Wednesday, 8/28 - Hesiod's Theogony, Overview and Prologue (Prooimion)

"Don't just do it!" Sometimes Nike is wrong.

• P&P 

• Review J5

HW:

• Purchase the decided upon version of Homer's Iliad--the Robert Fagles translation--so you can begin reading it sometime next week.

• Read the entire Theogony over the weekend and do the two journals below: (click on Read More)

J6 – Heroes (62-73): “The Birth and Battles of the Gods”

1.      How do the Hesiodic and Biblical accounts of creation reflect each other? (Here's a link to Genesis 1 for a refresher)

2.      How also do their understandings of the structure of cosmos?

3.      How do they differ quite drastically in their theologies of creation?

4.      Why does the “comic epic of Hesiod end with several of Zeus’s marriages”?

5.      How does Zeus differ from Yahweh with regard to marriage and why?

J7 – Heroes (73-83): “Prometheus and the Gifts of the Gods”

*(In addition to the “Prometheus Story” in Theogony, read also from Hesiod’s Works & Days (lines 1-211 if you don't have Lombardo), a very short but important section. Please read pages 23-29 (if you have Lombardo). It will also be helpful if you read Genesis 2-3.

1.      What are the “five ages” of man and what is one defining characteristic of each?

2.      What is Hesiod describing with his stories of Prometheus?

3.       Describe the distinction between our modern usage of the term “sacrifice” and the ancient world’s understanding and use of the term “sacrifice.”

4.      How are the Prometheus stories about sacrifice accounts of rivalry and trickery (concealment)?

5.      How does this rivalry and trickery reflect the succession myths?

6.      What is so important about fire and its relationship to man?

7.      What does Hesiod think about Woman and how is she like “fire”?

8.      How does the Biblical account of the creation of woman differ from Hesiod’s?

9.      How does the Hesiodic conception of hope differ from scripture’s?

10.  In what ways do the Hesiodic and Biblical accounts of the “fall” differ, specifically regarding work and women / society and civilization?

11.  What absolutely awesome insight(s) does Leithart make in his final paragraph as he contrasts Zeus’s jealousy with God’s (Yahweh’s) jealousy? You might even quote your favorite section.