Some Thoughts on Hesiod's Theogony

 heogony by Hesiod is the earliest work of poetry in the Western canon and serves as a foundation for the rational-mythical dialectic which characterizes the Western tradition. Theogony is, at first glance, a mythical account of the origin of the gods and the divine realm, but it fundamentally wrestles with the question of origins. While Hesiod’s poetry seems to represent a purely mythical vision of reality, the issue it engages is also a philosophical one. Moreover, though Hesiod exploits legends to parse this query, the means through which he divulges such myths convey philosophical considerations as well. Through his exploration of divine origins, Hesiod poses the question of origins and answers it in a primarily mythical frame, but his answer examines the notions of fundamentality and explanation, thus opening the door to rational, philosophical inquiry.

The exploration of divine origins in Theogony shows the mythical elements of the work. The word ‘theogony’ is a compound word deriving from the Greek words for God, theos, and beginning or begetting, gonos. So, the very title of Hesiod's work reveals its mythic nature. Hesiod also asserts that the inspiration for his work is divine: “Begin our singing with the Helikonian Muses, / Who possess Mount Helikon, high and holy” (Hesiod & Lamberton, 1-2). The muses seem to divinely reveal to Hesiod what he writes; indeed, the very means by which Hesiod communicates his story was taught to him by “the eternal Immortals” (Hesiod & Lamberton, 22). The revelational nature of Hesiod’s inspiration supports the view that Theogony’s primary concern is the non-rational. Moreover, given that his sole occupation in Theogony is with divine origins, Hesiod implies that a thorough comprehension of reality relies primarily, if not solely, on the divine, mythic, and non-rational. Still, Hesoid's question traverses a philosophical dimension as well. While Hesiod may not have thought of origins in a philosophical manner, the question itself is deeply philosophical. Indeed, it is arguably the central question of metaphysics, one that will be positioned in a more rigorous, rational light by later Greek philosophers such as Aristotle. Still, this philosophical dimension to Hesiod’s question is more explicit in his answer to the question of origins.

Hesiod’s chronicling of divine events couples together mythic and philosophical spheres in order to answer the question of origins. Hesiod begins his account of origins by listing the order for the primordial gods: “In the beginning there was only Chaos, the Abyss, / But then Gaia, the Earth, came into being, / Her broad bosom the ever-firm foundation of all” (Hesiod & Lamberton, 116-118). In these few lines, one can see Hesiod’s propensity for the mythical in his explanation of origins here since he only cites divine creatures as explanations. Additionally, his identification of natural realties with divine ones, such as the Earth being identified with the god Gaia, reveals Hesiod’s understanding of natural reality as imbued with divinity. However, there is also a philosophical dimension here. Hesiod lists the gods in order of fundamentality, where fundamentality means ontological priority, starting with Chaos, then moving to Gaia and the other primordial gods, finally moving to members of the lower divine orders. This demonstrates a desire for explanation, in Hesiod, in introducing the gods in the order of their fundamentality, he shows that he wants to remove mystery about which gods came first and thus, which gods are more important in understanding the origins of reality. However, these explanations are themselves mythical in nature, such as when Hesiod recalls how Gaia “gave birth to the barren, raging Sea / Without any sexual love. But later she slept with / Ouranos and bore Ocean with its deep currents” (Hesiod & Lamberton, 131-133). The fact that Hesiod appeals to mythical events which cannot, seemingly by definition, be verified or even rationally understood lends credence to the idea that he sees the mythical dimension as primary and the philosophical, rational dimension, as secondary. It is also important to note that there is something lacking in Hesiod’s explanation of origins since all the gods he mentions are within the created order and so cannot be an explanation of all creation. This reflects the classical notion that the world was past eternal and did not have a beginning. Still, the point remains that Hesiod’s appeals to explanation and his understanding of fundamentality, as shown in his chronicling of the gods, demonstrates a philosophical aspect of Theogony which opened the door to further rational inquiry.

Hesiod’s Theogony confronts a fundamental duality: the duality between the strangeness of reality and its intelligibility. This manifests as the duality between the mythic and philosophical elements of the poem. Theogony's mythic nature presents most prominently in Hesiod's framing of the question of origins and is also present in his answer, while the philosophical considerations are primarily present in the answer. Hesiod’s desire to understand reality and his appeal to certain explanations, even if they are mythical explanations, represents an openness to philosophical investigation. It is fitting that Theogony is the first work of the Western philosophical tradition as the tension between the mythical and philosophical, the rational and non-rational, colors the whole of Western philosophy.

Bibliography

Cohen, S. Marc, and C. D. C. Reeve. “Aristotle's Metaphysics.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 21 Nov. 2020, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/#Theol.

Hesiod, and Robert Lamberton. Works and Days and Theogony. Translated by Stanley Lombardo, Hackett, 1993.

“Theogony (n.).” Edited by Douglas Harper, Etymology, https://www.etymonline.com/word/theogony.