which, according to the most probable interpretation, means the "Son of the Ancient of Days[1];" and, as the ruler of the clear heaven, he was derived from Uranus, or heaven itself. In like manner all the other gods were, according to their peculiar attributes and character, connected with beings and appearances which seemed the most ancient. The relation of the primitive and the originating to the recent and the derived was always conceived under the form of generation and birth—the universe being considered to have a life, like that of animals; and hence even heaven and earth were imagined to have an animal organization. The idea of creation, of so high antiquity in the east, and so early known to the Indians, Persians, and Hebrews, which supposed the Deity to have formed the world with design, as an earthly artificer executes his work, was foreign to the ancient Greeks, and could only arise in religions which ascribed a personal existence and an eternal duration to the godhead. Hence it is clear that theogonies, in the widest sense of the word—that is, accounts of the descent of the gods—are as old as the Greek religion itself; and, doubtless, the most ancient bards would have been induced to adopt and expand such legends in their poems. One result of their attempts to classify the theogonic beings, is the race of Titans, who were known both to Homer and Hesiod, and formed a link between the general personifications of parts of the universe and the human forms of the Olympic gods, by whose might they were supposed to be hurled into the depths of Tartarus.
Surrounded as he was by traditions and ancient poems of this kind, it would have been impossible for Hesiod (as many moderns have conceived) to form his entire Theogony upon abstract philosophical principles of his own concerning the powers of matter and mind: if his system had been invented by himself, it would not have met with such ready acceptance from succeeding generations. But, on the other hand, Hesiod cannot be considered as a mere collector of scattered traditions or fragments of earlier poems, which he repeated almost at random, without being aware of their hidden connexion: the choice which he made among different versions of the same fable, and his skilful arrangement of the several parts, are of themselves a sufficient proof that he was guided by certain fundamental ideas, and that he proceeded upon a connected view of the formation of outward nature.
To make this position more clear, it will perhaps be most advisable to illustrate the nature of the primitive beings which, according to the Theogony, preceded the race of the Titans; with the view of showing the consistency and connexion of Hesiod's notions : for the rest, a more general survey will suffice.
- ↑ Whatever doubts may exist with regard to the etymology of (
Greek characters) (whether
the name comes from (Greek characters), or is allied with (Greek characters)), yet everything stated of him
agrees with this conception, his dominion during the golden age, the representation
of a simple patriarchal life at the festival of the (Greek characters). Cronus as the ruler of the
departed heroes, &c.
