Typhoeus or Cosmic Regression ( Theogony 821 – 880)

Bibliographic Data

ID19476281
AuthorsJenny Strauss Clay (0009-0003-0630-7468, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume21-22
Issue1
Pages313-326
Publication date2020-12-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchiv für Religionsgeschichte (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1436-3038 • E-ISSN: 1868-8888
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/arege-2020-0016
OpenAlexW2981845616
LanguageEN
References cited19

The Typhonomachy ( Theogony 821 – 880) has long been deemed an anomalous and inorganic intrusion into the Hesiodic text. The main reason for such a judgment is that the Typhoeus episode is an unnecessary and redundant doublet of the Titanomachy that precedes. In addition, Gaia’s role in giving birth to the monster seems to contradict her benign role both before (624 – 628) and after the Typhoeus episode (883 – 885). Looking afresh at the passage through the wider lens of the cosmogonic program of the Theogony allows us to grasp its function within the overall economy of the poem. Typhoeus, offspring of Gaia and Tartarus, takes us back to the very origins of cosmogony. The Typhonomachy brings us to a critical temporal crossroad where a recrudescence of the primeval irrupts into and threatens the evolved universe. If at issue in the Titanomachy was the kingship in Heaven, at stake in the Typhonomachy is the very existence of the cosmos itself

Art · Art history · Astrophysics · COSMIC cancer database · Cosmogony · Heaven · Linguistics · Literature · Monster · Physics · Poetry · Stupidity · Theology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices