Issues in Hesiod's Theogony

What is Hesiod doing in the Theogony?
Why is it not "Myth"? What is the difference between "Mythology" and "Myth"?
His is not the only cosmogony in the Greek world, although his is the only surviving cosmogony. We have scraps of at least one other, the Orphic cosmogony. A cosmogony is a sort of history, also a sort of science, and a sort of philosophy-it explores the major agents and elements in the world and their past. From cosmogony, we later get philosophy, history, and science as spin-offs.

Time in the Theogony
There are two wholly different ways of looking at the world-punctiliar versus smoothe development and narrative.
In the first stage of the Theogony, there seems to be no time, and the beings are not born, they simply "come next."
In the second stage, there is a sort of punctiliar time: births punctuate this time. The births are the only actions, and they are either from one or two parents (if two, always a male and a female). The beings are born full-formed, and the beings' primary action is to be.
In the third stage, we start to get narrative. Earth plans a trick. Cronos castrates his father.
In the Final stage, there is full-blown narrative and a clear picture of continuous time. The first such narrative is with Zeus, who has a childhood (i.e. there is development and growth of a character).
Later, once Zeus is born, time really starts.
We might say there is a further stage, which comes at the very end of the poem, where we hear quickly about many unions of immortals with mortals and the resulting heroic offspring.

A related issue: what does it mean to be before or after?
The Theogony clearly tells of a sequence of things that come after one another. What does it mean for something to be before or after?
Think of the alphabet, think of the ingredients of a cake-do they survive the cake-making-think of generations (yes, temporal, but what else?)-and then there is simple temporal priority, which is what Hesiod surely means in one sense, but what he really means is that chaos is somehow conceptually prior to the rest of it.
Sometimes, however, priority has no "meaning"-night gives birth to day-night and day are pairs, not quite like chicken and the egg, nor quite like black and white-they are a disjunctive pair.

Genealogy in the Theogony
What do the genealogies signify?
The muses are the offspring of Zeus and Memory-principle of unfolding (offspring unfold the essence of the parents)-they live close to Zeus on Mt. Olympus (Theog. 60)-geography holds meaning.
Genealogy as the principle of the existence of many gods implies an aristocratic attitude-people who are powerful have their power by right because of their essence/descent and their children will be like them and have the power too.

Power
power and parentage are tightly tied together through Ouranos, Kronos, and Zeus-all three of whom are the rulers of what is before their successor dethrones them-a sort of Dynastic principle (?is there "progress" from Sky to Zeus? or is it just "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss") This may reflect the prevalence of "kingdoms" in the society of which Homer and Hesiod were a part as well as the society that produced the tradition that lies behind them. Note, however, that Zeus rules not just by birthright or force (although he has both), but also by intelligence and because the other gods asked him to.

Geography in the Theogony
Earth, Sky, and Tartarus are the basic division, and it is clear that by and large, the realms are separate. The sea is a bit of a problem, in that it seems to be mixed into the genealogies in different ways: Okeanus, a Titan, with his sister Tethys, has offspring who are Rivers and the Okeanids. But there is also Pontus, whose name means sea as well: his offspring are a mixed bag of Nereus and the Nereids + monsters. And there is also Poseidon. Tartarography (721f.).
that the muses live near Zeus expresses a connection that fits into a hierarchy. -geographical location is symbolic-symbolic space versus real space-many characters are given a geographical realm-the sky/olympus, the sea, or the underworld, or in a few cases, the earth (nymphs, rivers, mountains)-but most of the "action" involves a divine agent coming from one realm and doing something in another realm.
That they are offspring of Zeus and Memory expresses their essence and their hierarchical place too-and also reflects on Hesiod's claim as a singer to be important-temporal priority and parentage indicates that they are an aspect of memory and are associated with Zeus' power- the offspring unfolds an aspect of the parents' essence.

Names in the Theogony
Names also symbolic-they express something close to an essence-but it may not be an essence: the cyclops names are Flash, Gleam, and Thunder (Steropes, Arges, and Brontes), but that alone does not make them able to forge Zeus' thunderbolt-they need heat and metalworking etc.
different names for the same goddess (Aphrodite (Venus) is called Kyprogeneia and Kytherea and Philomeddes) are given also at times to identify cult names.

