Hesiod’s Theogony

The Muses, Genealogy, & the Succession of the Gods

From Cyme, Ionia to Ascra, Boeotia

Sacred Mountains• Helikon

- Muses• Olympus

- Gods• Parnassus

- Apollo (& Muses)

• Ossa & Pelion- Giants

Works and Days

• Hesiod to Perses• Real Brother?• Poetic Construct?• Smart brother tries to educate

stupid brother

Sometimes, stupid brother ends up on top!

Invocation or Epiphany

Apollonius Rhodius & Vergil

Zeus & Mnemosyne

• Memory & Oral Poetry

9 nights with Mnemosyne

• Calliope (Epic)• Clio (history)• Erato (lyric poetry)• Euterpe (pipe/flute)• Melpomene (tragedy)• Polyhymnia (mime)• Terpsichore (dance

and light verse)• Thalia (comedy)• Urania (astronomy)

Theogony

Theogony

• Family tree in Verse • 2 families over 3 generations• Monotony vs digressions

• Spontaneous emergence of 4 divine entities:

• Chaos (Chasm)• Earth• Tartara• Eros

Hesiodic Flesh Dissolver vs. Playful Child

Complicated Family Tree

• Parthenogenesis• Incest• Crossed and confused

generational lines• Multiple partners

• e.g. Zeus marries 2 aunts, 2 sisters, three cousins, and sleeps with many others

The Succession of the Gods

• Heaven (Ouranos) & Earth (Gaia)

• Kronos & Rhea

• Zeus &…pretty much everyone– (it’s good to be king!)

OuranosUranusHeaven

Kronos: Mamma’s Boy

Triumph of Kronos

Kids: it’s what’s for dinner

• Not in Her• In Him!

Rhea outwits Kronos

Curetes, Kouretes

Goat’s Milk: Drink of the Gods

• Amalthea, the original nanny goat

Reign of Zeus

• Zeus and Hera

• How does he prevent next succession?

• Learn from errors of predecessors

Swallowing Desire: Zeus & Metis

Crushing Revolts: Zeus vs. Typhoeu

s• Child of

Hera or Gaia

• Snake Monster

• Under Etna

Keeping it in your

Tunic

• Zeus & Thetis

• Son of thetis will be greater than Father

Near Eastern Parallel: Hurrian-Hittite Succession

• Anu• Kumarbi• Teshub the Storm-god

• Hedamu the Serpent• Ullikummi the living

pillar

Dangerous Vaginas

• North America• Central America• South America• Pacific Islands• Asia• Near East• Greece

Yanomamo, Brazil

• 1 of first women had toothed vagina that bit off consort’s penis

• “pregnant” = satiated/full-fed

• "to eat" = "to copulate."

Polynesia

Savior-god Maui sought eternal life by crawling into the mouth/vagina of his mother Hina, in effect trying to return to womb of the Creatress; she bit him in two and killed him.

N. American Trickster Heroes: Kicking Boy & Coyote

• First women had toothed vaginas

• Hero broke teeth by inserting objects

• Now safe to sleep with women

• Often younger sister helps hero defeat toothy older sister

• Ponca-Otoe, Apache, Pawnee, Arapaho

Kinky Coyote

• Yurok (California) aetiology of obsidian

• Coyote extracts all but one tooth…Feels very nice!

Lamia

“gluttonous gullet”

“lecherous vagina”

Lamia• Female • Cave-dwelling (damp)• Eater of man flesh • Vampire-like• Killer of Babies• Mother of Scylla• Seductress • Body of snake, breasts

and head of woman

Otto Rank’s Vagina dentata:NOT a song from The Lion King

Georgia O’Keefe Dawn O’Keefe

http://www.teethmovie.com/

Japanese Original

Freud & the Medusa’s Head

• "Probably no male human being is spared the terrifying shock of threatened castration at the sight of female genitals.” - Freud

• "Metaphorically, every vagina has secret teeth, for the male exits as less than when he entered." - Camille Paglia, "Sexual Personae".

the Vagina Dentata credible?• Weakness & impotence

after ejaculation

• Ejaculation as a loss of a man's vital force, "eaten" by a woman.

• "Every orgasm is a little death: the death of the 'little man,' the penis."

Powerful Women still represent threat to

some men

• http://www.hillarynutcracker.com/

Reclaiming the Vagina Dentata