Creation Myths

Hesiod’s Theogony and Ovid’s Metamorphoses

background: Muses

Allen Romanoaromano@uchicago.edu

Possibly humorous title

• small text small text small text small text small text

Pretty Picture

Important title here

• more important stuff here• and here

Artist Approximation; Not Shown Actual Size

Not the Greek Creation Myth

Modern-Day Creation Story:

THE BIG BANGTHE BIG BANG

Agenda

1. Why explain the creation of the universe? Some possibilities...

2. Hesiod’s Theogony (in context)

3. Ovid’s Metamorphoses (in context)

and

Hesiod vs. Ovid

Why Tell Creation Stories?

How to Do Things with Creation Myths

Today’s question: How do people use creation myths?

Ask:• Who’s telling the creation story?• To whom?• Why in this particular way?• Is there something else a person

telling a creation story is trying to convey beyond the details of the story itself?

A Creation Myth in Context:Greek Hymns

Hymn (greek, hymnos):•A song in honor of a god

•occur throughout Greek history; unlike modern hymns, they were often sung by a single person

Homeric Hymns: collection of hymns attributed (falsely) to Homer, the poet of the Iliad and Odyssey; 7th-2nd cent BCE

Main features of hymns:

•list of the god’s powers

•god’s favorite places

•god’s epithets

•prayer’s to the gods

•account of how the god was born and acquired his functions. [very much like Hesiod’s Theogony]

Not Ancient Greeks

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes

• Song about half the length of Hesiod’s Theogony

• Author unknown• probably composed in 6th century BCE

• tells the story of Hermes’ birth and early exploits

A Singer in Ancient Greece

Hermes

• Son of Zeus• born from a nymph, Maia

• invented the lyre and the pipes

• Messenger god• trickster, thief

Hermes

Hermes is born

Hymn to Hermes Thought-Experiment:

What was the legendary trickster god like as a baby?

Baby Hermes

artist reconstruction of the baby Hermes

Grown-up mischief trapped in a baby’s

body

The story: He walks outside the cave... he finds a tortoise...

Hermes invites the tortoise inside...

Hermes invents the Lyre

A little thief: Hermes steals his big brother Apollo’s Cattle

Hermes steals Apollo’s cattle

Hermes tries to eat the cattle

Oh wait, I’m a god

Stuff Hermes can’t eat

smoke which gods do enjoy

Meanwhile, Apollo looks for the cattle...

?

Hermes hides the cattle

Apollo confronts Baby Hermes

“What’d I do? I’m just a baby.”

Apollo presses him...“Dude, where are my cows?”

alternate reconstruction:

Baby Hermes

Apollo takes baby Hermes and appeals to their father Zeus

The threat of an angry Apollo

Zeus

Hermes whips out his lyre...

Hermes Sings a Creation Story

...but Hermes,

as he had designed, easily soothed the Far-Darter,

Son of most glorious Leto, obdurate though he was.

Taking his lyre upon his left arm, he tried out

Each string in turn with the plectrum, and under his hand

The Lyre resounded uncannily. Phoebus Apollo

Laughed aloud with delight. The lovely sound

Of heavenly music went straight through his heart, and sweet longing

Possessed him as he listened, enraptured.

Hermes Sings a Creation Story

he burst into song – and lovely his voice –Telling of how the immortal gods and black earth First came to be, and how each was allotted his

portion. Mnemosyne [Memory], mother of the Muses, first of

the godsHe honored with song, for to her Maia’s son was

apportioned by lot.Hermes, the son brilliant in splendor of Zeus, Hymned the undying gods according to age,And told the tale of how each one was born, relatingAll things in order, to the sweet strains of the

lyre on his arm.

from the Homeric Hymn to Hermes

Conflict Resolved

That’s sweet.

I want one!

Hermes’ Expert Use of a Creation Myth

• Song is itself a cure for strife– Theogony 99-104: “For if anyone is grieved, if his heart is sore with fresh sorrow, if he is troubled, and a singer who serves the Muses chants the deeds of past men or the blessed gods ... He soon forgets his heartache, and of all his cares he remembers none.”

• Cosmogony and Theogony: Singing about the ordering of the universe prevents disorder

Why tell Creation stories?Distinct Uses of Creation Myths

Hopi Creation:Spider Woman leads the people out of the underworlds; teaches them how to live

What telling this myth does:• ethical instruction (how to hunt, grow corn, build houses)

• sites of present habitation explained by what happened on the mythic journey out of the underworld

The Function of Navajo Creation Myths

During the Blessing Way ceremony, shaman chants the creation story

Sand painting representing the creation

Creation story used for rites of new Beginnings

Navajo saindpainting of the creation of the universe

The Function of Babylonian Creation Myths

The Function of Babylonian Creation Myths

Told at the dedication of sacred buildings:

In the beginning Anu (sky) created the heavens, and Nudimmud (Ea-waters) created Apsu, the primeval waters. Then Ea took some clay and created necessary elements for the buildings of great structures. He made the Arazu, the gods of the various crafts.

Questions

• Why did Hesiod tell his creation story in the way that he did?

• Why did Ovid tell his creation story in the way that he did?

Hesiod’s Theogony

Hesiod: Who was he?• lived around 700 BCE• Boeotian (central Greece)

Composed • Theogony (origins of gods

and universe)• Works and Days (wisdom

poetry)

Hesiodic works (attributed to Hesiod in antiquity):

• Catalog of Women (birth stories of the heroes, continuation of the Theogony)

• Shield (on Heracles)

bust of Hesiod

The Backbone of the Theogony: Genealogy

Genealogy: • Account of familial descent

– Gr. genos “race, generation”– /log/ ~ Gr. logos “account, word” (e.g. logic)

Genealogy

Cosmogony vs. Theogony

Cosmogony• story that explains the generation of the world – kosmos “world, order”– /gon/ ~ genos “race, generation” (e.g. gonads)

Theogony• story that explains the generation of the gods– theos “god” (e.g. theology, polytheism / monotheism)

Structure of the Theogony

Succession Myth: story of the overthrow of a god or generation of gods

Succession Myth, interwoven with genealogy1. Kronos succeeds his father Ouranos: Castration of

Ouranos, birth of Aphrodite 2. Zeus Ascendant over Kronos: Tricking of Kronos,

birth of Zeus; Zeus outwits Prometheus3. Zeus and his generation defeat the Titans of the

earlier generation4. Zeus defeats a big monster (Typhoeus); Zeus

swallows Metis to ensure there will be no more successors.

A Series of Contests

[Hesiod vs. Muses]• Kronos defeats Ouranos• Zeus defeats Kronos• Zeus defeats Prometheus• Zeus defeats Titans

Hesiod vs. MusesMuses to Hesiod: “Hillbillies and bellies, poor excuses for shepherds: We know how to tell many believable lies, but also, when we want to, how to speak the plain truth.”

Muses dancing with Apollo

Competitive Singing

Muses:• Sing a theogony in honor of Zeus

Hesiod• Turns the Muses’ theogony into a cosmogony

• Honors Zeus with a more elaborate song

Contests 1 and 2: Kronos vs. OuranosZeus over Kronos

Kronos eating his kidsRhea gives Kronos a stone rather than the baby Zeus

Round 3: Zeus over the Titan Prometheus

Prometheus’ Attempt to Trick Zeus

A standard scene of sacrifice

Creation of Women

Something understated...

Man’s creation

Round 4: Zeus vs. Monsters

Titanomachy

For a long time they fought, hearts bitter with toil,

Going against each other in the shock of battle,

The Titans and the gods who were born from Kronos

...They battled each other with pain in their hearts

Continuously for ten full years, never a truce

Theogony 413ff

Zeus Conquers by Violence (in Greek, bie)

Typhoeus / Typhon

The monstrous last-born child of Earth (Gaia)

Zeus Wins the Right to Rule

So the blessed gods had done a hard piece of work,

settled by force the question of rights with the Titans

Theogony 667ff.

Zeus’ Crowning Achievement

• Metis (“Thought, Cunning”) is a threat to Zeus’ rule

• Swallows Metis• Produces Athena from his own head

• Ends Threat of More Violent Succession(does what his father Kronos could not)

Athena emerges from Zeus’ head after he swallows Metis

Kingship and ZeusCalliope (one of the Muses)...For she keeps the company of reverend kings. When the daughters of great Zeus will honor a lordWhose lineage is divine, and look upon his birth,They distill a sweet dew upon his tongue,And from his mouth words flow like honey. The people all look to him as he arbitrates

settlements With judgments straight. ...For though it is singers and lyre players that come

from the Muses and far-shooting ApolloAnd kings come from Zeus, happy is the man Whom the Muses love.

Theogony lines 81-98

Why tell this myth

Possibilities:• Kingship / ruling elite

– Zeus is a model king, guarantor of justice and order

• patriarchy– Zeus is able to produce Athena without women; conquers female-spawned Titans, monster Typhon, and female Metis

• Encodes basic Greek values– for example, justice (dike ~ balance, good order)

– but also proper containment of violence (bie)

Ovid’s Metamorphoses

+ 700 years

Ovid: The Man Behind the Myth

• 43 BCE – 17 CE• leading Roman poet

• heavily imitated through the middle Ages and to the present day

Ovid: WritingsWrote (among many other

things):• Amores “Loves” (on

poets and love)• Heroides “Heroines”• “Cosmetics for the

Female Face”• Ars Amatoria “Art of

Love”• Fasti (Calendar poem) • Metamorphoses (on

“bodies changed to different forms”... “a poem that runs from the world’s beginning to our own days.”

“Ovidius Naso the poet”

Ovid

What’s changed?• Writing: Oral performance of Hymns and Hesiod’s poetry vs. book scrolls as vehicle for literature

• Philosophy: Hesiod = pre-Plato, pre-Aristotle; Ovid = post-Plato, post-Aristotle and their successors (Stoics, Epicureans, etc.)

