Chapter 1: The Early Gods
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♠ Hesiod, Theogony 116
In truth at first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 813-14
And there are shining gates and an immovable threshold of bronze having unending roots, and it is grown of itself. And beyond, away from all the gods, live the Titans, beyond gloomy Chaos. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 700
Astounding heat seized Chaos: and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears it seemed even as if Earth and wide Heaven above came together. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 740
It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 117-118
In truth at first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 119-122
And dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros, fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 814
And beyond, away from all the gods, live the Titans, beyond gloomy Chaos. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 821-22
But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bore her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 201
And with her [Aphrodite] went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Odyssey 208-13
So saying, she went down from the bright upper chamber, not alone, for two handmaids attended her. Now when the fair lady reached the wooers she stood by the doorpost of the well-built hall, holding before her face her shining veil; and a faithful handmaid stood on either side of her. Straightway then the knees of the wooers were loosened and their hearts enchanted with love, and they all prayed, each that he might lie by her side. Greek Text
♠ Plato, Phaidros 252b
But finds in him the only healer of its greatest woes. Now this condition, fair boy, about which I am speaking, is called Love by men, but when you hear what the gods call it, perhaps because of your youth you will laugh. But some of the Homeridae, I believe, repeat two verses on Love from the spurious poems of Homer, one of which is very outrageous and not perfectly metrical. Greek Text
♠ Simonides 575 PMG – Poetae Melici Graeci, p. 296, ed. D. L. Page. Oxford 1962.
Apollonios traces Eros back to Aphrodite,… and Simonides to Aphrodite and Ares:
Cruel child of crafty Aphrodite,
whom she bore to wily Ares (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Sappho 198 LP – Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, p. 105, ed. E. Lobel and D.L. Page. Oxford 1955.
Sappho traces Eros back to Gaia and Ouranos.
Alkaios said that Eros was the son of Iris and Zephyros, Sappho the son of Aphrodite and Ouranos.
Sappho from Lesbos sang many things and not all in agreement with other poets regarding Eros. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Alkaios 327 LP – Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, p. 265, ed. E. Lobel and D.L. Page. Oxford 1955.
♠ Akousilaos 2F6 – Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker 1, p. 50, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Pausanias 9.27.2 – Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio
But Olen the Lycian, who composed the oldest Greek hymns, says in a hymn to Eileithyia that she was the mother of Love. Greek Text
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Updated by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, June 2020
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