Creation Myths
Hesiod’s Theogony and
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Allen Romano
aromano@uchicago.edu
background: Muses
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Modern-Day Creation Story:
THE BIG BANG
Artist Approximation; Not Shown Actual Size
Not the Greek Creation Myth
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?
Hymn
A Creation Myth in Context:
Greek Hymns
(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
ThoughtExperiment:
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
smoke which gods do
enjoy
Stuff Hermes can’t eat
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
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 gods
He 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, relating
All 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 (Eawaters) 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 genealogy
1. Kronos succeeds his father Ouranos: Castration of
Ouranos, birth of Aphrodite
2. Zeus Ascendant over Kronos: Tricking of Kronos,
birth of Zeus; Zeus outwits Prometheus
3. Zeus and his generation defeat the Titans of the
earlier generation
4. 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. Muses
Muses 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. Ouranos
Zeus over Kronos
Kronos eating his kids
Rhea 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 Zeus
Calliope (one of the Muses)...
For she keeps the company of reverend kings.
When the daughters of great Zeus will honor a lord
Whose 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 Apollo
And 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: Writings
Wrote (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, preAristotle; Ovid = post-Plato, postAristotle 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 cosmogony
The 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 Myth
Till 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 Myth
The 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 retained
Some seed of the celestial force which refasioned
Gods 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 Myth
The creation of mortals
Deucalion and Pyrrha
throw stones to
create people
Ovid’s different kind of mythmaking: 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
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 Alternatives
Orphic 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 mythmaking
“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 mythtelling
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
Allen Romano
aromano@uchicago.edu
background: Muses