SECTION 112 Thursday 10-11 242 Dwinelle
nfsu mp3 freeSECTION 113 Thursday 11-12 175 Barrows
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For our next section meeting, we take a radical departure: leaving the world of mortal heroes, we turn to the creation of the cosmos and the world of the gods. The stories here are more abstract, more primeval--and endlessly fascinating. For our next section meeting (March 4), please read the following texts in the order given, and address the four questions which follow.
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1) Caldwell’s introduction to Hesiod Theogony (pages 1-26). [It’s very lucid and gives an admirable schematic summary of Hesiod’s dense text: you may well feel lost reading Hesiod if you don’t read Caldwell’s introduction first.]
2) Hesiod’s Theogony (pages 27-85), including the footnote commentary which Caldwell provides at the bottom of each page. [The footnote commentary is invaluable.]
3) Robert Graves, Greek Myths, chapters 4 and 39 (this tells a bit more of Prometheus, the creation of humans, and Pandora).
4) Genesis 1 (the first chapter of the first book of the Bible--I include it at the end of this message).
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1) The Theogony sets in motion a relentless logic of repeated generational conflict and succesion among the gods: Ouranos & Gaia ---> Kronos & Rhea (& the other Titans) ---> Zeus & Hera (& the other Olympians). By the same logic, however, we would expect Zeus to be eventually overthrown in turn--so in what ways does Zeus manage to stave off the threat of being himself succeeded?
2) Having read a bit of the creation myths of both the Greeks (the Theogony) and the Christian and Jewish traditions (Genesis), please compare the nature and the position of the creation of us mortals within these two different cosmogonies. I.e., what is the status of our own creation, and where does it fit within the larger cosmological scheme, within these two different traditions? (You might consider: How important does our creation seem to be within the grander scheme? What kind of figure creates us? Who provides for us, and who is ultimately responsible for inflicting ills and evils on mortals?)
3) Who/what are born from Ouranos’s castration? What might this origin say about their nature?
4) Can you draw any thematic parallels between the Theogony and the other major myths we’ve encountered so far? (At this point, you could probably write pages and pages on this topic alone, but please just jot down a few sentences or schematic phrases.)
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“When God set about to create heaven and earth--the world being then a formless waste, with darkness over the seas and only an awesome wind sweeping over the water--God said ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. God was pleased with the light that he saw, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and he called the darkness Night. Thus evening came, and morning--first day.
God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the middle of the water to form a division between the waters.’ And it was so. God made the expanse, and it divided the water below it from the water above it. God called the expanse Sky. Thus evening came, and morning--second day.
God said, ‘Let the water beneath the sky be gathered into a single area, that the dry land may be visible.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and he called the gathered waters Seas. God was pleased with what he saw, and he said, ‘Let the earth burst forth with growth: plants that bear seed, and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it.’ And it was so. The earth produced growth: various kinds of seed-bearing plants, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with seed in it. And God was pleased with what he saw. Thus evening came, and morning--third day.
God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky, to distinguish between day and night; let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.’ And it was so. God made the great lights, the greater one to dominate the day and the lesser one to dominate the night--and the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, to dominate the day and the night, and to distinguish between light and darkness. And God was pleased with what he saw. Thus evening came, and morning--fourth day.
God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.’ And it was so. God created the great sea monsters, every kind of crawling creature with which the waters teem, and all kinds of winged birds. And God was pleased with what he saw. God blessed them, saying ‘Be fertile and increase; fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on earth.’ Thus evening came, and morning--fifth day.
God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth various kinds of living creatures: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of every kind.’ And it was so. God made various kinds of wild animals, cattle of every kind, and all the creeping things of the earth, whatever their kind. And God was pleased with what he saw.
Then God said, ‘I will make man in my image, after my likeness; let him subject the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, the cattle and all the wild animals, and all the creatures that creep on earth.’ And God created man in his image; in the divine image created he him; male and female created he them. God blessed them, saing to them, ‘Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and subdue it; subject the fishes of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that move on earth.’ God further said, ‘See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on earth and every tree that bears fruit; they shall be yours for food. And to all the animals on land, all the birds of the sky, and all the living creatures that crawl on earth I give all the green plants as their food.’ And it was so. God looked at everything that he had made and found it very pleasing. Thus evening came, and morning--sixth day.
Now the heaven and the earth were completed, and all their company. On the seventh day God brought to a close the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day from all the work that he had undertaken. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he ceased from all the work which he had undertaken.
Such is the story of heaven and earth as they were created.”
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