CLA 2100	Lecture Four: Masters of the Universe: Greek Gods, Greek Myth, and Greek Religion.
Mainpage Syllabus Calendar

Assignment: Coursepack, pp. 1-17, 25-31.

Hesiod.

• When did he live? Where? What did he write?
• Works and Days
  • Is there a moral order? Who enforces morality?
  • Have things always been the way they are now? Compare Hesiod's myth of the ages of humankind: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Demi-gods, and Iron.
  • Is Hesiod's view an optimistic one?
  • What does Hesiod have to say about the source of evil in the world? about the young? about justice? about love?
• Theogony
  • Creation. Chaos. Cosmos.
  • How do the gods order or structure the world (nature) we inhabit? How are divine forces (gods) like Eros (passionate love) similar to natural forces (like gravity)?
  • What makes gods different from human beings?
  • The story of the separation of heaven and earth... some lessons? Why did Earth conspire with her child Cronus to castrate Heaven?
  • The gods intervene in many ways: in human form, as in the Odyssey, but also as divine forces. Can you name some?

Great Link for Ancient Images pertinent to Hesiod's Theogony:

• Prof. Kirk Summer's (of the University of Alabama) slide show on Hesiod's Theogony.

Miscellaneous Hymns to the Gods

Who are these gods? Why are they so many? How does one make sense of contradictory testimony?

• VI To Aphrodite
• VII & XXVI To Dionysius
• VIII To Ares
• XII To Hera
• XIII To Demeter
• XIV To the Mother of the Gods
• XV To Heracles
• XVI To Asclepius
• XVII & XXXIII To the Dioscuri
• XIX To Pan
• XX To Hephaestus
• XXI To Apollo
• XXII To Poseidon
• XXIV & XXIX To Hestia
• XXVII To Artemis
• XXVIII To Athena
• XXX To the Mother of All
• XXXI To Helios
• XXXII To Selene