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THE DISEASE OF MORTALITY IN HESIOD'S THEOGONY: PROMETHEUS, HERAKLES, AND THE INVENTION OF KLEOS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

Melissa Mueller
Melissa Mueller*
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherstmmueller@classics.umass.edu
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Extract

Hesiod's Theogony is not overtly concerned with the world of mortals. The place of humans in the Theogony nevertheless holds a certain fascination, perhaps more for what is not revealed—our origins, for example—than for what is. Focusing on a relatively neglected passage of the poem (Theogony 521-32), I want to trace here the way Hesiod lays out the cosmic coordinates of kleos (‘fame’ or ‘glory’) with a view to better situating the condition of mortality within the poem as a whole. Kleos, as we will see, is part of the fallout for humans of the battle of wits between Zeus and Prometheus: it is the compensation for their new, temporally inflected existence.

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Research Article
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Ramus , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , June 2016 , pp. 1 - 17
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Copyright © Aureal Publications 2016 

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