Myth ch 4
Myths of Creation
Cosmogony: the origin of the world
Theogony—origin
of the gods
an elaborate
hymn to Zeus
4 PRIMAL ELEMENTS?
Chaos (chasm)
Erebus
(darkness) Nyx (night) --
beget Aether, radiance and Hemera, day
Gaea —earth
Tartarus —below earth
Eros —sexual love
CHILDREN OF GAEA
Titans
Cyclopes
Hecatonchires
(asexually): Uranus,
Mountains, Pontus
(with Uranus): Titans: Cronus (last born) Rhea, etc.
Oceanus
(world river) Tethys
Cyclopes:
Uranus
Gaea
makes a sickle, Cronus agrees
SKY
separated from EARTH
Erinyes and Giants
His
Junk—into the sea, white and foamy
Monsters:
(of Gaea and Pontus)
Animal/human
—reinterpretations
of Eastern and Egyptian (beneficial) creatures
Ceto
CRONUS as new king
prophecy
Children
with Sister/wife Rhea:
Hestia,
Demeter, Hera, (Hades), Poseidon, and ZEUS [Aphrodite]
(next generation: Apollo, Artemis, Athena,
Hephaestus,
Ares, Hermes)
Zeus
on Mt Olympus: the Olympians (except Hades)
Titanomachy
Cast
and imprison Titans in Tartarus
Atlas (Titan or giant)
Gaea
births Typhoeus / Typhon
Battle—buried
in the ground—Mt Etna
Series of Succession myths – (primal
human fear?)
Overthrow of Zeus?
First
consort—Metis “cleverness”
Athena
springs fully formed from his head
Virgin,
Warrior, Wisdom
Gigantomachy
with the help
of Hercules
Zeus (Sky), Poseidon (sea) Hades (the deep at the
world's end)
Earth
and Olympus are common ground
Creation: Not at
all like Judeo-Christian event
SIMILARITIES to Eastern Myths of Creation
Babylonian
Enuma elish
Apsu and Tiamat (fresh and salt)
beget mud/earth/slime/lome
leads up to Marduk
creation as a process, and a war
Younger
generation overthrows
Hebrew—omnipotent
single God, outside of creation But creation is a process of separation:
watery chaos becomes heaven and earth
Light
is brought into darkness