The Structure of the beginning of the poem:

The introduction is confused and confusing, but seen as a prayer, it makes sense. In a prayer you 1. Invocation of the muses (1-21): "With the Heliconian Muses let us start"
they sing about Olympian gods: the muses are an internal poet and internal audience within the poem.
2. Hesiod's calling to poetry by the muses (22-35)
ends with "No more delays; begin"
3. a false start (36-74)-the muses are invoked again and a table of contents is given (of the muses song, not Hesiod's, but it mirrors imperfectly Hesiod's song): then the birth of the muses from Memory and Zeus
a bit of confirmation of the existing order occurs in the end of that para. (the Muses praise the laws), and Zeus' reign is introduced (end of the paragraph-"For he had beaten his father, Kronos, by force, and now divided power among the gods Fairly, and gave appropriate rank to each."-notice FAIRLY and APPROPRIATE-the muses affirm the justice of Zeus).
4.Mortal lords (i.e. the leaders of Hesiod's community-75-93)
The muses inspire the leaders of the community FROM BIRTH! (they watch him being born), and he SITS IN JUDGMENT-an important function of a leader-perhaps the most important function .
and the leader IS HONORED in return for his soothing words, which the muses inspire in him
thus the muses function in this para. is to INSPIRE POLICY
(the muses' earlier song about Zeus' reign presumably indicates that they are wise in the ways of Zeus, and hence of justice-notice that there is no discussion of what justice, fairness, or right are independently -they are what Zeus does: judgements were made according to custom, not written laws, and the wise ruler adapts customs to fit situations adeptly)
Just as the gods are the audience for the muses, so the lords are Hesiod's audience.
5. Singers (94-103)-the muses also inspire singers-thus Hesiod claims the same inspiration as the great lords. He claims that he too should be listened to and honored.
the song is accompanied by the lyre-Homer, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns were all accompanied by music and read aloud, not "a capella"
the song is a leisure time activity, and is intended to soothe and make people forget their grief.
6. A prayer (104-115))-what Hesiod wants from the muses, his song.

Some Notes about the Theogony as you read through it

"Chaos was first of all"
Not the "chaos" of the punk songs about anarchy, antichrists, disorder, and chaos, rather it comes from a word meaning "Yawn"-cf. Chasm-a yawn, a maw.

"Next" appeared broad-bosomed earth-"next?" It just appeared out of nowhere? NOT from Chaos!
"and" Tartarus-why not "next?"
What about Love? This Love never appears as a character again! Why so "early"?

Chaos had a family-no partner, just descendants through asexual production. The offspring are black night and Erebos
Earth, asexually again, bore heaven, as an equal to herself. What does it mean to be "equal?" Are other offspring not "equal" to their parents?
Earth made heaven "as a home for the gods"- If we want to think in strictly linear temporal terms, that she made Heaven as a home for the gods is a problem. There were no Olympian sky gods then.

Then, no longer as equals, she bore hills and and Pontus (which means "sea").

Next Earth sleeps with Heaven (how?) and bears the Titans (perhaps derived from Teino, to stretch-cf. Theogony 208) (6male and 6 female)
Kronos is the interesting one-the name means "crooked planning" or "sickle"
This is no longer an unfolding principle, but rather just children who are similar to their parents, not some conceptual aspect of their parents.

Ouranos (sky) secretes his children in earth, but kronos and Earth make a plan, and NARRATIVE occurs (the first narrative: events securely located in a temporal sequence that is actually temporal)