• Patronage: Ovid works for a portion of his life under Augustus’ rule statements about kingship, order, disorder are especially pointed

One of Ovid’s Many Models

Apollonius (3rd century BCE)

Argonautica: Journey of the Argonauts to get the golden fleece

Before they’ve even set out, The ship’s crew is about to quarrel.

Orpheus intervenes

Orpheus playing the lyre

Orpheus sings cosmogonyThe legendary singer Orpheus “sang of that past age when

earth and sky and sea were knit together in a single mold; how they were divided after deadly strife; how the stars, the moon, and the traveling sun keep faithfully to their stations in the heavens; how mountains rose, and how, together with their Nymphs, the murmuring streams and all four-legged creatures came to be. How in the beginning, Ophion and Eurynome, daughter of Ocean, governed the world from snow-clad Olympus; how they were forcibly supplanted, Ophion by Cronos, Eurynome by Rhea; of their fall into the waters of Ocean; and how their successors ruled the happy Titan gods when Zeus in his Dictaean cave was still a child, with childish thoughts, before the earthborn Cyclopes had given him the bolt, the thunder and lightening that form his glorious weapons today.

Apollonius, Argonautica 1.496-511

Ovid’s Creation MythTill God, or kindlier Nature, Settled all argument and separated Heaven from earth, water from land, our air From the high stratosphere, a liberation So things evolved, and out of blind confusion, Found each its place, bound in eternal order... Met. 21ff

Ovid

Ovid’s Different Kind of MythThe creation of mortals

but something else was needed, a finer being, More capable of mind, a sage, a ruler,

So Man was born, it may be, in God’s image, Or Earth, perhaps, so newly separated From the old fire of Heaven, still retainedSome seed of the celestial force which refasionedGods out of the living clay and running water. All other animals look downward; Man, Alone, erect, can raise his face toward Heaven.

Metamorphoses 72ff

Ovid’s Different Kind of MythThe creation of mortals

Deucalion and Pyrrha throw stones to create people

Ovid’s different kind of myth-making: Chaos and Craftsman“Before the ocean was, or earth, or heaven, Nature was all alike, a shapelessness, Chaos, so-called, all rude and lumpy matter, Nothing but bulk, inert, in whose confusion Discordant atoms warred... Heat fought with cold, wet fought with dry, the hard fought with the soft... till God, or kindlier Nature, settled all argument, and separated Heaven from earth, water from land, etc.” Ovid Metamorphoses 1.5-23

Types of Creation

Headline: Millions of Ways to Explain Creation

Payoff: Two different means of creation in Ovid and Hesiod

Methods of Creation

Automatic Creation • from chaos (like in the Theogony)• creation from cosmic egg• creation from elements (usually water) • creation by secretion (that is, by spit, sweat,

semen, urine, feces etc.)

VS.

Architectural Creation• creation by thought, by word (like in Genesis)• creation by construction and craft; divine

architect

Types of Creation: Architectural

Creation by divine craftsman

examples:

Judaeo-Christian tradition

God measures the universe during the creation. Bible Moralisee circa 1250 CE

God Creates Man

Book of Genesis: The Judaeo-Christian god fashions man from earth. (“Artist” reconstruction)

Types of Creation: Automatic

Cosmic Egg

Examples: • Finnish• Orphic• Polynesian• Chinese• Egyptian

Sidenote: Greek AlternativesOrphic Creation

In the beginning was the silver cosmic egg, created by Time. Phanes broke forth from the egg as the firstborn (Protogonos), the androgynous container of all the seeds of life. It was Phanes who created the universe, beginning with a daughter Nux (Night), and later the familiar gods, Gaia and Ouranos

Ovid’s different kind of myth-making

“Before the ocean was, or earth, or heaven, Nature was all alike, a shapelessness, Chaos, so-called, all rude and lumpy matter, Nothing but bulk, inert, in whose confusion Discordant atoms warred... Heat fought with cold, wet fought with dry, the hard fought with the soft... till God, or kindlier Nature, settled all argument, and separated Heaven from earth, water from land, etc.” Ovid Metamorphoses 1.5-23

Hesiod vs. Ovid

• Hesiod describes automatic creation, structured as genealogy; succession myths of gods interwoven

• Ovid starts by describing creation from Chaos (like Hesiod) but then describes creation through a divine craftsman.

Ovid’s Agenda

Some Possibilities: • Kingship: criticism of imperial power?

• Re-asserting mythic explanations against philosophic ones

• Entertainment – Exploiting the literary tradition of myth-telling

Replaying Creation“every construction or fabrication has

the cosmogony as paradigmatic model. The creation of the world becomes the archetype of every creative human gesture, whatever its plane of reference may be.”

(Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, 1957)

Might we find the creation myth replayed elsewhere, in miniature, in part, or in spirit?

Creation Myths

Hesiod’s Theogony and Ovid’s Metamorphoses

background: Muses

Allen Romanoaromano@uchicago.edu