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Dr. J. Michael Stitt
phone: 702 895-3909
fax: 702 895-4801
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jmstitt@unlv.nevada.edu

Cultural History
HESIOD'S COSMOGONY: PART II
 
 
COSMOGONY

Gaia mates with her son Pontos, but sea water is not the proper fertilizer of Mother Earth, and the result is a gaggle of monsters. The ultimate origins of these monsters are quite disparate, but Hesiod's poem imposes a convenient orderliness onto the matter. The direct or indirect descendents of Gaia and Pontos include Nereus, an ancient sea-god, the Harpies, the mysterious Gorgons, and a handful of Asiatic monsters that had been incorporated into the Hercules tradition.

Gaia's mating with Uranos, the Sky, is a more felicitious union, and a new group of gods, the Titans, is born.
The "Round-Eyes," the Cyclops are three in number. Hesiod describes the three as civilized smiths. For Homer, the Cyclops are of indefinite number and are uncivilized.
The "Hundred-Handed," the Hekatoncheires are three in number. Homer says that one of the three, Briaros, was also known as Aegaion. Some Euhemerists have suggested that this many-handed creature of the sea has its origin in the octopus. This seems unlikely, since the octopus was no mysterious monster but instead a common element in Greek art.
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