Castration-a terrible event-but from the drops come the furies (who avenge murder-cf, Iliad 9.453-56), and the giants, and the meliae, and the genitals themselves give birth to aphrodite (venus), and she is accompanied by eros and desire (where are they from? is it the same as the eros at the start (seems to be))
In Homer, however, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 5.370-1-with the Okeanid Dione (who is mentioned in Theogony too).
Indeed Homer relates things about only a few of the characters in the Theogony. He does have Ocean and Tethys, but they seem to be at the same level as ouranos and gaia. (read Iliad 14.200-210 and 245-6)-so Hesiod and Homer differ-who is "right"?- also, Hera is swallowed by Kronos in Hesiod, and presumably emerges from his belly full-grown, but in the Iliad, she is raised.
Also, the Iiliad calls the Olympians "Ouraniones" i.e. Ouranos' offspring, whereas Hesiod calls them Kronos' offspring (for the most part). They are even referred to in the Theogony, 919 as Ouraniones.
Plato, in the Timaeus, a much later and more philosophical work concerned with the creation of the universe, says that Ouranus and Gaia begat Okeanos and Tethys, who begat Kronos and Rheia and the others, who then begat the olympians.

211f.
night's offspring show the unfolding principle. They are somehow related in essence to Night-Doom, Ker, Death, Sleep, Dreams (things that might occur at night, or alternatively seem to involve being shut off from light or being in a sleep-like state)

hesperides who guard the apples that Hercules had to steal
Blame, Distress, destinies, fates, nemesis, deceit, and ???love???, age(moral coloring)

Next, Earth lies with Pontus, and Nereus, Thaumas, Phorkys and Keto are born-
Nereus lies with Doris, and produces a whole slough of nereides-sons of Nereus (Okeanides are sons of Okeanus)-Thetis, mother of Achilles (the hero of the Iliad), lay with Peleus, although both Zeus and Poseidon wanted her-it had been prophesied that her son would be stronger than his father! Zeus and Poseidon did not want that.

Phorkys marries his sister Keto-incest-and the offspring are horrible-the gorgons, including Medusa, whose story Hesiod cannot help now recounting, was slain by Perseus, and from whose blood Chrysaor and Pegasus the winged horse were born.
Echidna was a fearsome offspring of Phorkys and Keto.

With Typho (Kronos and Gaia's child-incest)-Echidna gives birth to a lot of animal-like things, like cerberus, the multi-headed dog, and the Lernaean Hydra, born to combat Heracles, and Chimaera, whom Bellerophon riding Pegasus caught, but she bore the sphinx...and the Nemean lion...

The rivers, offspring of Phorkys and Ceto (337 f.)-Scamander last, the river of Troy and a character in the Iliad.

Titans-back to them-four marry siblings-Ocean and Tethys, Hyperion and Theia, Koios and Phoibe, Kronos and Rheia. Two females are reserved for Zeus' attention (Mnemosyne and Themis)

Zeus' New World Order
The story of Zeus starts at 453 with the story of his birth and childhood in Crete. When he grew up, his mother tricked Cronos into vomiting up his siblings,
At 383f., Styx, the dtr. of the titan Ocean, betrays her father and is the first to go over to Zeus' side against the Titans. As a reward she becomes the river by whom the gods swear oaths (cf Iliad 14.271 and 15.37-the penalty is somewhat enigmatic-one year of artificial sleep-what god would care?-and nine years away from the gods).
At 536, we hear of the meeting of mortals and immortals in which Prometheus "tricked" Zeus: the origin of sacrificing bones and fat to the gods.

The Titanomachy occurs from 617 on: Zeus defeats the Titans. He becomes king, moreover, not by just asserting it, but by being urged by the others, according to Earth's plans (52 top)--so Zeus himself, king of the gods, rules by divine sanction and the assent of the governed (at least the nobles amongst them--i.e. the gods)
At 885, Zeus divided the dignities among the gods. The important idea is that there is a plan for everything: even if you can't see it, it is there. Zeus' power is not just from force and power, but also from the urgings of the other gods.

Hekate alone of the pre-Zeus order retains her former privileges, and the passage in which Hesiod praises her bears the marks of being a set piece that Hesiod has imported into his song. It is out of proportion in length.

Zeus-Jupiter
Hera-Juno
Hephaestus-Vulcan
Artemis-Diana
Athena-Minerva
Poseidon-Neptune
Hades-Pluto
Ares-Mars
Aphrodite-Venus
Demeter-Ceres
Apollo
Hestia-Vesta
Hermes-Mercury