Lust, sex, and war reign supreme in Hesiod’s telling of the birth of the gods. Battle is depicted left and right, and “a terrible din arose from their dreadful wrath, and the work of power was revealed” (709-710). Ineffable heat gripped Chawos (686-700).Īs Hesiod continues to describe the birth and death of the gods and great monsters of antiquity, the chaining of Prometheus to his eternal torment is described. The gleaming light of the lightning and flash deprived The nether Titans, and immense flame reached The immense forest crackled loudly all round.Īll the earth was boiling as well as the streams of Īnd the unplowed sea.

Life-bearing Gaia screamed as she burned, and Were flying in close array with thunder and flashįrom his sturdy hands, whirling the flame He came striding, flashing lightning constantly. His heart filled with might, and he showed all No longer did Zeus restrain his might but straightaway Cronus and the titans challenged their parents then Zeus and the Olympians challenged and overthrew the titans: Rebellion and war run riot through the rise and fall of the gods. Yet, it is the brutality of the gods which is most glaring to the reader of Hesiod’s classic. Hercules slays Geryon and Hydra Bellerophon kills the Chimera bore by Hydra. Beyond hatred and patricide, murder is also a recurring theme in Hesiod’s story. The blood which spilled out onto Gaia’s fertile body gave rise to the giants and other creatures. Swishing and swirling about, Uranus’ castrated phallus impregnated Thalassa and out popped Aphrodite. From Gaia and Uranus, the titans, furies, and future Olympians were conceived from the “wide” bosom of the two primordial deities from which Cronus was conceived in ambition, hatred, and lust.Īphrodite, Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Hades, Ares, and the rest of the Olympian deities come from this second line of gods birthed from the castrated genitals of Uranus which fell into Thalassa’s open womb, the primordial goddess of the sea. The second set of gods come into existence with sex often very graphic and violent sex and they continue to have violent sex after their birth.

The first set of gods come into existence without sex. His Theogony, literally “birth of the gods,” charts out the genealogies of the major and minor deities in two branches. The oldest written account of the Greek deities is from Hesiod. Wrestling with the Greek gods, however, leads us to see the hyper-anthropomorphization of the gods with one intention in mind-justification of sexual lusts and displays of power over the weak. These pagan romanticists are, in most cases, ignorant of the “paganism” they praise-the redeemed paganism of Christianity depicted in the transfigured water of the True Well of Life. The decline of Christianity has been met by the rise of a new, so-called, paganism. The pagan must ask himself in light of these stories: If imitation of the gods is what leads to virtuous character, is virtue attainable at all? Lust, sex, and war reign supreme in the pagan mythologies rebellion and war run riot through the rise and fall of the gods.

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