Analysis Of Hesiod's Theogony

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Hesiod’s Theogony tells a riveting story of the creation of the universe. Through its vivid description and primitive cosmogony, it informs the reader that Hesiod sees himself as someone who bridges the gap between the human and god-like realm. The myth also shows that while people have free will, often times their lives are so intertwined by the god’s activity that sometimes it makes their decisions less meaningful than they really seem. Hesiod is simply the teller of the story who as has the unique role of transmitting the origins of the universe to people, but he has no control over how these events take place. In the same way the story relates to the Christian Worldview and helps make it clearer by acting as a starting point for the beginnings …show more content…

On one hand, its description of the world as chaos can be related to the biblical account of the universe before creation, being that it was “void and without form.” It is only when things are created from Chaos that the world begins to take shape and become formed into elements as is described here: “From Chaos [darkness between earth and underworld] came forth Erebus [earth] and black Night, but of Night were born Aether [light].” In the same way, it is only until God chooses to create does the world take form as well. Also, as mentioned before, the myth has cosmogony elements that could be compared to Aquinas’ explanation of God. Both Chaos and God can be considered the “first mover,” but in Aquinas’ case God’s essence is His existence, thus making him a self-necessary being that all other beings must come from. Hesiod, on the other hand, mentions that all things come from Chaos, but does not elaborate any further about its nature, or how, if ever, it came into existence. Either way, the Theogony helps us to understand the Christian truth by showing that creation had to have come from somewhere, but also that something to which all things come must have some type of nature and essence that explains how this process would be possible. Thus, Theogony could perhaps be seen as laying the foundation for the allegorical creation story written by the biblical authors, but also by allowing Christian philosophers to alter and perfect elements where the story left