Zeus termed as vicious and warmongering and petty, as in the famous play by Aeschylos (Prometheus bound).
Something which i wasn't aware of was an account in Hesiod of the first appearance of female humans. This is distinct from the Pandora's box story (Pandora is, after all, a goddess, and is given to a titan, Epimetheus, to make things even worse for humans while nominally the fault was of Epimetheus and thus an insult to his brother, Prometheus who tried to help humans).
Hesiod argues that originally the human species was all-male, and following a miscievous and insulting prank by Prometheus (not the fire one) against Zeus, Zeus decided to make life miserable for humans by introducing to them the female kind
The first female is said to have been created by Hephaistos, the craftsman god.
Hesiod goes on to note how females can never be content with lack of wealth, but have no problem at all with the ills that come with wealth, and that they are generally a bane and a punishment. Not much has changed, i suppose
/joking
The account of the Titanomachia is nice, as is the etymology provided by Hesiod for the term "titan" (he argues, quite elegantly i think, that the term comes from the verb 'titaino', meaning 'to stretch', cause the titans originally were pushed back into the womb of Gaia by their father Ouranos, because they were creeps. Cronos later on escapes and castrates his father - as one does for revenge.
The three Ekatogxeirai (100-handed beings; they also had fifty heads each, and hurled massive stones at the enemies of Zeus) are what won the war for Zeus. Though, perhaps curiously, it seems in this account Zeus alone has little need of help so as to burn the colossal titan Typhon, born of Gaia and Tartarus. In other accounts Typho actually cuts Zeus into hundreds of pieces - who then has to be stitched back by Hermes. The very name of the peninsula (Aimos -- the original name, not the barbaro-cacophonic 'balkans') is supposed to allude to how Zeus bled during the battles with Typho (aima= blood).
Last, but not least, i liked how in the Tartarus you have all sorts of strange palaces, and also "the great chasm" (μέγα χάσμα)
For example in Hesiod there are only three Cyclopai, instead of the full-tribe in Homer, led by Polyphemus. But a more interesting difference is regarding the omnipotence of Zeus:
Hesiod makes it a point (and mentions it many times) that everything which happens is already part of the plan of Zeus. Moreover, he is seldom (if at all) termed as brutal or vicious (like many of the other gods, and particularly the pre-olympian order). By classical times you get Zeus termed as vicious and warmongering and petty, as in the famous play by Aeschylos (Prometheus bound).
Something which i wasn't aware of was an account in Hesiod of the first appearance of female humans. This is distinct from the Pandora's box story (Pandora is, after all, a goddess, and is given to a titan, Epimetheus, to make things even worse for humans while nominally the fault was of Epimetheus and thus an insult to his brother, Prometheus who tried to help humans).
Hesiod argues that originally the human species was all-male, and following a miscievous and insulting prank by Prometheus (not the fire one) against Zeus, Zeus decided to make life miserable for humans by introducing to them the female kind
The first female is said to have been created by Hephaistos, the craftsman god.Hesiod goes on to note how females can never be content with lack of wealth, but have no problem at all with the ills that come with wealth, and that they are generally a bane and a punishment. Not much has changed, i suppose
/jokingThe account of the Titanomachia is nice, as is the etymology provided by Hesiod for the term "titan" (he argues, quite elegantly i think, that the term comes from the verb 'titaino', meaning 'to stretch', cause the titans originally were pushed back into the womb of Gaia by their father Ouranos, because they were creeps. Cronos later on escapes and castrates his father - as one does for revenge.
The three Ekatogxeirai (100-handed beings; they also had fifty heads each, and hurled massive stones at the enemies of Zeus) are what won the war for Zeus. Though, perhaps curiously, it seems in this account Zeus alone has little need of help so as to burn the colossal titan Typhon, born of Gaia and Tartarus. In other accounts Typho actually cuts Zeus into hundreds of pieces - who then has to be stitched back by Hermes. The very name of the peninsula (Aimos -- the original name, not the barbaro-cacophonic 'balkans') is supposed to allude to how Zeus bled during the battles with Typho (aima= blood).
Last, but not least, i liked how in the Tartarus you have all sorts of strange palaces, and also "the great chasm" (μέγα χάσμα)
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