Greece And Rome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Greece And Rome - Essay Example Arguably no one knows the origin and relationships of the gods better than Hesiod, in his Theogony on ‘Origin of the Gods,’ besides Homer. â€Å"He [Hesiod] collected and retold many of the myths of the birth of the universe, the creation and the coming of the gods† (Greek par. 4). It all began with Chaos. Next came Gaea or Earth, then heaven and hell, night and day. Gaea lay with Heaven and they birthed multiple children such as Oceanus, Rhea, Themis, and above all, Cronos, who they feared because of his hateful nature (Hesiod ll. 116-138). The issue with them stemmed from their father’s hate. They were forced to lie in hiding away from any source of light. Gaea decided to give her children the means to defy their father. It was Cronos who accepted the challenge. He cut away Heaven’s reproductive organs and the rest of the giants on earth whose parts turned into foam and drifted at sea for a long time until out sprang Aphrodite, the goddess of love (Hesiod ll. 188-206). Hesiod’s poem explained how earth, heaven, hell, day, and night were formed. Since the citizens of Greece lacked modern science, this was the only means by which the Greeks could decipher their environment and imagine what life would be like in heaven or hell. The renowned gods the Greeks portrayed in their lives were the children of the Titans (specifically Rhea and Cronos). The eldest Olympians, first generation, were as follows: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Hestia was a virgin goddess who did not marry and stood for hearth and home (Hestia par. 1). Demeter stood for ‘mother earth’ and is associated with her daughter, Persephone, who was kidnapped by Hades (Demeter par. 2). She is the goddess whom the Greeks deemed to be in charge of changing the seasons according to which Persephone spends time on earth, i.e. Spring/Summer vs. Autumn/Winter. Hera is most notably the queen of the gods and Zeus’s wife. A jealous goddess, she stands for marriage and is worshipped as a masculine, formidable figure by kings and warriors (Hera par. 2-4). In fact, she bore Ares, the god of war. Hades, Poseidon and Zeus are regarded as the three prime brothers who ruled over mortals. Hades became the god of the underworld (Hades par. 1) and Poseidon, the god of the sea (Poseidon par. 2). Zeus, of course, became the king of the gods when he overthrew his father, Cronos (Zeus par. 2): And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father/ Sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound/ And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness/ And gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening:/ For before that, huge Earth had hidden these/ In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals. (Hesiod ll. 492- 506) Once he overthrew Cronos, Zeus freed his brothers and sisters and created man. These are some of the reasons why he is worshipped as the king of the gods by Gree k society. The second generation of gods came about by various pairings between Zeus and Hera, or Zeus and other goddesses or mortal women, etc. Some gods were born by no pairings at all. Athena, for example, sprouted from Zeus’s brain. Hesiod describes the various lovers of Zeus in lines 901-1022 of the Theogony. One of the affiliations is illustrated as such: â€Å"