Hesiod’s Theogony and the Structures of Poetry

The Theogony displays a preoccupation with poetic structure that reflects the cosmic and political structures that are its subject. Consequently the structures that support the poem change with the changing world it describes. In the earlier part of the poem the dominant poetic structure is the catalogue, and Hesiod goes far in showing what he can express with this form alone, particularly through juxtaposition, anachrony, allegory, and paradigmatic patterning. Narrative appears first as free elaboration on the genealogical framework but becomes a dominant poetic form in parallel with the emerging tale of Zeus’s rise to power. These observations buttress existing views on the meaning of the poem’s overall arrangement, and can also shed light on debates about its exact end-point

Allegory · Art · Epistemology · Fantasy · Hesiod · Literature · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Poetry · Politics · Subject (documents · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · Computer Science · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy